Policy

The Republic of Korea (South Korea) has not acceded to the Mine Ban Treaty.

South Korea has stated consistently that the security situation on the Korean Peninsula prohibits it from acceding to the treaty. In November 2020, its representative told States Parties that, “the Republic of Korea, in light of the Korean Peninsula’s unique security situation, is unable to accede to the convention at this point.”[1] South Korea said that “we, nevertheless, support the Ottawa Convention’s objectives and purposes and sympathize with the international community’s concern over the severe challenges caused by the indiscriminate use of anti-personnel mines.”

South Korea also told the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) in November 2020 that it is not a party to the Mine Ban Treaty “due to the unique security situation on the Korean peninsula.”[2] South Korea has abstained from every annual UNGA resolution on the treaty, most recently Resolution 75/52 on 7 December 2020, which calls for the universalization and full implementation of the Mine Ban Treaty.[3]

South Korea attended the Mine Ban Treaty’s Eighteenth Meeting of States Parties, held virtually in November 2020, as an observer, which marked its first participation in a formal meeting of the treaty. South Korea also attended intersessional meetings of the Mine Ban Treaty in July 2020 and May 2019.[4]

On 24 September 2019, South Korean President Moon Jae-in requested international cooperation on mine clearance in the demilitarized zone (DMZ).[5] An April 2018 inter-Korean summit pledged to recommence road and rail connections in the east of the Korean peninsula.[6] Mine clearance to facilitate these connections halted in 2002.[7] At the September 2018 inter-Korean summit, leaders from both sides agreed to begin the removal of landmines from a jointly controlled village in the DMZ.[8] In October 2019, the South Korean Ministry of National Defense announced its intention to remove all mines from military installations south of the DMZ by 2021, and began clearance tasks in April 2020.[9]

In November 2018, the Korean Campaign to Ban Landmines/Peace Sharing Association (KCBL/PSA) organized an International Symposium on the role of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) for mine clearance in the DMZ, at Yonsei University in Seoul.[10] In January 2019, the UN Command organized a first seminar on mine action in the DMZ.[11]

After a 15-year struggle by the KCBL/PSA, the National Assembly passed the Special Act on Landmine Victim Assistance in September 2014.[12]

Previously, in April 2011, Prince Mired Raad Al Hussein, the Special Envoy on Universalization for the Mine Ban Treaty, visited Seoul to encourage South Korea’s government to engage in the work of the treaty.[13]

On 31 January 2020, the United States (US) reversed a 2014 policy decision that unequivocally banned US production and acquisition of antipersonnel landmines, as well as their use outside of a future conflict on the Korean Peninsula.[14]

South Korea is not party to the Convention on Cluster Munitions. It is party to the Convention on Conventional Weapons (CCW) and its Amended Protocol II on landmines.[15]

Use

South Korea maintains that it has not used landmines in many years. In August 2019, South Korea informed the ICBL that it had not emplaced any new mined areas since 2000.[16] According to a Ministry of National Defense official, South Korea “did not plant any non-self destruct anti-personnel landmines in a new area during the year of 2020.”[17]

Two South Korean soldiers were injured by antipersonnel mines while on patrol in the DMZ on 4 August 2015, which South Korean officials said were newly laid mines.[18] North Korea issued a denial of use, stating that it only used mines in self-defense.[19] An investigation by the US-led UN Command 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.”[20] The investigation determined that the devices were recently emplaced, and ruled out the possibility that these were legacy mines that had drifted from their original placements due to rain or shifting soil.

It is unknown what percentage of mines in the DMZ were laid by US forces when the area was under US control. The Status of Forces Agreement does not allow South Korea to make any claims of the US forces, including records of where US forces may have laid mines.

Production and Transfer

South Korean officials state that there has been no new production of antipersonnel landmines in several years. The Monitor will continue to list South Korea as a producer of antipersonnel mines until it renounces future production of these weapons.

According to a Ministry of National Defense official, no defense company in South Korea produced antipersonnel landmines during 2020.[21] Previously, in August 2019, South Korea informed the ICBL that it had not produced any antipersonnel landmines in the previous five years.[22]

The last known production of antipersonnel landmines in South Korea was in 2011, when a South Korean company, Hanwha Corporation, manufactured 4,000 KM74 antipersonnel mines.[23] In 2007, Hanwha Corporation produced about 10,000 self-destructing antipersonnel mines, as well as an unknown number of Claymore directional fragmentation mines.[24]

South Korea has stated on several occasions that it has “faithfully enforced an indefinite extension of the moratorium on the export of [antipersonnel] mines since 1997.”[25]

Stockpiling

The precise size and composition of South Korea’s antipersonnel mine stockpile is not publicly known.[26] However, South Korea said in 2006 and 2008 that its stockpile consisted of 407,800 antipersonnel mines.[27] In the past, the government stated that it held a stockpile of about two million antipersonnel mines.[28]

According to a Ministry of National Defense official, no landmines belonging to the Republic of Korea Armed Forces or the US Armed Forces in South Korea were destroyed in 2020.[29]

In 2018, the South Korean Ministry of National Defense stated that the army had destroyed 186 tons of antipersonnel landmines.[30] In 2017, the South Korean government wrote that 19,662 M16 and 1,647 M14 mines were destroyed in 2015 and 2016.[31] South Korea said it destroyed 18,464 antipersonnel mines in 2011.[32]

The US military keeps a substantial number of remotely-delivered, self-destructing antipersonnel landmines in South Korea. In 2005, the South Korean government reported that the US held 40,000 GATOR, 10,000 Volcano, and an unknown number of MOPMS mines.[33]

For many years, the US military also stockpiled about 1.1 million M14 and M16 non-self-destructing antipersonnel mines for use in any future war in Korea, with about half of the total kept in South Korea and half in the continental US.[34] Most of the US-owned mines located in South Korea have been part of the more extensive War Reserve Stocks for Allies-Korea (WRSA-K). On 30 December 2005, the US enacted a law authorizing the sale of items in the WRSA-K to South Korea during a three-year period, after which the WRSA-K program would be terminated, which occurred at the end of 2008.[35] In June 2009, the South Korean government told the Monitor, “AP [antipersonnel] mines were not included in the list of items for sale or transfer in the WRSA-K negotiations, and therefore, no AP-mines were bought or obtained.”[36] In June 2011, a Ministry of Foreign Affairs official stated that South Korea safeguards a stockpile of antipersonnel mines that belongs to the US military on its territory, as part of the WRSA-K program. These mines are planned to be gradually transferred out of South Korea.[37] In June 2012, a Ministry of Foreign Affairs official stated that the antipersonnel mines were in ammunition storage, within secure areas of the US Forces Korea.[38]

The law ending the WRSA-K program states that any items remaining at the time of termination “shall be removed, disposed of, or both by the Department of Defense.”[39] Moreover, US policy has prohibited the use of non-self-destructing antipersonnel mines in South Korea since 2010. According to documents released under a Freedom of Information Act request by the Monitor in 2013, the WRSA-K stockpile included 480,267 M-14 and 83,319 M-16 antipersonnel mines.[40] In May 2017, South Korean authorities refused to divulge any information regarding WRSA-K stocks of antipersonnel mines.[41] The US has previously destroyed all non-self-destructing mines not dedicated for potential use on the Korean Peninsula. As of October 2015, the Monitor could not determine whether the US indeed maintained non-self-destructing antipersonnel mines in South Korea.