South Korean Defense Minister Kang Shin-chul told lawmakers on Wednesday that North Korea seemed "flustered" by Seoul's conclusion that Pyongyang planted the mines behind a Sept. 21 blast that severely injured two South Korean soldiers near the Military Demarcation Line (the de facto border inside the Demilitarized Zone). He pointed to the North's delayed response, issued through its foreign ministry and calling the findings a "farce," after Seoul cleared the remaining mines at the site. Seoul plans to work with the U.N. Command (the U.S.-led force overseeing the 1953 armistice) to formally declare the North's border activities an armistice violation, and is seeking inter-Korean military talks to avoid accidental clashes.