The two Koreas will remove all firearms and guard posts from a Cold War era truce village where armed soldiers have stared each other down for decades, Seo
SEOUL – The two Koreas will remove all firearms and guard posts from a Cold War era truce village where armed soldiers have stared each other down for decades, Seoul’s defense ministry announced Thursday.
The Joint Security Area — also known as the truce village of Panmunjom — has historically been both a flashpoint and a key location for diplomacy between the two Koreas ever since their split in 1953.
It is the only spot along the tense, 250-kilometer (155-mile) frontier where soldiers from North Korea and the U. S.-led United Nations Command stand face to face.
Now guards will start disarming from Friday, ministry spokeswoman Choi Hyun-soo said, part of a recent diplomatic thaw between the two foes that has gathered pace.
“I am aware that it is going according to plan,” Choi told reporters.
Panmunjom was where the armistice that ended the bitter Korean War was signed.
It was a designated neutral zone until 1976, when North Korean soldiers attacked a work party trying to chop down a tree inside the Demilitarized Zone, leaving two U. S. army officers dead.
Once demilitarized, the JSA will be guarded by 35 unarmed personnel from each side and “freedom of movement” will be allowed for visitors and tourists, according to a military pact signed between the two Koreas last month.
South and North Korea — which are technically still at war — agreed to take measures to ease military tensions on their border at a meeting in Pyongyang last month between South Korean President Moon Jae-in and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.
