U.S. Moves to Limit Use of Anti-Personal Mines in Combat, Except North Korea.
President Joe Biden's administration announced on back in June, that it would limit the use of antipersonnel landmines by the U.S. military and bring national policy more closely aligned with international treaties banning deadly explosives.
This announcement overturns the more candid position of then-President Donald Trump and concludes a review that has lasted more than a year. Bonnie Jenkins, Deputy Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security, said in explaining Trump's decision that the policy was "reckless."
Anti-personnel mines buried underground or scattered on the surface of the earth can pose a deadly threat to civilians long after the end of the battle.
Under the new policy, the United States will limit the use of these explosives outside of efforts to protect South Korea from the possibility of a North Korean aggression. There are currently no landmines in the United States, but Washington has promised to help defend Seoul, including antipersonnel mines.
The United States has a stockpile of 3 million antipersonnel mines. Under the new policy, everything that is not needed to protect South Korea will be destroyed. The Pentagon did not immediately answer the question of whether it would be scrapped.
The exception to the Korean Peninsula, which was in effect during President Barack Obama's administration, has left the United States out of compliance with the 1997 Anti-Personnel Landmine Elimination Treaty, the Ottawa Treaty.
This announcement is made when Russia used such mines during its invasion of Ukraine.
"The world has once again witnessed the devastating impact that anti-personnel landmines can have in the context of Russia's brutal and unprovoked war in Ukraine, where Russian forces' use of these and other munitions have caused extensive harm to civilians and civilian objects," National Security Council spokeswoman Adrienne Watson said in a statement.