Policy

The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (North Korea) has not acceded to the Mine Ban Treaty and has not participated at all in efforts to ban antipersonnel mines.

On 2 December 2014, North Korea abstained from voting on UN General Assembly (UNGA) Resolution 69/34 calling for universalization and full implementation of the Mine Ban Treaty, as it has in previous years. In November 2014, North Korea stated that, “the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea shares the humanitarian concerns associated with the use of anti-personnel mines, we will not give up the use of mines, in keeping with the right to self-defence, due to the particular security environment on the Korean peninsula.”[1]

Previously, Ministry of Foreign Affairs officials have stated that North Korea supports the aims and objectives of the treaty, but is not ready to accede, given its complex security situation.[2] In May 2009, a Geneva-based North Korean official stated to the ICBL that North Korea “is not interested in engaging” on the mine issue.[3]

North Korea is not party to the Convention on Conventional Weapons.

Production, transfer, stockpiling, and use

Two allegations of new use of antipersonnel landmines by North Korean forces have occurred in 2015. In June, South Korea authorities were quoted in the press as stating that North Korea had started laying new landmines on its borders in order to stop its soldiers from fleeing the country.[4]

A second allegation occurred in August, when two South Korean soldiers on a routine patrol on the South Korean side of the demilitarized zone (DMZ) at Yeonchon, in Gyeonggi Province, were injured by newly emplaced antipersonnel mines.

Early news reports quoting South Korean military sources stated that the mines were not of North Korean origin.[5] The type of mine was later stated by South Korean military to be North Korean wooden box mines (PMD-6 type).[6]

North Korea issued a denial of use, stating it only used mines in self-defense.[7] At a press conference in New York on 21 August, the North Korean ambassador asserted that the South Korean military had identified the mine as an M-14 on the 4 August and then changed it to a North Korean box mine on 10 August for political purposes.[8]

The US-led UN Command deployed a Special Investigation Team from the Military Armistice Commission to examine the area after the incident. The team included military officers of four countries and was observed by Swiss and Swedish members of the Neutral Nations Supervisory Commission. The investigation concluded “that the North Korean People’s Army violated paragraphs 6, 7 and 8 of the Armistice Agreement by emplacing wooden box land mines along a known Republic of Korea patrol route in the southern half of the Demilitarized Zone, injuring two Republic of Korea soldiers. Additionally, the investigation determined that the devices were recently emplaced, and ruled out the possibility that these were legacy landmines which had drifted from their original placements due to rain or shifting soil.”[9]

North Korea is believed to have used very large numbers of mines in or near the DMZ with South Korea.[10]

North Korea produced antipersonnel mines in the past, but no information is available on possible current production.[11] North Korea has exported mines, which have been found in Angola and Sudan, but there are no reports of recent transfers.[12] The size of North Korea’s stockpile of antipersonnel mines is not known, but it is probably substantial. North Korean-made copies of Soviet PMD-6 mines were found during the year on the shores of South Korean islands and along watersheds downstream from the DMZ in South Korea. Heavy rains and landslides moved the mines from their former locations causing casualties among civilians in South Korea.[13]