Korea, Republic of

Mine Ban Policy

Last updated: 17 November 2022

Policy

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

In November 2021, South Korea reiterated its long-held position that the “unique security situation on the Korean Peninsula” prevents it from acceding to the treaty.[1] In June 2022, an official told the intersessional meetings of the Mine Ban Treaty that “the Republic of Korea, in light of the Korean Peninsula’s unique security situation, is unable to accede to the convention at this juncture,” but said “we nevertheless, support the Ottawa Convention’s objectives and purposes of the convention.”[2]

South Korea participated as an observer at all meetings of the Ottawa Process that created the treaty, including the Oslo negotiations in September 1997 and signing conference held in Ottawa in December 1997.

Since 2019, South Korea has participated as an observer at Mine Ban Treaty meetings. It attended the Eighteenth Meeting of the States Parties held virtually in November 2020, and the Nineteenth Meeting of States Parties held virtually in November 2021. South Korea also attended the treaty’s intersessional meetings held in Geneva in June 2022.

South Korea has abstained from every annual United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) resolution on the treaty, most recently Resolution 76/26 on 6 December 2021, which called for the universalization and full implementation of the Mine Ban Treaty.[3]

The Korean Campaign to Ban Landmines/Peace Sharing Association (KCBL/PSA) advocates for South Korea to join the Mine Ban Treaty and implement its provisions. In 2022, the campaign arranged to translate the International Mine Action Standards (IMAS) into Korean.

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.[4]

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 2020­–2021[5] Previously, in August 2019, South Korea informed ICBL that it had not produced any antipersonnel landmines in the previous five years.[6]

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.[7] In 2007, Hanwha Corporation produced about 10,000 self-destructing antipersonnel mines, as well as an unknown number of Claymore directional fragmentation mines.[8]

In June 2022, South Korea told the treaty’s intersessional meetings that it maintains a moratorium on the export of antipersonnel mines.[9] Previously South Korea stated on several occasions that it has “faithfully enforced an indefinite extension of the moratorium on the export of [antipersonnel] mines since 1997.”[10]

Stockpiling

The precise size and composition of South Korea’s antipersonnel mine stockpile is not publicly known.[11] However, South Korea reported in 2006 and 2008 that its stockpile consisted of 407,800 antipersonnel mines.[12] In the past, the government has stated that it held a stockpile of about two million antipersonnel mines.[13]

Foreign stockpiling

The United States (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.[14]

For many years, the US also stockpiled about 1.1 million M14 and M16 non-self-destructing antipersonnel mines for use in any future war on the Korean Peninsula, with about half the total kept in South Korea and half in the continental US.[15]

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 over a three-year period, after which the WRSA-K program would be terminated, which occurred at the end of 2008.[16] 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.”[17] 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.[18] 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.[19]

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.”[20] 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.[21] In May 2017, South Korean authorities refused to divulge any information regarding WRSA-K stocks of antipersonnel mines.[22] 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 maintained non-self-destructing antipersonnel mines in South Korea.

Use

In June 2022, a representative of South Korea told the treaty’s intersessional meetings that South Korea has not emplaced any new antipersonnel landmines in several years.[23] In 2021, the Ministry of National Defense said that South Korea “did not plant any non-self destruct anti-personnel landmines in a new area during the year of 2020.”[24] Previously, in August 2019, South Korea told ICBL that it had not created any new mined areas since 2000.[25]

Two South Korean soldiers were injured by antipersonnel landmines while on patrol in the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) on 4 August 2015, which South Korean officials said were newly laid mines.[26] An investigation by the US-led United Nations (UN) Command attributed responsibility for this use to the North Korean People’s Army.[27]

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.



[1] South Korea Explanation of Vote on Resolution L.5, United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) First Committee on Disarmament and International Security, New York, 2 November 2021. UNGA, video record at 01:24:58.

[2] Statement of South Korea, Mine Ban Treaty intersessional meetings, Geneva, 22 June 2022. Previously, 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 juncture.” South Korea said that “we support the objectives and purposes of the convention. Sharing the humanitarian aims of the convention and sympathize with the international community’s concern over the severe challenges caused by the indiscriminate use of anti-personnel mines.” Statement of South Korea, Mine Ban Treaty Eighteenth Meeting of States Parties, held virtually, 16 November 2020.

[3]  "Implementation of the Convention on the Prohibition of the Use, Stockpiling, Production and Transfer of Anti-Personnel Mines and on Their Destruction,” UNGA Resolution, 76/26, 6 December 2021.

[4] Statutes of the Republic of Korea, “Act on the Regulation of the Use and Transfer of Certain Conventional Weapons including Mines,” 2001 (amended in 2010 and 2014).

[5] Official Information Disclosure Request by World Without War, reply received on 26 May 2022 by Yoo Ji-hyun, Arms Control Division, North Korea Policy Bureau, Ministry of National Defense; and Official Information Disclosure Request by World Without War, reply received on 31 March 2021 by Choi Kyeong-yeon, Senior Manager, Firepower Program Department, Defense Acquisition Program Administration, Ministry of National Defense.

[6] Email to ICBL from Soonhee Choi, Counsellor, Permanent Mission of South Korea to the United Nations (UN) in Geneva, 22 August 2019.

[7] Response to Monitor questionnaire by Il Jae Lee, Second Secretary, Disarmament and Nonproliferation Division, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, 4 April 2012. The KM74 mine is a copy of the United States (US)-made M74 self-destructing mine.

[8] See, ICBL, Landmine Monitor Report 2008: Toward a Mine-Free World (Ottawa: Mines Action Canada, October 2008), p. 876. South Korea began producing remotely-delivered, self-destructing antipersonnel mines in 2006. South Korea has produced two types of Claymore mines, designated KM18A1 and K440. South Korean officials have stated that the country only produces the devices in command-detonated mode, which is lawful under the Mine Ban Treaty, and not with tripwires, which would be prohibited.

[9] Statement of South Korea, Mine Ban Treaty intersessional meetings, Geneva, 22 June 2022.

[10] “[T]he [South] Korean Government is exercising tight controls over anti-personnel landmines and has been enforcing an indefinite extension of the moratorium on their export since 1997.” South Korea Explanation of Vote on Resolution L.5, 69th Session, UNGA First Committee, New York, 3 November 2014. UNGA, Official Records, A/C.1/69/PV.23, pp. 18–23.

[11] In 2011 and 2012, South Korean officials declined to reveal to the Monitor the size of South Korea’s stockpile or the types of mines stockpiled. Response to Monitor questionnaire by Il Jae Lee, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, 4 April 2012; and email from Chi-won Jung, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, 27 June 2011.

[12] See, ICBL, Landmine Monitor Report 2006: Toward a Mine-Free World (Ottawa: Mines Action Canada, July 2006), p. 958; ICBL, Landmine Monitor Report 2007: Toward a Mine-Free World (Ottawa: Mines Action Canada, October 2007); pp. 868–869; and ICBL, Landmine Monitor Report 2008: Toward a Mine-Free World (Ottawa: Mines Action Canada, October 2008), pp. 876–877.

[13] In May 2005, South Korea stated that “there are about twice as many landmines in stockpile as those that are buried,” and the government estimated one million buried mines. Response to Monitor questionnaire by the Permanent Mission of South Korea to the UN in New York, 25 May 2005. The Monitor reported that the stockpile included 960,000 M14 mines that were made detectable before July 1999 in order to comply with CCW Amended Protocol II, and that South Korea also holds unknown numbers of self-destructing mines, including, apparently, more than 31,000 US ADAM artillery-delivered mines. See, ICBL, Landmine Monitor Report 2001: Toward a Mine-Free World (New York: Human Rights Watch, August 2001), p. 544.

[14] Response to Monitor questionnaire by the Permanent Mission of South Korea to the UN, 25 May 2005.

[15] See, ICBL, Landmine Monitor Report 1999: Toward a Mine-Free World (New York: Human Rights Watch, April 1999), p. 333.

[16] US Public Law 109–159, “An Act to authorize the transfer of items in the War Reserve Stockpile for Allies, Korea,” 30 December 2005, p. 119, Stat. 2955–2956.

[17] Response to Monitor questionnaire by the Permanent Mission of South Korea to the UN, 9 June 2009.

[18] Email from Chi-won Jung, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, 27 June 2011.

[19] Response to Monitor questionnaire by Il Jae Lee, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, 4 April 2012.

[20] US Public Law 109–159, “An Act to authorize the transfer of items in the War Reserve Stockpile for Allies, Korea,” 30 December 2005, Section 1(c)(2).

[21] Email from Adrienne M. Santos, Freedom of Information Act Analyst, for Suzanne Council on behalf of Paul Jacobs-Meyer, Chief, Freedom of Information Act Division, US Department of Defense, OSD/JS FOIA Office, 24 June 2013.

[22] “Information on retrograde of WRSA-K anti-personnel landmines and transfer of such items from the United States is restricted information as any matter related to ‘Transfer, authorization of retrograde and transportation support of WRSA munitions’ is classified as information subject to non-disclosure under the Operational Directive on Public Disclosure of Information on National Defense.” Disclosure of Information by Public Agencies response from the Arms Control Division, Ministry of National Defense, to World Without War, 24 May 2017.

[23] Statement of South Korea, Mine Ban Treaty intersessional meetings, Geneva, 22 June 2022

[24] Official Information Disclosure Request by World Without War, reply received 22 April 2021 by Lee Yoo-jung, Deputy Director, Arms Control Division, North Korea Policy Bureau, Office of National Defense Policy, Ministry of National Defense.

[25] Email to ICBL from Soonhee Choi, Counsellor, Permanent Mission of South Korea to the UN in Geneva, 22 August 2019.

[26] Elizabeth Shim, “Two South Korean soldiers injured in DMZ land mine explosion,” United Press International, 4 August 2015.