Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Derrek]

I was shocked to hear a story from one of my best Korean friends here. She grew up near the DMZ, and when she was about 12 (mid 80s), a land mine exploded and nearly killed her. The area had been thought to be cleared.

I was amazed she never told me this before, but it came out when I noticed she had a scar under her wristwatch (probably why I hadn't noticed it before).

Apparently, the farmers in her area had been burning brush next to the bus station on the edge of town. She and her two friends were playing and decided to warm their hand next to the flames. Right at that moment, the heat apparently triggered a small land mine (she was later told it was a small plastic one), and it exploded with a big boom. My friend was the least injured of the three, and feels very fortunate. She was in shock, and remembers seeing the side of her friend's face partially blasted off, as well as injuries on her other friend. It was a while before she looked and noticed that a large patch on her own wrist had been slashed open to the bone. She remembers people running over to her and the ambulance coming. She couldn't hear anything for a while.

To this day, she is very easily startled when something surprises her, and she just freezes for a second in shock. I told her it's post-traumatic stress.

She also said that there are signs warning of land mine areas. I asked if they were also in English, and she said they may be now, but not then.

Anyone else have land mine stories?

[Swiss James]

yep- my Korean buddy was doing his military service near the DMZ and was on a scouting mission.

He stepped and heard a click: land mine. Apparently they only go off when you take your foot off them so he sent the guy he was with to get help whilst he stood there, desperately trying not to move his foot.

Eight hours later the bomb disposal types finally defuse the mine and tell him it's safe to move his foot.

Eight frigging hours.

[Manner of Speaking]

[intro]

[Alias]

I've always wondered if the wild animals living in the DMZ ever set the mines off?

[Wrench]

What I really don't understand is why they have the sun shine policy.

[schwa]

[ulsanchris]

I've heard that all the animals in the DMZ are smaller than the wieght needed to set off the mines cause all the ones big enough had died.

[jinglejangle]

[ulsanchris]

I would be willing to wager thta a draft horse would set of anti personal mine. I also doubt it would set off a tank mine. It would follow logic that any animal big enough to set off an antipersonal mine wouldn't live for very long in a place that is covered in them.

[rapier]

In the war they used to mine the roads by melting the tarmac with molten hot dustbin lids from fires. Every occasional visitor to our country used to remark at the politeness and generosity of Rhodesian motorists: we would always wave the driver behind us to overtake and drive in front of us first!

In umtali, along the Mocambique border, they had mined a demilitarised zone with a mine every square metre: it must have been one of the most heavily mined areas in the world.
11 years after the war ended, I would still hear mines going off virtually every day, and especially on rainy days when they would move and shift in the mud. more commonly baboons would tread on them. Every 2/3 months a border jumper would step on one and lose a limb.

i used to be with the border patrol..I had to fire over the heads of border jumpers occasionally if they would not allow themselves to be apprehended, they usually ran back into the DMZ area, I wasn't about to follow them...God help them.

Later i worked for a while in Mocambique- I helped at an orphanage in the evenings. I have never seen so many amputees as there. Mostly children too.

[hari seldon]

The area adjacent to the DMZ is supposedly the most heavily mined in the world. On the South side there's also a wide swath of concrete tank traps.

[jinglejangle]

[stumptown]