WHERE NORTH MEETS SOUTH
TENSION AT THE DMZ
in D eKmorieliatna r biozerdd eZrone,
Within seconds of arriving at the North Korean border, a U. S. Army soldier leaps onto the tour bus and starts barking orders.
“No drugs,” he says, glowering at the group of mainly American tourists. “No alcohol. No weapons of any kind, not even penknives. And do not, under any circumstances, attempt to communicate with the North Korean soldiers you are about to see.” He marches up and down, checking passports, before spinning around to face a sea of faces.
“Another thing,” he adds, “and this is not a joke — are any of you considering defecting to North Korea?”
After swiftly answering no, the group is marched single file into the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ), a twisting snake of barbed wire fences, watchtowers and minefields that bisects the Korean peninsula.
Tensions here have been near boiling point since Kim Jong Un, the North Korean dictator, threatened “imminent” war against the United States.
Early Saturday morning, Kim test-fired another intercontinental ballistic missile, which exploded shortly after takeoff. President Donald Trump, who has repeatedly threatened Kim with a “major” military response unless he ceases nuclear weapons tests, said the move “disrespected the wishes of China,” North Korea’s only ally.
Also Saturday, the aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson began a drill with the South Korean navy aimed at verifying the allies’ capability to intercept enemy missiles, a defence spokesman said.
On Sunday Trump did not appear to be ruling out military action against North Korea if the communist country pushes forward with another nuclear test. In an interview with CBS, Trump said he would not be pleased if North Korea takes that step.
“He’s going to have to do what he has to do. But he understands we’re not going to be very happy,” Trump said of Kim Jong Un.
Pressed on whether he means there could be military action, Trump did not confirm, but he also did not deny.
“I don’t know,” he said. “I mean, we’ll see.”
The president also emphasized China’s role in putting pressure on North Korea and said he has established a good relationship with President Xi Jinping.
“I don’t think they want to see a destabilized North Korea. I don’t think they want to see it. They certainly don’t want to see nuclear on — from their neighbour,” he said of China.
Asked about Nor t h Korea’s recent failed missile launch attempts, Trump said he’d rather not discuss the matter, because he does not want to reveal his next move. But he said the United States cannot allow North Korea to have a better nuclear arsenal.
“It is a chess game. I just don’t want people to know what my thinking is. So, eventually, he will have a better delivery system. And if that happens, we can’t allow it to happen.”
Perhaps surprisingly, the U.S. president’s tough stance seems to have gone down well with many South Koreans.
“When Trump was elected everyone thought he was crazy, but now some think maybe he is the right person to improve things,” said one DMZ tour guide who gave his name only as SP.
On the streets of Seoul just 60 kilometres from the border, one 42- year- old woman said it remained “business as usual” for most South Koreans.
But there are few signs of complacency in the DMZ, where the bleak landscape is dotted with guard towers manned by stern-looking soldiers with rifles trained on the North.
At the heart of the zone is the “truce village” of Panmunjom, a cluster of blue huts where the North has been invited to take part in peace negotiations.
Visitors t his weekend were allowed to briefly enter North Korean territory inside one of the huts, which straddles the official border. But stepping through the opposite door into North Korean countryside is strictly forbidden, with Taekwondotrained soldiers stationed to deter would-be defectors.
At the Dora Observation Post, through a pair of highpowered binoculars, North Koreans can be seen toiling in the fields under the eye of watchtowers hidden in the mountains. Beyond the mountains lurk row upon row of long- range artillery systems — firepower that poses a bigger headache than the North’s haphazard nuclear program.
“It would not be difficult to destroy his nuclear facilities, but … the U. S. cannot destroy all of Kim Jong Un’s revenge power. A large number of civilians could be killed in retaliation,” said Cho Han Bum of the Korean Institute for National Unification.
Back at the DMZ, the tour guide SP, who has followed North- South relations for more than 50 years, fears he will never see the peninsula reunited. “It is sad because though we are split in two we have the same culture, the same language, even the same alphabet,” he says.
U.S. CANNOT DESTROY ALL OF KIM JONG UN’S REVENGE POWER.