South Korea leader urges Pyongyang dialogue

SEOUL

South Korean President Lee Jae Myung delivers a speech during the 78th Armed Forces Day at a military base in Gyeryong on October 1, 2026. (AFP Photo)

South Korean President Lee Jae Myung urged North Korea on Oct. 1 to return to dialogue, a day after Seoul’s military demanded an apology over a blast in the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) that severely injured three South Korean soldiers.

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

Three South Korean officers were severely injured in the September 21 explosion inside the DMZ, the heavily mined buffer dividing the two Koreas since their 1953 armistice. One lost his foot.

The powerful sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un denied on Sept. 30 that North Korea was behind the landmine blasts.

“The knots in inter-Korean relations are extremely complex, but we will steadily, patiently strive to untie them, one by one,” Lee said on Oct. 1 in his speech marking South Korea’s Armed Forces Day.

“I hope that the North joins us now on the path of restoring trust and resuming dialogue, following a long interruption,” he added.