An explosion near the country’s heavily-fortified border with North Korea has injured three South Korean military officers, South Korea’s Defence Ministry said.
The ministry said yesterday the explosion occurred during an unspecified operation in the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ), a border buffer zone separating the two nations.
The cause was not immediately clear, the ministry said.
South Korean officials did not say whether it was possible the explosion was caused by a land mine planted by North Korea, which has added mines, anti-tank barriers and other front line fortifications in recent months as relations between the war-divided rivals have sharply deteriorated.
Two of the officers were airlifted from the site by helicopter, while the third was transported by land before being airlifted, according to the ministry.
The officers are being treated at a military hospital near Seoul.
The DMZ, which is 248km long and 4km wide, is one of the world’s most heavily-armed borders.
An estimated two million mines are peppered inside and near the border, which is also guarded by barbed wire fences, tank traps and combat troops on both sides.
The zone is a legacy of the Korean War from 1950 to 1953, which ended with an armistice but not a peace treaty.
North Korean mines in past years have occasionally washed down a swollen river into South Korea, killing or injuring civilians.
In August 2015, land mine blasts maimed two South Korean soldiers and caused tensions between the two Koreas to flare. — AP
