SKorea to deploy remote-controlled mines: official

SEOUL (AFP) – South Korea will deploy remote-controlled mines along its heavily fortified border with North Korea by 2013, a defense ministry spokesman said Tuesday.

Bids have been invited for the development of the new mines called "spider bombs," the spokesman told AFP.

The border is often described as the world's last Cold War frontier. Some 660,000 South Korean troops and 28,000 US troops are deployed in the South to counter the potential threat from the North's 1.1 million-strong military.

South Korea plans to reduce the number of troops to 500,000 by 2020.

"The development is part of our plans to slash the number of troops, a move which will lead to fewer soldiers patrolling sensitive areas," the spokesman said.

US troops have the XM-7 Spider which can be remotely triggered wirelessly, but the spokesman declined to say whether it was deployed in South Korea.

The two Koreas remain technically at war, since a 1950-1953 conflict ended in an armistice.

The border between South and North Korea is one of the world's most heavily mined areas because of extensive mine-laying since the war, the International Campaign to Ban Landmines said in a 2007 report.

Some 970,000 mines have been planted on the South side of the demilitarized zone, the group said.