Koreas remove guns from truce village

▶ Diplomatic thaw between two old peninsula foes gathers momentum

The two Koreas were removing the last remaining firearms and guard posts on Thursday from a Cold War era truce village where armed soldiers have stared each other down for decades, Seoul’s defense ministry said.

The Joint Security Area – also known as the truce village of Panmunjom – has historically been both a flashpoint and a key location for diplomacy between the two Koreas ever since their split in 1953.

It is the only spot along the tense, 250-kilometer frontier where soldiers from North Korea and the US-led United Nations Command stand face to face.

By Friday, all guards will be disarmed, ministry spokesperson Choi Hyun-soo said, part of a diplomatic thaw between the two foes that has gathered pace.

“I am aware that it is going according to plan,” Choi told reporters.

Panmunjom was where the armistice that ended the Korean War was signed. It was a designated neutral zone until the “ax murder incident” in 1976, when North Korean soldiers attacked a work party trying to chop down a tree inside the Demilitarized Zone.

Once demilitarized, the JSA will be guarded by 35 unarmed personnel from each side and “freedom of movement” will be allowed for visitors and tourists, according to a military pact signed between the two Koreas last month.

South and North Korea – which are technically still at war – agreed to take measures to ease military tensions on their border at a meeting in Pyongyang last month between President Moon Jaein and Kim Jong-un.

The two sides finished removing land mines at the JSA – which has been increasingly used for talks between the two Koreas – last week as part of the deal.

The September summit was the third this year between the leaders, as a remarkable rapprochement takes hold on the peninsula. Moon has advocated engagement with the isolated North to nudge it toward denuclearization.

The two Koreas and the UN Command, included as it retains jurisdiction over the southern half of the JSA, will conduct joint verification until Saturday.

US general Vincent Brooks told reporters in August that as UN commander he supported initiatives to reduce military tensions.

But he added that as commander of the combined US-South Korean forces, he felt there was a “reasonable degree of risk” in Seoul’s plans.