Seoul sends letter to UNSC

By Yi Whan-woo

South Korea has sent a letter to the U.N. Security Council (UNSC) to express regrets over North Korea’s landmine attack at the Demilitarized (DMZ) on Aug. 4, the government said Thursday.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs said Seoul also urged the council to put restraints on Pyongyang and prevent such a provocation from happening again in a letter sent to Joy Ogwu, Tuesday.

Ogwu is Nigeria’s ambassador to the U.N. and the UNSC president for August. Representatives from the UNSC’s 15 member states, including Nigeria, lead the council for a month in rotation.

The foreign ministry said the letter was also sent to the 15 UNSC members, and is expected to be uploaded onto its website Friday.

The government added the letter, however, does not mean the U.N body will automatically place North Korea’s landmine attack on its agenda. The UNSC already has two issues related to the military regime on its agenda. They are Pyongyang’s development of weapons of mass destruction and its state-perpetrated violations of human rights.

“The uses of conventional weapons, such as landmines, are not included on the UNSC’s agenda for discussion,” a foreign ministry official said on condition of anonymity.

“And for now, we have sent the letter, informed the international community, raised awareness of North Korea’s provocation and took into consideration the fact that we could use this case later on by leaving it on the record.”

The landmine explosion on the South Korean side of the DMZ left two South Korean soldiers seriously wounded, heightening tensions on the Korean Peninsula amid deteriorated inter-Korean ties.

South Korea has condemned the attack as a violation of the Armistice Agreement made at the end of the 1950-53 Korean War.

Pyongyang has suggested Seoul is making a false accusation.