[Editorial] Why the delay?

South Korea’s military and the UN Command investigated the site of a suspected land mine explosion in the western part of the Demilitarized Zone on Sunday, six days after the incident happened.

The military initially said it would investigate the site on Tuesday, after the Chuseok holiday, citing the risk of a secondary explosion during the investigation.

Amid growing controversy over the delay and concerns of evidence being destroyed, however, it moved up the investigation by two days.

The military authorities said the investigation team failed to reach the point of the explosion due to the high risk posed by unidentified mines in the area and the extreme fatigue of personnel involved in the operation. As a result, key questions, including possible North Korean military involvement, remain unanswered, fueling suspicions and criticism of the military authorities.

The military bears much of the responsibility for the controversy, having failed to respond actively from the outset. At a Defense Ministry briefing the day after the accident, a Joint Chiefs of Staff official repeatedly responded to a barrage of questions with “We’ll check.”

The explosion left two service members seriously injured, one of whom suffered an ankle amputation, while another was lightly injured. Yet the military later inexplicably excluded the lightly injured service member from its injury count, raising suspicions that it was deliberately downplaying the accident.

The military did not begin preparatory checks on the environment near access to the site until Saturday, five days after the accident and a day before the planned investigation. Security and safety concerns may justify withholding information or delaying entry into an accident site, but it is difficult to justify taking five days merely to prepare for an investigation.

Opposition allegations of a deliberate delay cannot be dismissed. Rep. Han Dong-hoon, an independent lawmaker, alleged that the military obstructed the investigation by rejecting the UN Command’s request for an immediate joint investigation. The Joint Chiefs of Staff said that the site was too dangerous and that ensuring investigators’ safety and conducting a rehearsal had to come first. But if the operation was so dangerous, sending troops into the area without adequate preparation in the first place was itself the problem.

In 2015, during the conservative administration of President Park Geun-hye, North Korean wooden-box mines exploded in the Demilitarized Zone. In that case, the military collected mine fragments from the site on the day of the incident and began a joint on-site investigation with the UN Command two days later. This was not because the front line was somehow safe at the time.

While the military delayed the on-site investigation, citing the Chuseok holiday and safety concerns, the area was hit by heavy rain. Opposition lawmakers called attention to the rain forecast, but the military did not move up the on-site investigation. Evidence that could help determine the cause of the explosion may have been washed away.

In the most recent incident, South Korean troops were injured when suspected mines exploded while they were clearing a search route to determine whether North Korean soldiers had crossed the Military Demarcation Line and laid mines on the South Korean side.

North Korean troops had been observed laying mines near the MDL for several months. Criticism is mounting that the failure to act on those warning signs may have contributed to the accident.

In serious incidents like this, an early investigation is crucial. However, the military did not begin its on-site investigation until almost a week after the incident. It is also difficult to understand why the military says access to the site of the explosion was difficult when troops had already been there.

The military’s passive response stands in contrast to its handling of the 2015 wooden-box mine provocation. It must be made clear, beyond any doubt, why the military dragged its feet on the on-site investigation.