North Korea pushed back after South Korea's military concluded that a landmine explosion in the Demilitarized Zone on the western front was a provocation caused by mines that North Korean troops had deliberately planted south of the Military Demarcation Line.
In a statement issued by its Foreign Ministry through the Korean Central News Agency on the 6th, North Korea said South Korea was pursuing a "mine clearance operation" along with diplomatic and military countermeasures against the North after announcing "final investigation results" that forcibly linked the DMZ landmine explosion to Pyongyang.
The Foreign Ministry accused South Korea of an "insidious obstruction scheme" aimed at casting the North's fortification of its southern border as a "military intrusion" in order to delay or block the work, calling it an attempt to shift responsibility for the incident onto North Korea.
It also said South Korea's efforts to pin the blame on the North and damage its international image amounted to a "grave provocation" and a "serious violation of sovereignty," adding that it "totally rejects South Korea's sordid attempt."
The ministry said it would not take issue with the removal of mines unrelated to North Korea, but warned that "if those military boots or those sparks intrude even one millimeter into our territory, the border forces of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea will take immediate and powerful countermeasures."
North Korea also argued that it would bear no responsibility for any similar incident that occurs on South Korean territory in the future, and that the side suffering the accident must take full responsibility.
It went on to stress that it would not discuss the exercise of military sovereignty within its own territory with an "enemy state," and that it would defend its sovereign domain through "a thorough exercise of force" rather than negotiations.
The statement again described South Korea as "the most hostile state" and said the North would continue to exercise sovereignty at its southern border in an even more resolute and bold manner.
