SEOUL – An explosion along the line dividing North and South Korea injured a patroling South Korean military officer, Seoul’s defence ministry said Thursday, adding he is in stable condition.
The unidentified blast occurred Thursday morning on the western front of the Military Demarcation Line (MDL), the defence ministry said in a statement.
The injured officer “was urgently evacuated by emergency helicopter and is in a stable condition with no life-threatening injuries”, the ministry said.
The MDL lies inside the Demilitarised Zone (DMZ), a four-kilometre buffer that stretches 250 kilometres (160 miles) across the Korean peninsula.
The DMZ is known as both an accidental wildlife sanctuary and a graveyard of countless landmines.
The explosion comes after Seoul this week proposed military talks to the North — the first such overture in years.
In its proposal, Seoul said many MDL markers installed under the 1953 armistice have disappeared over time, leading to “different perceptions of the boundary in certain areas by both sides”.
Seoul and Pyongyang technically remain at war, as the 1953 armistice that halted fighting was never followed by a peace treaty.
Seoul has said there were around 10 incursions by North Korean troops this year.
In 2015, two South Korean soldiers were seriously injured by North Korea-planted landmines during a patrol south of the border, with one losing both legs and the other having a foot amputated. – AFP
