{"id":103949,"date":"2026-07-30T08:17:11","date_gmt":"2026-07-30T08:17:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/103949\/"},"modified":"2026-07-30T08:17:11","modified_gmt":"2026-07-30T08:17:11","slug":"south-korean-army-unit-guards-dmz-with-unloaded-weapons-report-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/103949\/","title":{"rendered":"South Korean army unit guards DMZ with unloaded weapons, report says"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\"South<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\tSouth Korean marines fire a K6 machine gun at a live-fire crew-served weapons range on Aug. 16, 2024, in Pohang, South Korea, roughly 210 miles southeast of Seoul. (Peyton Kahle\/U.S. Marine Corps)
\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

A South Korean army unit responsible for protecting the western front along the nation\u2019s heavily fortified border has been standing guard with unloaded machine guns, according to a media report.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The 1st Corps revised its guard-duty instructions earlier this year, directing soldiers to keep K6 heavy machine guns unloaded with live ammunition nearby, Yonhap News Agency reported Wednesday, citing unnamed military sources.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The 1st Corps oversees operations along the western section of the Demilitarized Zone, which separates North and South Korea.<\/p>\n

The Joint Chiefs of Staff, which oversees all operations along the border, was unaware of the unit\u2019s updated policy, the report said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The K6 can fire 12.7 mm rounds at a rate of 600 rounds a minute, with an effective range of roughly 1.1 miles.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Standard practice typically calls for the machine guns to be loaded with live ammunition so soldiers can respond immediately in an emergency. The updated guard policy appears to have been revised to prevent accidental discharges, according to the report.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Multiple unintentional firings have occurred near the DMZ in recent years. On April 23, 2025, a South Korean soldier accidentally fired a single round from a K6 machine gun toward North Korea.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\t\t\"South<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\tSouth Korean marines fire the K-6 heavy machine at a combined-arms live-fire range, on March 17, 2026, in Gimpo, South Korea, roughly 20 miles west of Seoul. (Robert Blanks\/U.S. Marine Corps)
\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

The following month, on May 28, another South Korean soldier in the western frontline mistakenly fired a machine gun round near the border.\u00a0<\/p>\n

On Jan. 28, 2023, a soldier accidentally fired four rounds from a KR-6 during a training session along the inter-Korean border.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The 1st Corps has also used unloaded K4 automatic grenade launchers, which are designed to engage enemy troops and light armored vehicles, The Chosun Ilbo newspaper reported Thursday.<\/p>\n

An unnamed Joint Chiefs of Staff official told Yonhap in a follow-up report that the army\u2019s Ground Operations Command will inspect all six corps under its command to verify guard operations and the use of weapons.<\/p>\n

The Ministry of National Defense did not immediately respond to a text message request on Thursday to confirm the reports.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The news comes amid Seoul\u2019s push to accelerate the transfer of wartime operational control from Washington, a move that has placed renewed focus on South Korea\u2019s military readiness.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Wartime operational control, or OPCON, refers to command of U.S. and South Korean forces during a conflict. Washington now retains that authority, while Seoul leads its military during peacetime.<\/p>\n

South Korean Defense Minister Ahn Gyu-back said on July 1 that the country is prepared to expedite the transition and has already established the military capability, policy framework and public support needed to assume OPCON \u201cimmediately if necessary,\u201d the Defense Ministry announced in a press release that day.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"South Korean marines fire a K6 machine gun at a live-fire crew-served weapons range on Aug. 16, 2024,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":103950,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[53692,35301,16677,171,10260],"class_list":["post-103949","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-korea","tag-1st-corps","tag-demilitarized-zone","tag-dmz","tag-korean","tag-south-korea-military"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103949","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=103949"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103949\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/103950"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=103949"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=103949"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=103949"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}