Mine ban policy overview

Policy

The Republic of Korea (ROK)—South Korea—has not acceded to the Mine Ban Treaty. It continues to insist on the military necessity of antipersonnel mines, while acknowledging their negative humanitarian impact.

On 2 December 2011, South Korea abstained from voting on UN General Assembly (UNGA) Resolution 66/29 calling for universalization and full implementation of the Mine Ban Treaty, as it has in previous years. South Korea has stated for many years that the security situation on the Korean Peninsula prohibits it from acceding to the treaty.[1] In June 2011, a foreign ministry official told the Monitor that South Korea’s policy in relation to the Mine Ban Treaty remains unchanged.[2]

South Korea has never sent an observer delegation to a meeting of States Parties to the Mine Ban Treaty, including in 2011. Its last attendance at an intersessional Standing Committee meeting was 2008.

In April 2011, Prince Mired Raad Al Hussein, the Special Envoy on Universalization for the Mine Ban Treaty, visited South Korea where he met with the deputy minister for policy of the Ministry of National Defense, the deputy minister of multilateral and global affairs of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and the chief of the high court of the Korean Armed Forces to explore ways that South Korea may wish to engage in the work of the treaty.[3]

An April 2010 draft bill, designed to allow civilian companies to clear mines, did not pass through the National Defense Committee of the National Assembly prior to its dissolution in April 2012. In July 2012, the Ministry of National Defense asked the Korean Campaign to Ban Landmines (Korean CBL) for comments on the next draft bill before it is to be submitted to the new assembly.[4] The Korean CBL is also preparing to resubmit a draft of the Act for Compensation for Civilian Mine Victims, a prior submission, which did not pass prior to dissolution of the previous assembly.[5]

South Korea is party to the Convention on Conventional Weapons (CCW) and its Amended Protocol II on landmines. On 30 March 2012, South Korea submitted its annual CCW Amended Protocol II Article 13 report.[6]

In March 2012, ICBL Youth Ambassador Song Kosal urged Korean authorities to join the Mine Ban Treaty during his visit to Korea to receive the 2012 Tji Hak-soon Justice and Peace Award.[7]

Use, production, and transfer

South Korea informed the Monitor that it did not engage in any new use of antipersonnel mines, including replacing mines in existing mine fields.[8] South Korea has previously maintained that they have not used mines in many years.

South Korea reported to the Monitor that it did not use, import, export, or purchase antipersonnel mines from foreign companies during 2011 or early 2012.[9]

However, production of mines has continued. In 2011, a private South Korean company, Hanwha Corporation, produced 4,000 KM74 antipersonnel mines.[10] Previously, in 2007, the Hanwha Corporation produced about 10,000 self-destructing antipersonnel mines, as well as an unknown number of Claymore directional fragmentation mines.[11]

In both 2012 and 2011, Foreign Ministry officials have stated that the government has commissioned the development of remotely-controlled mines which will replace antipersonnel mines and that the newly developed mines will meet the requirements set out in the Amended Protocol II to the CCW.[12]

South Korea has stated on several occasions that it has “faithfully enforced an indefinite extension of the moratorium on the export of AP [antipersonnel] mines since 1997.”[13]

Stockpiling

In 2012, Korean officials declined to reveal to the Monitor the size of South Korea’s stockpile and the types of mines stockpiled.[14] In 2011, Korean officials stated that information regarding its stockpile was classified.[15] However, South Korea said in 2006 and 2008 that its stockpile consisted of 407,800 antipersonnel mines.[16] Previously, the government stated that it held a stockpile of about 2 million antipersonnel mines.[17]

South Korea told the Monitor in 2012 that it did not destroy any stockpiled mines during 2011.[18] However, South Korea reported in 2011 that it had destroyed 18,464 antipersonnel mines (5,132 M14; 12,086 M16; and 1,246 M18) in the ammunition units where they were stored during 2010. The date(s) of the destruction and reason for this action was not specified.[19]

The United States (US) military keeps a substantial number of remotely-delivered, self-destructing antipersonnel mines in South Korea. In 2005, the South Korean government reported that the US held 40,000 GATOR, 10,000 VOLCANO, and an unknown number of MOPMS mines.[20]

For many years, the US military also stockpiled about 1.1 million M14 and M16 non-self-destructing antipersonnel mines for use in any future war in Korea, with about half the total kept in South Korea and half in the continental US.[21] Most of the US-owned mines located in South Korea have been part of the more extensive War Reserve Stocks for Allies, Korea (WRSA-K). On 30 December 2005, the US enacted a law authorizing the sale of items in the WRSA-K to South Korea during a three-year period, after which the WRSA-K program would be terminated, which occurred at the end of 2008.[22] In June 2009, the South Korean government told the Monitor, “AP [antipersonnel] mines were not included in the list of items for sale or transfer in the WRSA-K negotiations, and therefore, no AP-mines were bought or obtained.”[23] In June 2011, a Foreign Ministry official stated that South Korea safeguards a stockpile of antipersonnel mines that belongs to the US military on its territory as part of the WRSA-K program. These mines are planned to be gradually transferred out of South Korea.[24] In June 2012, a Foreign Ministry official stated that the antipersonnel mines are in ammunition storage within Secure Areas of the USFK (US Forces Korea).[25]

The law ending the program states that any items remaining in the WRSA-K at the time of termination “shall be removed, disposed of, or both by the Department of Defense.”[26] Moreover, US policy has prohibited the use of non-self-destructing antipersonnel mines in South Korea since 2010. The US has previously destroyed all non-self-destructing mines not dedicated for potential use in Korea.