A search for land mines after the heavy rainfall

The Joint Chiefs of Staff yesterday ordered military units located in the areas affected by heavy rains to search for land mines that might have drifted away from military bases.

The military said it mobilized around 140 soldiers including Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) specialists into the mine-searching task force.

The areas where the search is focused on include air-defense entrenchments in Mount Umyeon, Gyeonggi and Gangwon, as well as some areas in Yangju, Gyeonggi. The border areas where North Korea’s wooden land mines are often discovered at a time of flooding were also included.

An official of the military said about 1,000 M14 anti-personnel land mines were buried in the air-defense entrenchment on Mount Umyeon in the 1980s, but most of them were eliminated between 1999 and 2006 and around 10 remain buried.

Another official said the chance that mines have been left uncollected on the mountain is low, but if they are there, they won’t have been swept away because they are blocked by the concrete-wall air-defense bases. Meanwhile, explosives that drifted away in landslides from a military base in Yangju, Gyeonggi, around 9 p.m. Wednesday, were all collected yesterday.

By Kim Su-jeong, Jeon Ick-jin [joe@joongang.co.kr]