The North Korean military has suffered multiple casualties after an ill-fated trip into the Demilitarized Zone in an incident that highlights growing tension between the two nations.
According to Reuters, citing South Korea’s Yonhap News, the situation unfolded Tuesday morning as dozens of Northern soldiers breached the defensive line.
The troops only made it about 65 feet into the DMZ before being forced back
These troops were made to turn tail and run after the South fired off warning shots, but the North’s blunders were far from over.
The South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff claimed the Northern teams have now suffered multiple casualties after working closely in and around the DMZ.
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“It appears that the North Korean military is carrying out the work [in the DMZ] in an unreasonable manner despite the fact that many casualties are occurring due to several landmine explosions while creating barren land and working on landmines in the frontline area,” an official cited by Yonhap News explained.
It’s unclear which side the detonated mines belong to, underscoring the fatally indiscriminate nature of the weapons buried in and along the defensive line.
The North appears undaunted by the casualties and continues to work at hardening multiple sites at the DMZ.
According to Yonhap News, the North’s activities along the zone include the constructing anti-tank barriers, laying mines, stripping the land to create fields and strengthening the military infrastructure feeding the Northern defensive line.
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Southern officials speculated that the North’s constructions are not only a military measure, but a method to keep defectors from leaving the hermit kingdom.
The situation at the DMZ is unfolding as tensions between the two Koreas reach a dangerous point.
Earlier this month, a similar incident occurred at the demarcation line as South Korea fired warning shots at encroaching Northern troops. Many of the Northerners were carrying work tools, but some of the men were visibly armed.
The South was able to effect a retreat from the Northern contingent.
While this appeared only to be a case of a lost working party, it underscores the North’s massive ongoing efforts to entrench itself on the border.
In the background of this slow escalation, the two Koreas are falling back into Cold War habits. The South has been inundated with trash-filled balloons sent from the North, an apparent reaction to a leaflet campaign by South Korean citizens. In response, the South killed an agreement to reduce tensions at the border and is now floating the idea of performing military drills on the line.
Of course, North and South Korea are not the only dogs in this fight.
American troops stationed in South Korea will be some of the first to see combat if open hostilities resume between the divided nations. At the North’s back sits the vast manpower and industrial capacity of China, major deciding factors in the Korean War.
While Beijing’s activities on the peninsula seem to be limited for now, the United States makes its commitment crystal clear to the world.
Earlier this month, the U.S. Air Force carried out a live-fire exercise involving two B-1B Lancer bombers and multiple South Korean aircraft.
If the situation at the DMZ continues to escalate, we could soon see a return to open hostilities on the Korean Peninsula.
