Pyongyang denies involvement in DMZ blast, criticizing Seoul’s ire as ‘cavil and provocation’

Kim Yo-jong, the powerful sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un. (KCNA/Yonhap)

North Korea responded Wednesday to the South Korean military’s announcement that a North Korean land mine was the likely cause of an explosion on the western front of the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ), describing the situation as a “farce of [Seoul’s] own making.”

The Korean Central News Agency published the full text from a statement issued by Kim Yo-jong, the senior Workers’ Party of Korea official and sister of leader Kim Jong-un, on Tuesday under the title “Ringleaders of provocation should be prepared for paying price for the farce of their own making.”

In it, she said the incident “is a clear farce reminiscent of the ‘wooden-box mine incident’ which disturbed the world more than ten years ago, in consideration of the time and method of provocation.”

Her claim was that neither the wooden box mine incident in August 2015 nor the recent explosion had anything to do with the North Korean military.

Responding to an announcement Monday by the South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff stating that the recent explosion was likely to have been due to a mine planted by the North Korean military, Kim said, “It is absurd that they made a conclusion about the origin of the said mine exploded in the barren land which they had never set foot for more than a half century.”

“It is the height of impudence that the tribes of the ROK are trying to fabricate ‘material evidence’ for proving it after shifting the blame for the incident onto the other,” she continued.

Appearing at a plenary meeting of the National Assembly National Defense Committee a day after the Joint Chiefs announcement, South Korean Minister of National Defense Kang Shin-chul called the situation a “clear violation of the Armistice Agreement” with North Korea and said it was being “viewed as related to North Korea’s fortification of the border.” According to this claim, the incident may have resulted from mines planted as part of a border fortification project that Pyongyang has been pursuing since 2024.

But Kim asserted, “Clearly speaking, our soldiers have never crossed the border.”

Insisting that the border fortification project was “only a thorough exercise of sovereignty unrelated with any military purpose,” she said that North Korea was “closely watching why the ROK military rogues need the ‘mine incident’ at this time in connection with their extremely scandalous acts which have been witnessed repeatedly in the southern border area in recent days.”

Kim also raised issues with the South Korean military’s warning broadcasts and warning fire in connection with North Korea’s current construction of border barriers.

“The enemies' provocative acts near the southern border area are going beyond the limit with each passing day,” she said.

“The ‘crossing the border’ of our soldiers touted by the ROK military is a deliberate and planned strained assertion to shift the responsibility for escalating tension on to the DPRK,” she maintained.

“This is a clear cavil and a provocation,” she continued.

Kim went on to warn, “When a single bullet is hit on our land, [South Korea] must be prepared for a lot.”

“If the ROK military gangsters fire at our soldiers carrying on the permanent project for the southern border, not warning shots, our border units will take immediate and merciless retaliate attack,” she continued.

Kim also said the North Korean military had “decided to take measures to increase the tactical counterattack means in the direction of the demilitarized zone of the 21st Infantry Division of the 3rd Corps of the ROK army where the provocations are frequent in recent days.”

“Explicitly speaking once again, it is clear that if the frequency of malicious accusation and provocation against us in the border region are frequent and lead to an encroachment on our actual territory and military sovereignty, the rogue group will have to face a situation that has not yet been experienced,” she warned.