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South Korea began on Monday to eliminate mines from two sites located inside the heavily fortified border with North Korea under tension reduction agreements reached this year. Seoul said North Korea should do the same.
Development comes as international diplomacy has renewed its nuclear weapons program after weeks of stalled negotiations. US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is due to travel to Pyongyang this month to try to organize a second summit between President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.
South Korean troops entered the demilitarized zone on Monday morning to remove the mines around the border village of Panmunjom and another frontline area where rivals plan their first joint search with North Korea to find soldiers. during the 1950-53 Korean War, according to the Seoul Ministry of Defense.
South Korean troops will attempt to attack the mines south of the Panmunjom Common Security Zone and Arrow Head Hill, one of the fiercest battles in the Korean War. Seoul officials estimate that the remains of about 300 South Korean and US forces are on Arrow Head Hill, as well as many Chinese and North Korean remains.
South Korean Defense Ministry officials said they could not immediately confirm whether North Korea had also begun clearing mines in the northern parts of the two sites. But they said they were expecting the North to abide by the easing of tensions that their defense chiefs made on the sidelines of their leaders' summit last month in Pyongyang.
In an effort to reduce conventional military threats, Korea's defense chiefs also decided to withdraw 11 guard posts by December and create buffer zones along their maritime and land borders as well as an area air exclusion over the border to prevent accidental armed clashes.
About 2 million mines are said to be scattered in the 248 km (155 miles) demilitarized zone in Korea, which was originally created as a buffer zone at the end of the Korean War. The demilitarized zone is the most heavily reinforced border in the world. It is also protected by hundreds of thousands of soldiers, barbed wire and tank traps on both sides.
Many experts say that the fate of inter-Korean agreements may be affected by the way in which nuclear negotiations take place between the United States and North Korea. Past rapprochement efforts have often been stalled following the intensification of an international confrontation over northern nuclear ambitions.
After provocative tests of three intercontinental ballistic missiles and a powerful nuclear weapon last year, North Korea began talks with the United States and South Korea earlier this year, saying that She was willing to reduce more and more her nuclear arsenal. Kim Jong Un subsequently held a series of summits with US, South Korean and Chinese leaders and took steps such as the dismantling of his nuclear testing site.
Nuclear diplomacy has subsequently been paralyzed by controversy over how North Korea is authentic about its commitment to disarmament. But Trump, Pompeo and other US officials have recently reported progress in denuclearization talks with the North. Pompeo will soon be making his third trip to North Korea for interviews.
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