North Korea has laid an estimated 960,000 new landmines along the Demilitarized Zone since April 2024, significantly intensifying its border fortifications and raising total mine estimates to over 2 million. This move comes as Pyongyang threatened to resume anti-South Korea propaganda broadcasts by late October 2026.

This escalation transforms the DMZ from a buffer into a direct confrontation line, increasing risks for South Korean soldiers and border communities. It further complicates South Korean President Lee Jae Myung's administration's efforts to improve inter-Korean relations.

What the Records Show

The South Korean military reported to the National Assembly on October 23, 2026, that North Korea has planted an estimated 960,000 landmines along the inter-Korean border since 2024. This addition brings the total estimated landmines in the DMZ to more than 2 million, a figure also cited by South Korean Unification Minister Chung Dong-young during a parliamentary audit earlier in October 2026. Beyond mine-laying, North Korean troops have been actively clearing vegetation to create barren buffer zones, constructing barriers, anti-tank defenses, and installing barbed-wire fences. They have also built tactical roads and severed the Gyeongui and Donghae road and railway connections that previously linked the two Koreas.

Timeline of Escalation

Tensions between North and South Korea significantly escalated after Pyongyang redefined inter-Korean relations as being between "two hostile states" in late 2023 or early 2024. North Korea began its intensified border fortification efforts in April 2024. On September 21, 2026, three South Korean soldiers were injured by a North Korean mine explosion south of the Military Demarcation Line (MDL).

What Pyongyang Has Said

Kim Yo-jong, the sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and a department director at the Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea, inspected frontline border fortification sites on October 21, 2026, alongside Marshal Pak Jong Chon, a top military official. During this inspection, she publicly declared the fortification efforts a “sacred and great undertaking,” asserting that Kim Jong-un had issued “an order to fortify the border with an enemy state to be eternally impregnable”. Kim Yo-jong accused South Korea of escalating tensions with warning shots and broadcasts, stating that such “provocations have increased ‘beyond the red line’ since the mine blasts”. She also issued a direct threat to resume anti-South Korea propaganda broadcasts via loudspeakers along the entire border by the end of October 2026. Kim Yo-jong warned that “Our new counter means will get into the alert for duty at all the southern border line and the loudspeakers against the ROK will be on standby in a matter of days,” and that South Korea could face the “most horrible and distressing situation” if its perceived interference continued.

Marshal Pak Jong Chon urged North Korean troops to transform the border into an “impregnable fortress” and threatened an “overwhelming response” to South Korean provocations, warning them to take prompt and decisive action if enemy forces threatened the safety of North Korean service personnel. Pyongyang vehemently denies responsibility for the September 21 mine blast, accusing South Korea of fabricating the investigation.

What We Could Not Confirm

The precise location of all 960,000 newly planted landmines.
North Korea’s exact operational timeline for resuming loudspeaker broadcasts.
The nature and deployment details of “new firepower units” and “new counter means” mentioned by Kim Yo-jong.