Seoul (AFP) – Kim Yo Jong, the powerful sister of North Korea's leader, called Seoul "despicable" on Friday after it demanded an apology over a demilitarised zone blast that wounded three South Korean soldiers.

Pyongyang has denied being behind a landmine blast that caused severe injuries to three soldiers last month inside the Demilitarised Zone (DMZ), the heavily mined buffer dividing the two Koreas since their 1953 armistice.

Seoul as well as the US-led United Nations Command said the blast was caused by North Korean mines laid on the South Korean side of the border.

The South Korean military demanded an official apology this week, accusing Pyongyang of "a clear violation of the Armistice Agreement".

In the first public response from Pyongyang, Kim Yo Jong, the sister of leader Kim Jong Un, said South Korea "even called for an apology" and added that it is "really despicable".

Her statement may dampen hopes of smoother relations between the neighbours after South Korea's dovish President Lee Jae Myung had urged Pyongyang to return to dialogue, even as his military called for an apology.

Seoul and Pyongyang remain technically at war as the 1950-53 Korean War ended in a truce, not a peace treaty.

Since 2024, after Kim Jong Un designated South Korea as his country's "principal enemy", Pyongyang's military has laid mines and built anti-tank barriers along the frontier as part of efforts to permanently seal it off.

The mines responsible for last month's blast were believed to have been laid as part of Pyongyang's border fortification work, according to South Korea's defence minister Kang Shin-chul.

The United Nations Command, which oversees the Korean War armistice and the southern side of the DMZ, said Wednesday it had found an active North Korean anti-personnel mine on the South Korean side of the border.

South Korea's Lee, who took office in June 2025, has reversed the stance of his hawkish predecessor Yoon Suk Yeol, offering nuclear-armed Pyongyang talks without preconditions.

On Thursday, a day after the South Korean military demanded an apology, Lee said that he hoped the North would "join us now on the path of restoring trust and resuming dialogue, following a long interruption".

"My administration will consistently pursue practical measures to reduce military tensions between the two Koreas," he said.

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