Kim Yo-jong rejects landmine apology demand as analysts say North Korea is targeting Cheong Wa Dae

Tensions are running high along the eastern front after Kim Yo-jong, director of the Korean Workers' Party General Affairs Department, dismissed a joint apology request from South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff and the United Nations Command over North Korean landmines in the Demilitarized Zone, calling the two bodies "utterly pathetic."

Shin Bum-chul, a senior research fellow at the Sejong Institute and a former vice minister of national defense, said Saturday that North Korean troops are believed to have crossed the MDL more than 50 times over the past two months, primarily in areas covered by the 21st Division. "The principle of firing warning shots whenever they cross must be maintained," he said.

Yang Wook, a research fellow at the Asan Institute for Policy Studies, traced the variables driving eastern-front tensions to South Korea's own military readiness. "Warning shots are the bare minimum — something that has already been standard practice on the eastern front," he said. "To prevent similar incidents in the remaining sections where North Korea is still working, continuous surveillance and advance warnings are essential."

Concerns also emerged that the government's overall response posture could constrain military judgment. "The National Security Council did not convene immediately after the landmine incident, and the direction of the response still seems unclear," Yang said. "The words and actions of the top leadership are placing significant constraints on military decision-making."

President Lee Jae Myung had said at the Armed Forces Day ceremony that the government would consistently pursue practical measures to reduce military tensions on the peninsula. Kim took aim at that statement as well, mocking Lee as someone who "appeared at some ceremony to express his will to consistently take practical measures to reduce military tensions," while lower-ranking officials were busy "picking fights with others over investigation results and official position statements like minnows."

Hong Min, a research fellow at the Korea Institute for National Unification, assessed Kim's Friday statement as a deliberate shift in tone. "Unlike her first statement on the DMZ landmines, she pulled back the military signaling and instead declared North Korea would have nothing to do with the South — effectively shutting down any further escalation of the issue," he said.

Hong also said the statement sharpened a pressure campaign aimed directly at Cheong Wa Dae. "She separated the Joint Chiefs and the Defense Ministry — labeling them 'minnows' — from the president, who she portrayed as the one 'appearing at a ceremony to express his will to ease tensions,' and then ridiculed the gap between the two as 'the climax of a clown show,'" he said.

He added that on the surface, Kim was pointing to inconsistent messaging within a single government, but the underlying message was a challenge to the president: "You are talking about 'an unexpected accident and easing military tensions' — so why are your ministries taking a hard line with demands for corresponding measures, warnings and apologies?"

A Joint Chiefs official told reporters Friday that South Korea was responding to North Korea's border fortification work with both operational measures and capability reinforcements. "We are installing, or plan to install, additional surveillance equipment in some forward areas," the official said.

North Korea has been carrying out land-clearing operations, building tactical roads, and installing barbed wire and landmines near the MDL since April 2024, in line with its policy of treating the two Koreas as mutually hostile states.

In some areas along the western front covered by the 25th Division, terrain changes suggesting North Korean landmine placement south of the MDL had been detected. On Sept. 21, three South Korean soldiers were seriously wounded when a landmine exploded as they approached the area.

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Unification said it had already made clear on multiple occasions that Seoul had no intention of treating North Korea as an adversary, and called on Pyongyang to stop the "wasteful exchanges that stoke hatred and hostility." "The two Koreas should meet and communicate," the ministry said, adding that through such dialogue "they will be able to find ways to prevent a recurrence and reduce tensions."