Team:Edinburgh/mapxmlskorea



Rep. of Korea <![CDATA[The Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) and the Civilian Control Zone (CCZ) immediately adjoining the southern boundary of the DMZ, remain among the most heavily mined areas in the world due to extensive mine-laying during the Korean War and in the 1960s, 1978 and 1988. In May 2006, South Korea indicated that about 970,000 mines were emplaced in the southern part of the DMZ, about 30,000 mines were in the CCZ, and about 8,000 mines were in 25 military sites covering an area of about 3km2 in the northern parts of Gyeonggi-do and Gangwon-do provinces, below the CCZ. However, the South Korean government now states that there are “about 1,000,000 mines planted in some 1,300 sites between the DMZ and Seoul.” Unexploded ordnance (UXO), another legacy of the Korean War, is also present in many parts of the country, and casualties continue to occur.

South Korea informed Landmine Monitor in 2008 that it controls about 1,300 mined sites covering a total area of about 32km2, unchanged from the previous year but substantially more than the 21.8km2 of confirmed minefields reported by the Ministry of National Defense in 2003. At that time, the ministry also reported unconfirmed minefields covering an additional 90.7km2. The South Korean army defines unconfirmed minefields as areas that are suspected to be mined, but for which there are no maps or other reliable information; it marks them with “Unconfirmed Minefield Danger” signs.

In 2007, Landmine Monitor identified one new antivehicle mine casualty: in April a 34-year-old man was slightly injured, and his wheeled excavator destroyed, by a mine blast in the northern part of Gyeonggi-do. In 2006, one man was injured by an antipersonnel mine in Gyeonggi-do.

Casualties continued to be reported in 2008, with a civilian man injured by what was suspected to be an antipersonnel mine on the island of Gangwha (also part of Gyeonggi-do province) in January. Korean authorities stated that no mines were planted on the island and the device was possibly washed down from mainland Gyeonggi-do or Gangwon-do province due to flooding of the Han River.

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