Korean Demilitarized Zone

The Demilitarized Zone (or DMZ) in Korea is a strip of land running across the Korean Peninsula that serves as a buffer zone between North and South Korea. The DMZ cuts the Korean Peninsula roughly in half, crossing the 38th parallel on an acute angle, with the west end of the DMZ lying south of the parallel and the east end lying north of it. It is 248 km long and approximately 4 km wide.

History

The 38th parallel north — which cuts the Korean Peninsula roughly in half — was the original boundary between the U.S.-controlled and Soviet-controlled areas of Korea at the end of World War II; subsequently, upon the creation of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea and the Republic of Korea in 1948, it became a de facto international border and one of the tensest fronts in the Cold War (See Division of Korea for more details).

Both the North and the South remained heavily dependent on their sponsor states - the Soviet Union and the United States respectively - from 1948 through to the outbreak of the Korean War. The devastating conflict - which went on to claim over 3 million lives and saw the hitherto united Korean Peninsula effectively divided along ideological lines - commenced in 1950 with a Soviet-sponsored DPRK invasion across the DMZ, and ended in 1953 after Chinese intervention pushed the front of the war back to near the 38th Parallel. In the ceasefire of July 27th, 1953, the DMZ was created as each side agreed in the armistice to move their troops back 2,000 meters, creating a buffer zone 4 km wide. The Military Demarcation Line, or MDL, goes right down the center of the DMZ and indicates exactly where the front was when the agreement was signed. So, as before, there was a buffer zone between two separate Koreas, with one major difference from 1948 - the South and the North were now two warring states. As of 2006 this war has not, technically, ended.

Owing to this theoretical stalemate, and genuine hostility between the North and the South, large numbers of troops are still stationed along both sides of the line, each side guarding against potential aggression from the other side. The armistice agreement explains exactly how many military personnel and what kind of weapons are allowed in the DMZ itself. Soldiers from both sides do patrols inside the DMZ, but they may not cross the MDL.

Joint Security Area

Inside the DMZ near the western coast of the peninsula is a place called Panmunjeom, home of the Joint Security Area. Here is the only place where North and South connect.

There are a number of buildings on both the north and the south side of the MDL and a few which are built right on top of the MDL. The Joint Security Area is the location where all negotiations since 1953 have been held, including a number of statements of Korean solidarity, which have generally amounted to little except a slight decline of tensions. The MDL goes right through the conference rooms, right down the middle of the conference tables where the North Koreans and the United Nations Command (primarily South Koreans and Americans) meet face to face.

Though generally calm, the DMZ has been the scene of much sabre-rattling between the two Koreas over the years. A number of small skirmishes have occurred within the Joint Security Area since 1953. One notable incident in August 1976 involved the attempted chopping down of a poplar tree which resulted in two deaths and Operation Paul Bunyan. Before this time, the soldiers of both sides were permitted to go back and forth across the MDL inside of the JSA. That stopped as a result of this incident.

Another incident occurred later when a Soviet Dignitary who was part of an official trip to the JSA (hosted by the North) ran across the MDL yelling that he wanted to defect. North Korean troops opened fire and chased him across the line. South Korean troops protected the defector, fired back, and eventually surrounded the North Koreans. One South Korean soldier was killed in the incident. The defector expressed joy in his successful attempt, but was saddened by the loss of life. Since this incident the North Korean soldiers face one another so defectors cannot come upon them from behind. They are ordered to shoot anyone who attempts to defect before they get to the line.

Starting on 15 November 1974, a series of tunnels were discovered leading under the DMZ. The first of these is believed to be about 45 metres below surface, with a total length of about 3.5 kilometres, penetrating over 1000 metres into the DMZ. When the first tunnel was discovered, it featured electric lines and lamps, as well as railways and paths for vehicles. The second was discovered on 19 March 1975, and is of similar length and between 50 and 160 metres below surface. The third tunnel was discovered on 17 October 1978. As the previous two, the third tunnel was discovered following a tip off from a North Korean defector. This time the South Koreans failed to find the tunnel directly, but dug a counter-tunnel to meet the North Korean tunnel. This tunnel is about 2 kilometres long and about 150 metres below surface. The fourth tunnel was discovered on 3 March 1990. It is almost identical in structure to the second and the third tunnel.

The tunnels are each large enough to allow the passing of a division in a single hour. Today, it is possible to visit some of the tunnels as part of guided tourist tours from the south.

Current status

Apart from Panmunjeom, the Joint Security Area and two model villages, the DMZ is devoid of humans and their machinery, other than a large number of landmines. Both Koreas deploy the majority of their military manpower and technology within 100 miles of the Military Demarcation Line that runs through the middle of the DMZ. In practical terms this represents over one million men on either side as well as large numbers of tanks, long-range artillery and armoured personnel carriers. As both sides are technically still at war with each other the DMZ is in many ways the last front of the Cold War.

Villages in the Demilitarized Zone

Within the DMZ there are two villages: one run by the North and the other by the South. Daeseong-dong, found on the southern side of the DMZ, is a traditional village and strictly controlled by the South Korean government. For instance, one must have ancestral connections to the village in order to live there. These restrictions serve to keep the population of the village very small. In the North, Gijeong-dong, or as it is called in North Korea, "Peace Village” has only a small caretaker population. Through the armistice agreement the North felt that it should be allowed a town within the borders of the DMZ since the South already had one. UN troops call this Propaganda Village because only a small group of people cleaning and turning on lights reside within the village. Although from afar it appears to be a modern village, one can tell with binoculars that there is not even glass within the windows of the buildings. In the past, North Korean propaganda was sent out by loudspeaker across to Daeseong-dong for as much as 20 hours a day, and reciprocal pop music and South Korean exhortations blasted back. These broadcasts ceased by mutual agreement in 2004.

During the 1980s, the South Korean government built a 100 metre (328 ft.) tall flagpole in Daeseong-dong. The North Korean government responded by building a taller one - the tallest in the world at 160 metres (525 ft.). The North Korean flag at the top weighs around 270 kg (595 lbs.) when dry and must be taken down the instant it starts raining as the tower cannot support its weight when wet.

Propaganda

Tourists visiting the southern side of the DMZ have sometimes been told (by U.S. soldiers acting as tour guides) that the North Korean building facing South Korea on the DMZ is not a real building, but "a façade designed to look large and impressive, in reality only a frame a few feet (1 m) thick." Tourists who have visited the northern side of the DMZ have refuted this, and the rumour has been proved false by satellite imagery (^*). Propaganda in the North has stated that the U.S. and South Korea have built a massive unclimbable wall across the entire length of the DMZ (the Korean wall). Upon the collapse of the Berlin Wall, propagandists in the North seized upon its value and proclaimed this huge system of fencing and tank barriers to be a wall equivalent to the one in Berlin.

Transportation

Panmunjeom (RR)/P'anmunjŏm (MR) is the site of the negotiations that ended the Korean War and is the main centre of human activity in the DMZ. The village is located on the main highway and railway line (called the Gyeongui Line before division and today in the South and the P'yŏngbu Line in the north) connecting Seoul and P'yŏngyang. The highway is used on rare occasions to move people between the two countries, it's also used to bring supplies to South Korean factories located in North Korea (much like Checkpoint Charlie in Cold War East and West Berlin), and the railway line is currently being reconnected as part of the general thawing in the relations between North and South. A new road and rail connection is also being built on the Donghae Bukbu (Tonghae Pukpu) Line.

Wildlife

Except in the area around the truce village of Panmunjeom and more recently on the Donghae Bukbu Line on the east coast, humans for the most part have not entered the DMZ in the last fifty years. This isolation has created as a byproduct one of the most well preserved pieces of temperate land in the whole of the world. Environmentalists hope that if reunification occurs the former DMZ will become a wildlife refuge. However, there will be significant obstacles to maintaining the site because of the high concentration of landmines across the area.