Summary

Non-signatory North Korea has not shown any interest in the Convention on Cluster Munitions, or taken any steps to join it. North Korea has never participated in a meeting of the convention. It was absent from the vote on a key United Nations (UN) resolution promoting the convention in December 2021.

North Korea has produced cluster munitions and stockpiles them. It is not known to have used or exported cluster munitions.

Policy

The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (North Korea) has not acceded to the Convention on Cluster Munitions.

North Korea did not participate in the Oslo Process that created the convention.

North Korea has never attended a meeting of the convention or commented on its position on acceding to it.

In December 2021, North Korea was absent from the vote on a United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) resolution urging states outside the Convention on Cluster Munitions to “join as soon as possible.”[1] It has been absent from the vote on every annual UNGA resolution promoting the convention since it was first introduced in 2015.

North Korea is not party to the Mine Ban Treaty or the Convention on Conventional Weapons (CCW).

Use, production, transfer, and stockpiling

North Korea is not known to have used or exported cluster munitions.

According to Jane’s Information Group, North Korea has produced and possesses submunition warheads for 122mm, 170mm, and 240mm rockets. North Korea has exported this rocket system, but it is not known if transfers have included the cluster munition variant.[2] The North Korean Air Force is also listed as a stockpiler of KMGU dispensers (which deploy submunitions), RBK-500 cluster bombs, and unspecified types of anti-armor and anti-runway cluster bombs.[3]

Policy

The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (North Korea) has acknowledged the humanitarian rationale for the Mine Ban Treaty but has not taken any steps to accede to it and has not participated in efforts to ban antipersonnel landmines.

In October 2016, North Korea stated that it “shares the humanitarian concerns associated with the use of anti-personnel mines, but due to the unique security environment of the Korean peninsula, especially regarding the United States’ insistence on the use of landmines there, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea is not in a position to give up the use of landmines.”[1]

Ministry of Foreign Affairs officials have earlier stated that North Korea supports the aims and objectives of the Mine Ban Treaty, but is not ready to accede, given its complex security situation.[2] In May 2009, a Geneva-based North Korean official stated to the ICBL that North Korea “is not interested in engaging” on the mine issue.[3]

On 7 December 2020, North Korea abstained from voting on annual United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) Resolution 75/52, which called for universalization and full implementation of the Mine Ban Treaty. North Korea has also abstained from the vote in previous years.[4]

North Korea is not a party to the Convention on Conventional Weapons (CCW) or the Convention on Cluster Munitions.

In September 2018, at the third inter-Korean summit, North and South Korea agreed to begin the removal of landmines from a jointly controlled village in the demilitarized zone (DMZ), which separates the two countries.[5] Subsequently, in November 2018, South Korea’s Defense Minister Jeong Kyeong-Doo informed the South Korean National Assembly that North Korea had removed over 600 antipersonnel mines from the jointly controlled village under the Comprehensive Military Agreement signed in September 2018.[6] No announcement was made by North Korea. In January 2019, North Korea sent a delegation to Cambodia to study mine clearance techniques.[7]

Production, transfer, stockpiling, and use

On 3 November 2020, allegations of new use of antipersonnel landmines by North Korean forces surfaced. South Korean state media reported that in a closed-door session of the National Assembly which discussed North Korean measures to address the COVID-19 pandemic, intelligence officials reported that North Korea had blocked its borders and emplaced landmines along parts of its border with China.[8] Several casualties due to these mines were reported along the border, in Ryanggang province.[9]

Previously, in June 2015, South Korean authorities were quoted in the press as stating that North Korea had started laying new mines on its borders, to stop its soldiers from fleeing the country.[10] In August 2015, two South Korean soldiers on a routine patrol on the South Korean side of the DMZ at Yeonchon, in Gyeonggi province, were injured by newly emplaced antipersonnel mines. Early news reports quoting South Korean military sources stated that the mines were not of North Korean origin.[11] The type of mine was later confirmed by the South Korean military to be a North Korean wooden box mine (PMD-6 type).[12]

North Korea issued a denial of use, stating that it only used landmines in self-defense.[13] At a press conference in New York on 21 August 2015, the North Korean ambassador to the UN asserted that the South Korean military had identified the mine as an M14 on 4 August, and then changed its identification to a North Korean box mine on 10 August for political purposes.[14]

The United States (US)-led UN Command deployed a Special Investigation Team from the Military Armistice Commission to examine the area after the incident. The team included military officers of four countries and was observed by Swiss and Swedish members of the Neutral Nations Supervisory Commission. The investigation concluded “that the North Korean People’s Army violated paragraphs 6, 7 and 8 of the Armistice Agreement by emplacing wooden box land mines along a known Republic of Korea patrol route in the southern half of the Demilitarized Zone, injuring two Republic of Korea soldiers. Additionally, the investigation determined that the devices were recently emplaced, and ruled out the possibility that these were legacy landmines which had drifted from their original placements due to rain or shifting soil.”[15]

North Korea is believed to have used a substantial number of mines in or near the DMZ with South Korea.[16]

North Korea has produced antipersonnel landmines in the past, but no information is available on possible current production.[17] North Korea has exported mines, which have been found in Angola and Sudan, but there are no reports of recent transfers.[18] The size of North Korea’s stockpile of antipersonnel mines is not known, but it is probably substantial.

North Korean-made copies of Soviet PMD-6 mines continued to be found in 2017 on the shores of South Korean islands, and along watersheds downstream from the DMZ in South Korea. Heavy rain and landslides moved the landmines from their former locations, causing casualties among civilians in South Korea.[19]

Contamination

The precise extent of the mine problem in Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (North Korea) is not known. North Korea admitted in 1998 that it had laid mines in the DMZ between the north and south of the peninsula. The affected areas are reported to be marked and fenced.[1] In early 2006, officials commented to the Mine Ban Treaty Implementation Support Unit (ISU) that North Korea had not laid mines elsewhere in the country,[2] despite fears that, among others, sections of the east coast were also mined.

In 2016, as in the previous year, there were reports of new use of mines by North Korea, in areas both on its side of the DMZ, and in those patrolled by South Korea.

(See the South Korea’s profile for further details.)

Program Management

North Korea has no functioning mine action program.

Land Release

No release of mined area is believed to have taken place in 2017, as in earlier years.

In April 2018, the North Korean leader, Kim Jong-un, and the South Korean president, Moon Jae-in, met and issued a statement promising to bring “lasting peace” to the peninsula with a commitment to denuclearization and to ending hostilities, turning the DMZ into a peace zone.[3]  In June 2018, President Moon called for an inter-Korean operation to excavate the remains of soldiers in the DMZ killed in the 1950–1953 Korean War.[4] In September 2018, the North Korean and South Korean ministers of defense signed a military agreement, the Panmunjom Declaration, which mandates that North Korea, South Korea, and the United Nations Command (UNC) “will remove all mines in the Joint Security Area (of the DMZ) in Panmunjom within 20 days, beginning on October 1, 2018.”[5] South Korean officials confirmed on 22 October 2018 that clearance of the Joint Security Area in Panmunjom by North and South Korea had been completed.[6] North Korea were reported to have cleared five mines while South Korea found none.[7] Mine clearance also took place from 1 October to 30 November 2018 in Cheolwon, Gangwon province, to enable joint recovery of the bodily remains of soldiers, and enable the establishment of an inter-Korean road within the joint recovery site.[8]

The Monitor acknowledges the contributions of the Mine Action Review (www.mineactionreview.org), which has conducted the primary mine action research in 2018 and shared all its country-level landmine reports (from “Clearing the Mines 2018”) and country-level cluster munition reports (from “Clearing Cluster Munition Remnants 2018”) with the Monitor. The Monitor is responsible for the findings presented online and in its print publications.

As in previous years, it is not known if new mine or ERW casualties occurred in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (North Korea).

Since 1999, the Monitor recorded one mine incident in December 2002: a North Korean soldier involved in construction work in the demilitarized zone lost a foot in a landmine explosion.[1] It is likely that other incidents went unreported.

Casualties

As in previous years, it is not known if new mine or explosive remnants of war (ERW) casualties occurred in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (North Korea) in 2015.

Since 1999, the Monitor recorded one mine incident in December 2002: a North Korean soldier involved in construction work in the demilitarized zone lost a foot in a landmine explosion.[1] It is likely that other incidents went unreported.

Victim Assistance

North Korea has no victim assistance coordination. The Korean Federation for the Protection of the Disabled coordinates disability issues, including advising on state policies relating to disability, developing regulations for special education and vocational training, and managing physical rehabilitation centers.[2]

The ICRC’s Beijing office provided prostheses for five mine/ERW survivors from China and North Korea in 2015. It was not reported how many beneficiaries there were from each country.[3] In 2015, the ICRC continued to provide materials and training to the Rakrang Physical Rehabilitation Center in Pyongyang. The center carried out 102 amputations and stump revision procedures for military and civilian amputees in 2015, but did not report if any of the amputees were mine/ERW survivors.[4] It also worked with the Ministry of Health to improve orthopedic surgery, physiotherapy and other services in four hospitals. In mid-2015, support for the provincial hospital in Sariwon was discontinued, while support for the other three hospitals continued. At the end of the year, talks about supporting a second rehabilitation center were underway.[5] Handicap International (HI) also continued efforts to improve physical rehabilitation services by improving facilities, providing supplies, and training staff at several hospitals and rehabilitation centers. In 2015, HI provided support to the Korean Federation for the Protection of the Disabled.[6]

The law mandates equal access for persons with disabilities to public services. However, implementing regulations for the law had not been passed and persons with disabilities still face discrimination and lack of care due to a limited number of facilities and trained doctors. Persons with disabilities experienced discrimination in many aspects of life.[7]

North Korea signed the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities on 3 July 2013.