Han Dong-hoon says whoever set Sept. 29 probe start date 'is the culprit' in DMZ mine blast

Independent lawmaker Han Dong-hoon criticized the government Sunday over the timing of the on-site investigation into a mine explosion in the Demilitarized Zone near Paju, Gyeonggi Province.

In a Facebook post Sunday morning, Han said, "Whoever decided to push the investigation back to Sept. 29 — past the chuseok holiday — by overruling the UN Command, which had called for an immediate on-site probe on Monday and Tuesday, is the culprit."

He also said the commander of the 25th Infantry Division, who refused the UN Command Military Armistice Commission's request to access the site, should not be made a scapegoat. "That cannot have been the 25th Division commander's decision alone," Han said.

Han pressed for answers on who set the investigation schedule, asking whether it was Defense Minister Kang Shin-chul, "who spouted nonsense the day after the mine attack — 'I came, I saw, I conquered'" — or President Lee Jae Myung, "who, as commander in chief, spoke about it as if it were someone else's news, saying he had 'heard the report,' all while watching North Korea's reaction."

Han warned that if authorities drag their feet while watching North Korea's reaction and then conclude they "cannot confirm it was a North Korean mine, even if it wasn't ours," the wounded soldiers would be denied proper compensation as combat casualties. "If evidence gets washed away by the forecast heavy rains and the conclusion is that it's unclear whether it was a North Korean mine, the Lee Jae Myung administration is finished," he said.

Han cited the case of Lt. Lee Ju-eun, who lost a foot in a mine explosion while serving with the Marine Corps' 2nd Division on a front-line mission in 2019. Han said Lee was denied combat-casualty status because investigators ruled the mine was "not South Korean or American, but could not be confirmed as North Korean."

Under the Military Personnel Act, injuries caused by explosives planted by the enemy are classified as combat wounds, while those caused by friendly-force explosives are classified as duty-related wounds — a distinction that carries significant differences in benefits and compensation.

A similar controversy arose earlier. Ha Jae-heon, a retired staff sergeant who lost both legs in a North Korean wooden-box mine provocation in 2015, was initially classified as having a duty-related wound by the Ministry of Patriots and Veterans Affairs in 2019, but the ruling was reversed to a combat wound on appeal. The government subsequently amended the enforcement decree of the Act on Persons of Distinguished Service to the State in 2020 to add those "killed or wounded by explosives planted by the enemy" as eligible for combat-casualty status.

The incident occurred at around 10:50 a.m. Monday in an area near the MDL under the jurisdiction of the Army's 25th Infantry Division in Paju. Two explosions took place during a route-clearing operation, leaving a lieutenant colonel battalion commander and a combat engineer staff sergeant seriously wounded and one other soldier with minor injuries.

According to the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the staff sergeant working at the front of the team was injured in the first explosion, and the battalion commander was caught in a second blast while moving in to rescue him.

Five days after the incident, on Saturday, the military and UN Command deployed more than 20 personnel — including a task force led by the vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and members of the UN Command Military Armistice Commission — to secure access routes and assess the operational environment.

The Joint Chiefs of Staff said it had "been continuously preparing to ensure a thorough joint on-site investigation with UN Command can be carried out with the safety of our troops secured," and that it planned to "investigate the cause of the accident thoroughly and explain the findings transparently to the public."

"We will explain the results objectively and transparently based on the on-site investigation and other follow-up measures to be conducted," it added.