Tension fills land that splits 2 Koreas at war
Heightened tensions with North Korea have cast a spotlight on the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) separating North and South Korea. USA TODAY sent Asian correspondent Thomas Maresca to the DMZ to describe what it is like.
PANMUNJOM, Demilitarized Zone – The border between North and South Korea is one of the most heavily guarded stretches of land in the world — a band 2 1⁄2 miles wide and 150 miles long dividing the peninsula since the Korean War ended in 1953.
The DMZ, littered with scores of mines and barbed-wire fences, is nightmarishly difficult to cross, except here in the Joint Security Area, a special buffer zone inside what is known as the “truce village” of Panmunjom, about 35 miles north of Seoul.
Every year, hundreds of thousands of people visit the Joint Security Area for a chance to see North Korean soldiers standing at attention dozens of feet away and to officially step into North Korean territory inside a United Nations-administered conference room that straddles the military border.
Panmunjom village was where the armistice agreement was signed to end the Korean War.
The Joint Security Area was established afterward as a place where officials from both sides could meet face to face.
A visit feels like military theater, including stern warnings from the South Korean soldiers under U.N. command
not to make gestures at their stonefaced counterparts on the other side of a border marked only with low concrete slabs.
As the dramatic escape of a North Korean defector in November demonstrated, this remains an active border between two countries that technically are still at war.
Three low conference buildings administered by the United Nations in the Joint Security Area are painted the international organization’s signature blue, while North Korea controls three others. On the North’s side, a building called Panmon Hall looms, while in the South stands Freedom House, which hosts Red Cross and visitor activities. It was intended to be a meeting area for separated families from both countries, but the North declined, fearing its citizens might defect.
For such a relatively open border area, the recent high-stakes escape by the North Korean soldier was only the third time someone defected at the truce village. Soldiers also crossed in 2007 and 1998. It marked the fourth time in the past three years that a North Korean soldier has escaped inside the DMZ.
The Joint Security Area has been the site of several dramatic events over the decades since the war ended in a truce but not a peace agreement. Both sides exchanged tens of thousands of prisoners after the war over a crossing known as the Bridge of No Return.
In 1984, a Soviet interpreter visiting from the North ran across the military demarcation line, drawing North Korean soldiers in pursuit. A firefight ensued, killing three North Koreans and one South Korean soldier.
In perhaps the most notorious encounter between the North and South here, North Korean soldiers attacked a group of South Korean and U.S. soldiers who were pruning a poplar tree Aug. 18, 1976. The North killed American Capt. Arthur Bonifas and Lt. Mark Barrett with axes and wounded several others.
The attack, which President Ford called a “vicious and unprovoked murder,” brought tensions to a dangerous high.
Three days later, American and South Korean forces cut down the tree in a show of resolve called Operation Paul Bunyan. One of the South Korean soldiers involved was a special forces commando named Moon Jae-in, now the president of the country.
The Joint Security Area originally was a neutral area with no boundary dividing North and South, but after the ax murders, the military demarcation line was added. About 700 U.S. and Korean soldiers are stationed in the area.
The DMZ has been a backdrop for numerous presidential visits. President Clinton called it “the scariest place on Earth” during his trip in 1993.