Where North meets South, tension at the DMZ
DEMILITARIZED ZONE, KOREAN BORDER •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 U.S.
Early Saturday, Kim testfired 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.
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 soldiers in guard towers train rifles 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 this 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.
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.