and South Korean governments have not signed the Ottawa Treaty banning the use of landmines, citing the danger of a North Korean attack. But since then, only a few hundred of the roughly 1 million landmines scattered around South Korea have been removed. KUHN: Diplomacy between the two Koreas last year paved the way for the demining. LEE: The engineer soldiers of our 5th Infantry Division have contributed as crucial members to this demining operation. KUHN: Private Lee Kyung-chan is with the ROK 5th Infantry Division. and French troops, are thought to be buried here. LEE KYUNG-CHAN: The remains of more than 200 ROK soldiers and dozens of U.N. Today, South Korean, or ROK, soldiers are clearing some landmines in order to dig for the remains of soldiers killed in the battle for Arrowhead Ridge during the Korean War. South Korea only passed a law mandating compensation for victims in 2014.

KUHN: Activists estimate around a thousand people have been killed or maimed by landmines in recent decades. People just thought it was their own fault for living here. IM: (Through interpreter) Until a few years ago, this was not something you could complain or appeal about. He says he's never received any compensation for his injury. Crippled by his injury and heavy medical bills, he tried to commit suicide. KUHN: Lim had run through an unmarked minefield, and a mine had blown off the front of his right foot. That's when I realized something had happened. But when I turned around, I smelled gunpowder. IM: (Through interpreter) Suddenly, I found myself flying through the air. KUHN: He was chasing his friends down a hill overlooking the Imjin River just south of the DMZ.

IM DEOK-SEONG: (Through interpreter) It was May, so the hill was covered with grass. NPR's Anthony Kuhn reports that while some have been removed, hundreds of thousands remain.ĪNTHONY KUHN, BYLINE: Farmer Im Deok-seong remembers a sunny spring day in 1978. Thousands of troops face each other across the DMZ, and the roughly 150-mile strip is laced with landmines. The demilitarized zone between the two Koreas is the world's most heavily fortified border.

Thousands of years later bases