South Korean Soldiers Wounded as North Korea Fortifies the DMZ
Three soldiers from South Korea’s 25th Infantry Division were injured on Sept. 21 in a suspected landmine explosion south of the Military Demarcation Line in the western Demilitarized Zone. All three were taken to the Armed Forces Capital Hospital. One reportedly suffered an injury requiring amputation. No deaths were reported.
The military has not confirmed whether the device was a North Korean mine, a South Korean mine, or a remnant from the 1950–53 Korean War. An investigation is underway.
An estimated 800,000 mines are buried across the DMZ, according to military data cited by Yonhap. In 2015, two South Korean soldiers were wounded, one of whom lost both legs, after North Korean soldiers crossed the MDL and planted mines along a South Korean patrol path, according to Seoul. Pyongyang denied the accusation.
On Nov. 20, 2025, a South Korean Army staff sergeant was seriously injured during a mine-detection mission in Paju. North Korean soldiers have also been killed or wounded by accidental explosions during Pyongyang’s fortification work.
The latest explosion occurred amid Pyongyang’s broader shift toward treating South Korea as a hostile foreign state rather than a partner for reunification. At the ninth plenum of the Workers’ Party’s 8th Central Committee in December 2023, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un declared that peaceful reunification “can never be achieved” and directed that South Korea be treated as the North’s “principal enemy.”
The following month, Kim told the Supreme People’s Assembly that Pyongyang would dissolve the Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of the Fatherland, along with its economic-cooperation and inter-Korean tourism bodies. In 2024, state media confirmed the demolition of Pyongyang’s Arch of Reunification, a monument built by Kim’s father to symbolize peninsular unity.
At the Workers’ Party’s 9th Congress in February 2026, North Korea enshrined the “two hostile states” framework in the party charter, which takes precedence over the constitution. Kim said North Korea “has absolutely nothing to discuss with South Korea, the most hostile entity” and would “permanently exclude South Korea from the category of compatriots.”
The Supreme People’s Assembly also adopted a constitutional revision, reported in March 2026 and confirmed by South Korea’s Ministry of Unification in May. The revision removed references to reunification, ethnic unity, and shared nationhood and added a territorial clause excluding South Korea. 38 North noted that it left the maritime Northern Limit Line undefined, preserving room for future disputes.
Pyongyang’s policy shift has been accompanied by physical fortification of the border. Since 2024, North Korean forces have laid landmines, cleared vegetation, built anti-tank barriers, and constructed tactical roads along the northern side of the DMZ. Satellite analysis comparing land use between 2024 and 2025 found that forest area had decreased while grassland increased.