Last August two South Korean non-commissioned officers stepped on what was, presumably, a North Korean mine and were gravely injured.

Before that, former South Korean DMZ ranger Shin Yong-tae of the 22nd Infantry came to understand the fear of mines at the DMZ.

Shin, who as a ranger was one of the chosen few drafted into the ROK military to take part in patrol missions near the Military Demarcation Line (MDL), knows of no incident during his years of service in which a South Korean soldier was injured by a mine, but said that the threat of North Korean mines was always