Jung Dong-young: "Dialogue Should Start with Confirming the Military Demarcation Line"

Unification Minister Jung Dong-young told reporters at the Government Complex Seoul on the 2nd that the key cause of the landmine explosion accident was the discrepancy in the location of the Military Demarcation Line (MDL, the military boundary dividing the two Koreas), proposing inter-Korean dialogue by urging North Korea to begin communication to re-verify and confirm the demarcation line.

"Of the 1,292 markers erected along the 248-kilometer stretch 73 years ago, only about 80 remain, meaning nearly all have disappeared," he explained. "That is why the lines drawn by the South, the North, and the UN Command all differ."

Minister Jung opposed calls to resume loudspeaker broadcasts toward the North, calling them "irresponsible and extremely dangerous." He said, "Confrontation of strength against strength will not resolve anything," adding, "There must be no attempt to use this accident as a pretext to distort the Lee Jae-myung government's efforts toward peace."