By Kim Rahn
Kim, now 56, accidently stepped on a landmine while out with his sisters on a mountain near his home in Gangwon Province when he was in the fourth grade.
He lost his sight in one eye and had his left hand blown off. Additionally both his legs were dislocated. To make matters worse he failed to receive the appropriate emergency treatment.
Kim is one of many people who have been killed or injured by landmines left over from the Korean War (1950-1953).
The Peace Sharing Association, the Korean chapter of the International Campaign to Ban Landmines, conducted a survey between March and September on landmine damage in Gangwon Province and found 228 people had fallen victim to the explosive devices.
“This survey was limited to Gangwon Province, excluding Gyeonggi Province, another frontier district with North Korea. Also, affected people didn’t actively participate in the survey because many of them didn’t want to disclose their years-long suffering. Given this, the actual number may be far larger,” said Lee Ji-sun, a member of the association.
According to the survey, 51 percent of the victims died on the spot, while others lost legs or hands to landmines left uncollected after the war.
The incidents mainly took place between the 1950s and ‘70s, when the government relocated people as part of a policy to reclaim wasteland for farmland to fight food shortages. The government offered them land for free in exchange for moving to the dangerous areas, Lee said.
“More than half of the victims were injured on mountains near their villages. But another 23 percent said the explosions happened near their homes or farmland, indicating the authorities didn’t clear the areas of mines properly.”
About half of the victims were in their 20s to 40s, and 84 percent were men.
“Many of the casualties were breadwinners, so their families suffered financially after the incidents. Many of their children couldn’t receive schooling due to poverty and they then fell into the low-income bracket as well as having a poor academic background,” she said.
In the case of Kim who married and had two daughters, his wife divorced him due to financial hardship and he gave her land in lieu of money for childcare. He kept in touch with his daughters, but they killed themselves one after the other last year due to financial suffering while still in their early 20s. Kim can’t sleep without sleeping pills, painkillers or alcohol, according to Lee.
Such victims could have demanded state compensation within three years of the injuries being suffered according to the law, but more than half were unaware of this. Another 33 percent said they knew about it but didn’t make any claim as they felt they may have received unfavorable treatment from the authorities.
“When moving to the new regions, most of the settlers gave the military written promises that they themselves would take responsibility for any injuries there. Older people also thought the authorities might label them as North Korean spies if they talked about it,” she said.
Lee said the government hasn’t made efforts to collect abandoned landmines, with a bill for their removal pending at the National Assembly, almost six decades after the war ended. “We have also sought to establish a law to support landmine victims, but related bills have been presented and passed over for years. The victims definitely need state support.”
