Military Resumes Excavation of Korean War Remains at Baekma-goji in DMZ After Three Years

Han Kiho of the Opposition Party:
"Contingency Plans Needed to Counter Potential North Korean Provocations"

The South Korean military has resumed the excavation of Korean War remains at Baekma-goji in the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ). This marks the first excavation within the DMZ in three years since the previous suspension.

On October 15, the Ministry of National Defense announced, "As part of measures to ease military tensions between the two Koreas, we have resumed the excavation of remains in the Baekma-goji area of Cheorwon, Gangwon Province, which had been suspended since 2022." The ministry added, "This effort is aimed at returning the remains of Korean War soldiers to their families and homeland, and is a substantive step toward transforming the DMZ into a zone of peace."

Previously, in the September 19 Military Agreement of 2018, the two Koreas agreed to jointly conduct a pilot project to excavate the remains of Korean War soldiers in the DMZ area of Cheorwon, Gangwon Province. Accordingly, the South Korean military began excavations in the southern part of the DMZ in April of the following year. However, North Korea did not proceed with excavations in the northern part of the DMZ, effectively making it a unilateral project by South Korea. The South Korean military later suspended the excavation in November 2022 due to safety concerns.

Earlier, between 2019 and 2021, the South Korean military excavated 424 sets of remains and 101,816 personal items at Arrowhead Ridge, and between 2021 and 2022, 67 sets of remains and 15,670 personal items at Baekma-goji. For now, the military authorities plan to deploy approximately 160 personnel to Baekma-goji until the end of next month, focusing on recovering 50 sets of remains that were left uncollected during previous excavations.

Meanwhile, the opposition party has raised concerns that this measure is inappropriate. Han Kiho, a member of the National Assembly's National Defense Committee from the People Power Party, issued a statement on the same day, saying, "During the previous DMZ excavation, our military paved a two-lane gravel road to carry out the work and removed 655 landmines, whereas North Korea did not participate at all-not even a single shovel was used. This is akin to leaving our door wide open and waiting for a thief to come in."

Han further stated, "The bigger issue is that the resumption of the excavation is a unilateral decision by our side, without any inter-Korean agreement. This does not contribute to easing military tensions or inter-Korean cooperation." He added, "There must be a firm contingency plan in case of North Korean provocations, but the government and military have failed to present this clearly, yet are proceeding with the excavation. Thorough contingency planning and security preparedness must come first."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.