Korea, Republic of

Casualties

Last updated: 23 January 2018

Casualties Overview

All known casualties by end 2016

Unknown, estimates from 500–3,000

Casualties in 2016

4 (2015: 2)

2016 casualties by survival outcome

1 killed; 3 injured (2015: 2 injured)

2016 casualties by device type

1 antivehicle mine; 3 antipersonnel mine

 

The Monitor identified four new mine casualties in the Republic of Korea (South Korea) in 2016. All were civilian adult men, one was a Kazakh national.[1]

The total number of mine/ERW casualties is unknown, but the Korea Research Institute for Mine Clearance stated in March 2009 that there were at least 500 civilian survivors.[2] In 2009, the media reported that there were at least 1,000 civilian casualties; the Korean Campaign to Ban Landmines (KCBL) estimated there were 2,000 to 3,000 military casualties.[3] The Monitor identified 92 mine casualties between 1999 and 2016 (18 killed, 73 injured, and one unknown). At least 25 of these casualties were military personnel, including one American soldier injured in 2001. Figures are likely incomplete as there is no comprehensive official data on mine casualties in South Korea.[4]



[1]Foreign worker steps on landmine at inter-Korean border area,” NK News, 6 April 2016; “Landmine blast kills truck driver,” Korea Times, 12 January 2016; and Jae Kook Cho, “Mine Issue in South Korea: Presentation at George Washington University,” 23 June 2016. Text obtained by email, 22 June 2016.

[2] Emails from Kim Ki-Ho, CEO, Korea Research Institute for Mine Clearance, 22 and 23 March 2009.

[3]In South Korea, landmines remain a threat,” Los Angeles Times, 23 December 2009; and ICBL, Landmine Monitor Report 1999: Toward a Mine-Free World (New York: Human Rights Watch, April 1999).

[4] Response to Monitor questionnaire by the Permanent Mission of the Republic of Korea to the UN in New York, 9 June 2009.