The Korean military said Sunday it has removed a total of 168 land mines from the country's rural areas this year, a legacy of the 1950-53 Korean War that ended in a truce.
An estimated 53,000 soldiers were mobilized to clear seven areas, including border regions with North Korea, and a mountain in southern Seoul and Gyeonggi Province, from April of last year until recently, the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said in a release.
The JCS said it plans to clear land mines from five areas spanning 63,500 square meters in the eastern front and the southeastern region next year.
Front-line military units bordering with the communist neighbor have occasionally spotted land mines of their own, sometimes from the North, especially after the summer flood season.
Millions of land mines are believed to have been laid on the divided peninsula during the Korean War, particularly in the Demilitarized Zone that bisects the peninsula. Since starting mine removal operations in 1998, about 68,000 mines have been cleared, the JCS said. (Yonhap)