According to the Kyunghyang Shinmun, North Korea sent the letter to the UN Security Council on the 25th, and the Korean Central News Agency reported it on the 26th. The letter characterized the mine explosion in the western Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) on the 21st of last month as South Korean obstruction meant to delay and block its “southern border fortification” by painting it as a military intrusion. North Korea argued the fortification is an exercise of self-defensive sovereignty consistent with the UN Charter and international law.

Seoul’s position

The North also said it would exercise the right of self-defense under Article 51 of the UN Charter if South Korea violated its territory even slightly. Meanwhile, the South Korean government sent a letter to the Security Council on the 22nd, local time, demanding an apology and responsible measures from Pyongyang. The foreign ministry also delivered a letter in the name of its UN ambassador to the council president urging de-escalation and dialogue. The North’s letter is read as a counter to these.

A repeating exchange

There is precedent: in the 2015 wooden-box mine incident, after Seoul wrote to the council president condemning the provocation, the North replied three days later, on August 21, with a letter to the same effect. This time, too, the two Koreas clashed at least nine times at UN General Assembly meetings between the 5th and 24th of this month. Issues included responsibility for the blast, warning broadcasts and shots by South Korean troops near the military demarcation line, North Korea’s nuclear weapons, and joint US-South Korea drills.

Lim Eul-chul, a professor at Kyungnam University’s Institute for Far Eastern Studies, analyzed that North Korea wants to be accepted by the international community as a normal state. He reads it as a North emboldened by closer ties with China and Russia continuing to stress sovereignty at the UN. Independent verification of the actual cause of the blast was not confirmed in this report.