Koreas withdraw soldiers from border posts

SEOUL: North and South Korea have withdrawn guards and weapons as part of their arrangements to end military hostilities at several border checkpoints.

Withdrawals were made at 11 locations on the South Korean side, a spokesman for the Ministry of Defence in Seoul said on Saturday.

“North Korea has done this, too,” he said.

South Korea has, as agreed, begun the dismantling of the posts on its side of the border.

Both sides had agreed to dismantle 11 checkpoints on each side of the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) between them.

Except for one checkpoint on each side, all of the buildings are to be completely demolished.

In December, checks are set to be made to ascertain whether both sides have adhered to the agreement.

This first phase is intended as a test for dismantling all armed posts within the DMZ.

The move is part of a military agreement signed by the two sides’ defence ministers at the Pyongyang inter-korean summit in September.

In recent weeks, both countries have removed all landmines from the Joint Security Area (JSA) at the border village of Panmunjom.

The JSA is located in the middle of the DMZ that has divided the peninsula since the end of the Korean War (1950-53); the DMZ is 4 kilometres wide and about 250 kilometres long.