By Jack Kim
SEOUL, Sept 30 (Reuters) – North Korea said on Wednesday that South Korea will pay a price for shifting the blame to Pyongyang for a mine blast that seriously wounded two South Koreans at the Demilitarized Zone border and warned it will retaliate if the South opens fire on its troops.
South Korea’s defence minister said on Tuesday that North Korean mines caused a blast last week and that it would take “corresponding” action. Kang Shin-chul also said North Korea likely planted mines as part of fortifying the border.
South Korea together with the UN Command that oversees the Korean War armistice have been conducting a probe over the blast that on September 21 wounded three South Korean personnel of a team on a reconnaissance mission inside the 4-kilometre- (2.49-mile) wide DMZ.
“The tribes of South Korea are trying to fabricate ‘material evidence’ for proving it after shifting the blame for the incident onto the other,” the North Korean leader’s sister, Kim Yo Jong, said in a statement issued on the KCNA official news agency.
Kim is considered an influential confidant of her brother and often speaks publicly on external matters.
“Ringleaders of provocation should be prepared for paying a price for the farce of their own making,” she said.
“It is too low and dirty as befitting the tribes of South Korea,” she said. “Such a farce is by no means new.” She also said North Korean troops have never crossed the Military Demarcation Line that runs through the centre of the DMZ.
South Korea has said it believes there are signs North Korean soldiers breached the border line as it conducted fortification work.
Kim said the North had made no secret of its work to build barriers in the area to reinforce the border and “this is only a thorough exercise of sovereignty unrelated with any military purpose.”
But the South was provoking tension by firing warning shots on the pretense North Korean troops were breaching the border.
If live shots are fired at its soldiers, the North will take immediate retaliation, Kim said. “When a single bullet hits our land, they must be prepared for a lot,” she said.
The activities at the border, which also include restoring guard posts, stem from a turn in its policy on the South, that it is a separate country and a “foe,” no longer a partner with which Pyongyang will work together for eventual unification.
The mine incident could further complicate South Korean President Lee Jae Myung’s efforts to reopen dialogue and improve ties with the North to ease military tensions.
(Reporting by Jack Kim; Editing by Bill Berkrot and Jacqueline Wong)
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