SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korea’s military on Monday said explosions that injured three of its officers last week inside the heavily fortified Demilitarized Zone separating the Koreas were probably caused by North Korean mines.
The South’s Joint Chiefs of Staff announced the preliminary finding after inspecting the site with the U.S.-led United Nations Command.
The assessment could further heighten tensions between the rivals. Relations have deteriorated sharply in recent years amid North Korea’s accelerating nuclear weapons program and the collapse of U.S.-led diplomacy aimed at resolving the nuclear standoff.
Three South Korean military officers were injured in two consecutive explosions Sept. 21 while establishing a patrol route near the military demarcation line in the western section of the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ).
The explosions occurred during an operation to establish a patrol route through an area that had rarely been visited for decades, officials said. The route was intended to allow future inspections with the U.N. Command after South Korea detected “terrain changes” last year that may have resulted from North Korean mine-laying.
South Korean officials initially said the blasts appeared to have been caused by mines but did not attribute them to North Korea.
Kwon Dae-won, vice chairman of South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff, said there was a “very high possibility” that North Korean mines caused the explosions. He said there was no record of South Korean or allied forces laying mines in the area. Blast marks, debris and what appeared to be a third suspected North Korean mine at the scene also pointed to the North, he said.
If the final investigation reaches the same conclusion, Kwon said: “We will hold North Korea fully responsible for this. Our military will take appropriate and corresponding measures.” He did not elaborate.
The incident came nearly a decade after South Korea blamed the North for land mine explosions that maimed two South Korean soldiers and sharply raised tensions between the countries in August 2015.
The DMZ, which is 248 kilometers (155 miles) long and 4 kilometers (2.5 miles) wide, is one of the world’s most heavily fortified borders. An estimated 2 million mines are buried in and around the zone, which is also guarded by barbed-wire fences, tank traps and combat troops on both sides.
The zone is a legacy of the 1950-53 Korean War, which ended with an armistice rather than a peace treaty.
In recent months, North Korea has added mines, anti-tank barriers and other front-line fortifications. The activity has fueled concern in South Korea about the growing presence of North Korean soldiers near the DMZ.
FILE - South Korean army soldiers patrol along the barbed-wire fence in Paju, South Korea, near the border with North Korea, on Feb. 18, 2025. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon, File)
Benjamin Netanyahu traveled secretly to the United Arab Emirates over the weekend to ask its leader to deny reports he'd warned the Israeli prime minister about a looming Hamas threat ahead of the Palestinian militant group's Oct. 7, 2023 attack on southern Israel.
The meeting between Netanyahu and Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan took place on Sunday, two people who were briefed on the Israeli leader's trip confirmed on Monday.
Meanwhile, the European Union's top diplomat Kaja Kallas said the bloc is applying for observer status in a Saudi-led maritime defense coalition formed to protect the kingdom's energy exports. The EU already has six vessels deployed to the Red Sea to protect shipping.
Here is the latest news from the Middle East on Monday. Full coverage is available here.
The Israeli prime minister held an hourlong meeting with the UAE’s president on Sunday, according to two people briefed on Netanyahu's trip, which was first reported by Israel’s Channel 12 TV station.
One of them said the talks focused on a report published by the Israeli daily Haaretz earlier this month that said the Emirati leader warned Netanyahu about a looming attack by Hamas just ahead of Oct. 7, 2023.
Netanyahu asked Sheikh Mohamed to deny the report, according to a person said to have firsthand information about the meeting. Netanyahu’s office had previously denied the Haaretz report.
The person, along with a regional official briefed on the meeting, spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the secret trip.
The UAE’s Foreign Ministry declined to comment on reports about the meeting but stressed it maintains “open and direct lines of communication” with Israel and shares “all relevant intelligence.”
There was no immediate comment from Netanyahu’s office.
—By Josef Federman in Jerusalem and Samy Magdy in Cairo
The European Union is applying for “observer status” in a new multinational maritime defense coalition led by Saudi Arabia formed to protect the kingdom’s energy exports.
The bloc’s top diplomat Kaja Kallas made the announcement on Monday, ahead of a Brussels meeting. The energy-hungry EU is facing record energy prices due to the war in Iran.
Kallas said she will ask for an expansion of the bloc’s own small naval force in the Red Sea dubbed ASPIDES to help escort cargo vessels through the key strategic chokepoint of the Bab el-Mandeb strait and protect them from attacks by Yemen's Iran-backed Houthi rebels.
Kallas said the “need is bigger than it’s ever been” for more ships. It’s unclear what observer status in the Saudi-led coalition would mean operationally for either the EU or ASPIDES.
Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, has praised his country’s fighters for allegedly preventing “enemy forces” from “roaming freely” in the Strait of Hormuz.
Khamenei said in a message carried by the state broadcaster on Monday that Iran’s enemies now “do not come" closer to the strait than the Arabian Sea, which is part of the Indian Ocean.
Soon, "the Arabian Sea too, will be rid of them,” said the message, issued to mark the two-year anniversary of the killing of the militant Hezbollah group's longtime leader Hassan Nasrallah in Lebanon.
Khamenei hasn't been seen or heard publicly since the opening attacks of the war on Feb. 28 that killed his father and previous supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
The World Health Organization said Sunday it has documented 164 deaths and 645 injuries from the war in Yemen between Sept. 19 and Sept. 26.
This brings the overall casualties since Aug. 6 to 4,481, with 838 fatalities. The latest intense fighting between the Iran-backed Houthis and Yemeni government forces has displaced more than 180,000 people.
A woman was killed while her husband was wounded when an Israeli strike hit a Gaza City rooftop, Shifa Hospital officials said. Another person was also wounded and remains in critical condition.
The Israeli military did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
More than 1,400 Palestinians have been killed since the Gaza ceasefire took effect nearly a year ago. Around half of that number are women and children, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which maintains detailed records that international organizations consider reliable.
Israel’s polarizing Cabinet minister in charge of settlement construction, Bezalel Smotrich, has condemned a decision by the attorney general to freeze a contentious project near Jerusalem.
Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara ordered the project to be put on hold until after the Oct. 27 elections so it wouldn't “be used for election propaganda.”
The project — known as E1 settlement development — is especially controversial because it would carve out a strategic section of the West Bank in a way that critics say would destroy hopes for a viable future Palestinian state.
Smotrich accused on X Baharav-Miara of “interfering in the election campaign” and acting in the service of Netanyahu’s political opponents.
Israel summoned the Spanish Embassy’s chargé d’affaires over remarks by Spain's youth minister who declared the country's public support for a Palestinian state “from the river to the sea” — a slogan that implies a call for the elimination of the Israeli state.
The Israeli Foreign Ministry said Monday that Spanish Youth Minister Sira Rego’s remarks were “part of a systematic anti-Israel policy pursued by the Spanish government” and its leader, Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez. Rego was barred from entering Israel in Sept. 2025.
This report will be updated throughout the day as new developments emerge.
Cargo ships are anchored in the Strait of Hormuz off Bandar Abbas, Iran, before sunrise Monday, Sept. 28, 2026. (Amirhosein Khorgooi/ISNA via AP)
A motorboat passes an anchored cargo ship in the Strait of Hormuz off Bandar Abbas, Iran, early Monday, Sept. 28, 2026. (Amirhosein Khorgooi/ISNA via AP)
A displaced Yemeni boy plays at Al-Firdaws camp in Ras Imran, on the western outskirts of Aden, Yemen, Monday, Sept. 28, 2026. (AP Photo/Abdulnasser Alseddik)
Volunteer Naseem Al-Adini, right, provides free meals to displaced people at the Al-Akdaf camp in Taiz, Yemen, Saturday, Sept. 26, 2026. (AP Photo/Abdulnasser Alseddik)
A displaced Yemeni walks at Al-Firdaws camp in Ras Imran, on the western outskirts of Aden, Yemen, Monday, Sept. 28, 2026. (AP Photo/Abdulnasser Alseddik)
Displaced Yemenis sit outside at Al-Firdaws camp in Ras Imran, on the western outskirts of Aden, Yemen, Thursday, Sept. 24, 2026. (AP Photo/Abdulnasser Alseddik)
Displaced Yemeni children from Al-Kadha, west of Taiz, gather at the Al-Akdaf camp in Taiz, Yemen, Saturday, Sept. 26, 2026. (AP Photo/Abdulnasser Alseddik)
FILE - Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu listens during a news conference with President Donald Trump at Mar-a-Lago, Dec. 29, 2025, in Palm Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, File)
