Reply #13: Until the Korea excemption is allowed - landmine treaty would put US kids at risk. [View All]

[papau]

The United States had offered to sign the treaty only if it was amended to allow the continued use of land mines along the tense border between North and South Korea for at least 19 more years, and to allow the use of anti-personnel mines in conjunction with anti-tank mines.

Mr. Clinton insisted on the exemptions at the urging of the Defense Department, which warned that the United States would invite disaster on the Korean Peninsula if it removed the nearly one million land mines that seed the border between the two Koreas.

Pentagon officials insist that without the buffer provided by the minefields, the North Korean Army could seize the South Korean capital, Seoul, within hours of the start of an invasion. About 37,000 American soldiers patrol the Korean border.

In his announcement last month, Mr. Clinton said he could not accept a complete ban on anti-personnel land mines because doing so would put American soldiers at risk.