hankyoreh

head of Eco Horizon’s policy team

After a cluster of anti-tank and anti-personnel mines were discovered near a village in the Civilian Control Zone (CCZ) in the city of Paju in Gyeonggi Province more than 50 years after they were laid, some are asking how much longer unconfirmed minefields around the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) are going to be ignored.

The area around the DMZ, which has been virtually untouched for decades, is regarded as an ecological treasure trove, attracting around two million tourists each year.

When the Hankyoreh joined civilian landmine experts and the Eco Horizon Institute, an environmental organization, to sweep the hills and farmland near a Paju village in the CCZ with mine detectors on July 10, dozens of US anti-personnel landmines (M3, M2A4) and anti-tank landmines (M7, M6) were discovered.

There was no signage around the village where the mines were found warning that there might be landmines in the area.

After pushing through a thick patch of giant ragweed that was taller than an adult and moving around 100 meters into the woods, we reached coils of rusted barbed wire - with no indication of when it had been laid or by whom. Just then, the landmine director began to emit a harsh buzz, indicating that there was metal in the area.

“The US army landmines - anti-personnel or anti-tank - are generally laid in groups of four, in a row, a couple of meters apart. In the fifty years since they were laid, they have rusted, but their detonators are still very much alive,” said Kim Gi-ho, 61. Kim, who served in the military for 30 years, is the director of the Korean Institute for Clearing Landmines.

Kim carefully removes the dirt with a hoe to expose M3 anti-personnel mines in the ground. The mines have a maximum fatality radius of 40 meters.

Seven anti-tank mines and 10 anti-personnel mines can be seen around a remote grave in the woods. They appear to have been cleared when the grave was dug in 2001.

The area around a landscape tree farm in front of the village -- a hill region that was recently cleared -- is another former minefield. M7 anti-tank blast mines were discovered uncomfortably close to cultivator and tractor tracks there. Around twenty mines were clearly visible in the farmers’ rest area between the farm and a ginseng field, on the unpaved roads, and on the slopes. The mines found nearby had had their detonators removed by Eco Horizon after it discovered them in the ground during a survey of the DMZ region between March and December 2014.

“About thirty percent of the US mines that were found had live detonators,” said Kim, who participated in the survey.

According to Eco Horizon, the offices of Justice Party lawmaker Shim Sang-jung, and military sources, most of the US mines in the CCZ area were placed there during the Korean War and during the Cold War years of the early 1960s, just after the Cuban Missile Crisis. Information was not handed over when USFK pulled out of the CCZ in the early ’70s, resulting in the mines remaining unconfirmed and outside of South Korean military management. Eco Horizon estimates around 100,000 of these neglected US mines in the DMZ area around Paju alone; adding in the CCZ regions of Yeoncheon and Gangwon Province brings the number closer to 600,000. Somewhere between one million and 1.2 million mines are estimated to have been planted by South Korea, which would mean that US mines account for the difference after factoring out 600,000 forward mines placed by the South Korean military and another 60,402 in 39 rear air defense bases. In the latter case, removal efforts by the Ministry of National Defense have resulted in 57,314 being cleared as of last year. The other 3,088 remain unaccounted for, their whereabouts unknown.

Recent development around the CCZ has resulted in unaccounted-for mines becoming a threat not only to residents and farmers, but also to tourists visiting the DMZ.

“A lot of times when they‘re doing construction and find a mine, they don’t report it because they think it’s going to be a hassle for them,” explained the resident of one CCZ village. “So they’ll bury it deep in the ground instead, or find some other way of getting rid of it.”

“I remember getting a shock last year when one of the tourists picked up a mine off the side of the road,” the resident added.

Indeed, twenty-one people have been injured or killed in the Gyeonggi Province and Incheon areas over the past five years as a result of mine accidents. In one July 14 case, residents were injured by a mine explosion while they were burning scrap plastic in Paju‘s Jindong township. An Eco Horizon analysis of accident records showed 289 deaths and 253 injuries to civilians as a result of mines - a number it predicts would go over one thousand if soldiers and unconfirmed accidents are factored in.

“Even taking into account that we’re in the unique situation of having a divided country, the mines around the rear lifestyle and leisure zones that aren’t needed for military operations, and the ones around the rice paddies of the CCZ, ought to be removed for the sake of citizen safety,” said Jeong In-cheol, head of Eco Horizon’s policy team.

“We have no way of knowing the whole story about whether USFK handed over its planting information or not, but we do know that the mines come from the US military, and as the ones who provided the source the US should take responsibility,” Jeong added.

Eco Horizon is currently considering filing suit against the US to demand damages for mine victims.

Shim Sang-jung said the 70th anniversary of South Korea’s division was “an occasion for the government, the National Assembly, and the public to work together in investigating the distribution of mines around civilian regions and planning for their management.”

“The US has already paid for disposing of leftover explosives in the Philippines, and it’s signed the Ottawa Treaty banning anti-personnel mines,” Sim added. “It’s only right that it should bear the costs for clearing these mines.”

By Park Kyung-man, north Gyeonggi correspondent in Paju

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