DPRK says US war bombs still a danger

PYONGYANG - Unexploded bombs, land mines and shells left over by US troops in the 1950-53 Korean War are still endangering the lives of people, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea said on Sunday.

Since 2000, the DPRK said it has dismantled more than 200,000 land mines left over from the war, the official Korean Central News Agency said.

"In the last 60-odd years since wartime, over 800,000 pieces of explosives have been removed in different parts of the DPRK. In the new century alone, more than 200,000 explosives were detected and removed," it said.

At least 58,000 mines were removed when acquiring hundreds of hectares of new land and reclaiming about 1,000 hectares of tideland in South Hwanghae province bordering the military demarcation line, said the report.

About 2,800 explosives dropped along railway beds in North Phyongan province and tens of thousands of explosives dropped on in South Phyongan were removed, it said.

In the capital Pyongyang, a bomb weighing 1 ton was found in the city's central Taedong River, while more than 70 bombs and 900 shells were removed from construction sites from 2012 to 2014, the report added.

Meanwhile, the DPRK has urged the Republic of Korea to start dialogue without making Pyongyang stopping its nuclear and missile programs as a precondition.

The Consultative Council for National Reconciliation made the appeal on Friday, the Korean Central News Agency reported on Saturday.

The DPRK official body in charge of dealing with inter-Korean relations said ROK authorities "do not hesitate to reveal their scheme for sanctions against and pressure on the DPRK, finding fault with its legitimate step for bolstering the nuclear force for self-defense."

Other demands for working on national reconciliation include stopping military exercises with the United States, ending collaborations with foreign countries on inter-Korean issues, rejecting UN sanctions and releasing a dozen DPRK women allegedly kidnapped by the ROK intelligence services, said the council.

ROK President Moon Jae-in has said that he would start dialogue with Pyongyang if the latter stops its nuclear and missile programs.