British Army officer on Korean border scents ill wind from North

UNTIL recently, the thin ribbon of land that has separated the two Koreas since 1953 had been largely calm.

But in recent months, tensions have escalated, with Kim Jong-un testing larger missiles and the election of a more hawkish South Korean leader.

For the British general overseeing the fragile peace, the situation can no longer be taken for granted. The demilitarised zone (DMZ) has “a feel to it which means that you never quite know what will happen, what provocations will occur”, Lt Gen Andrew Harrison said.

“I spent one year on the DMZ between Iran and Kuwait, and then I was in Saddam Hussein’s Iraq for one year and there was constant tension, but this is different,” he added. “Here, the belligerents are right up against each other. They stand and look right at each other, not across barbed wire but over a line on the ground.”

Lt Gen Harrison recently became the first British officer to be appointed deputy commander of the United Nations Command, which is posted on the border to oversee the armistice that concluded the three-year Korean War nearly 70 years ago.

Six UK staff officers are stationed in South Korea, with at least one RAF pilot also flying with US and South Korean units on the peninsula. Other British units, including infantry and tank detachments, have taken part in joint exercises in the South in recent years.

Lt Gen Harrison said the Korean DMZ was one of the most fraught places he had been deployed, despite having served with the Parachute Regiment in Sierra Leone, Iraq and Afghanistan.

That is in part down to the ominous rumblings in North Korea, which has stepped up operations at its Yongbyon nuclear plant and is reportedly working to return its Punggye-ri nuclear testing grounds to operational status.

Intelligence reports suggest the North is close to perfecting a submarine-launched ballistic missile and there has been a sharp increase in launches since the end of the year, including the March 24 firing of a weapon thought to be a Hwasong-15 intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM).

Asked about the possibility of more tests in the near future – including the possibility of a return to underground nuclear testing and ICBM launches, Lt Gen Harrison said: “I do acknowledge that media speculation is rising and Supreme Leader Kim Jong-un has articulated his intent.

“If any future tests constitute an armistice violation, that will become of direct interest to the United Nations Command. We are observing developments very carefully.”