Category: DMZ

Does anyone believe this excuse from the ROK military that the North Koreans unintentionally fired at a guard post because of the fog?:

 Several gunshots from North Korea hit a South Korean guard post inside the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) on Sunday, prompting the South to fire back, but the North’s firings do not appear to have been intentional, an official said.

South Korean soldiers on guard duty at the unit in the central border town of Cheorwon heard gunshots at around 7:41 a.m. and found four bullet marks on a wall of the guard post, according to the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

In accordance with the response manual, the military then fired a total of 20 shots in response — 10 rounds each time — and issued broadcast warnings, it added. No casualties or damage to South Korean facilities were reported. 

It is not known if North Korea sustained any damage. 

“We also sent a notice to the North Korean side via the inter-Korean communication line at around 9:35 a.m., and called for its explanation,” a JCS officer said. 

North Korea has given no response yet. 

The military is closely looking into the incident to learn more details by analyzing pieces of evidence, including shells found at the scene, as well as the North’s motivations for the firing. It does not appear to be an intentional provocation, according to the officer. 

“It was quite foggy and the North Korean soldiers usually rotate shifts around that time,” the JCS officer said, adding that no unusual movements by the North’s military have been detected.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link, but the only way I can see the fog being a factor is that a North Korean soldier tripped over something and did not have his weapon on safe and it just happened to hit the ROK guard post. And this just happened to occur a day after Kim Jong-un made his first appearance in 20 days.

The summer of 1967 was a deadly year for U.S. troops stationed on the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) in South Korea. In May a barracks building at Camp Walley was bombed, in August a work detail was ambushed, and Camp Liberty Bell were attacked. These attacks were part of a North Korean campaign against the U.S. military presence in South Korea called the “DMZ War“.

Before and after the August 28, 1967 attack on Camp Liberty Bell, North Korean commandoes secretly emplaced mines on roads used by U.S. troops along the DMZ. The mines used are called box mines and is the same type of crudely constructed mine that maimed two ROK soldiers back in 2015.

The first U.S. soldier killed by one of these mines in August 1967 was Specialist Billy J. Cook from the 2nd Infantry Division. The Jeep he was traveling in on August 22, 1967 was destroyed by a mine killing him and wounding one other soldier. Cook was originally from Virginia and left behind a wife who was living in Indiana at the time.

One week later and one day after the Camp Liberty Bell attack, three more U.S. soldiers were killed on August 29, 1967 by another landmine attack. A group of 2nd Infantry Division soldiers were traveling in three trucks, 2 kilometers south of the DMZ, when at approximately 6:30 PM two of the trucks hit landmines. The explosions killed Sergeant Phillip M. Corp, Private First Class Edgar W. McKee Jr., and Private First Class Paul G. Lund. Two other U.S. soldiers were wounded by the explosions. Three more soldiers from the Medical Evacuation vehicle sent in response were wounded as well when they hit a land mine.

These landmine attacks were just one of hundreds of attacks against U.S. and ROK forces between 1963 – 1969. North Korea was attempting to launch an insurgency within South Korea during a timeframe that the U.S. military was bogged down in Vietnam. The U.S. and ROK military’s ultimate success at defeating these attacks caused North Korea’s strategy to fail and popular support for the ROK government to grow within South Korea. Unfortunately the three U.S. soldiers killed by these landmines would not live see this.

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Please click the link below for more DMZ Flashpoints articles:

1969 began as a particularly deadly year for U.S. troops in South Korea. In January an EC-121 intelligence gathering plane was shot down over international airspace by a North Korean MIG jet that killed 31 American servicemembers. The deadly attack was just one of many from this time period has been called “DMZ War“. North Korea continued its DMZ War when in on October 18, 1969 it ambushed a U.S. Army truck traveling near the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) killing 4 U.S. Soldiers.

The four U.S. Soldiers from the 7th Infantry Division were traveling in a truck marked with a white flag and labeled with a sign that said “DMZ Police” when they were ambushed by a North Korean patrol with rifle fire and grenades. The North Koreans then went up to the truck and shot each soldier in the head at close range to ensure they were dead. The ambush killed Staff Sergeant James R. Grissinger, Specialist Charles E. Taylor, Specialist Jack L. Morris, and Private First Class William E. Grimes.

Following the attack U.S. and ROK troops patrolled the area in an attempt to locate the intruders. Four North Korean commandoes were spotted and engaged by a U.S. patrol. However, the commandoes successfully escaped back across the DMZ into North Korea with no casualties. Three days later the four soldiers were remembered during a ceremony prior to their honor flight back home.

Few know or remember this period of increased North Korean attacks that killed and wounded hundreds of U.S. soldiers who served on the DMZ.  The U.S. and ROK military’s success in the DMZ War had important strategic consequences that unfortunately the four 7th Infantry Division soldiers killed in the truck ambush would never live to see.

For more DMZ Flashpoints articles please click the below link:

In the Korea Times, historian Robert Neff has a good article published about the 1982 defection of Private First Class Joseph White to North Korea that I recommend everyone read:

On August 28, 1982, at about 2 a.m., the sound of a single gunshot shattered the silence of the Panmunjeom region of Korea’s Demilitarized Zone (DMZ).  

Gunfire along the DMZ was not uncommon, and while it was alarming, none could have imagined that it signified the unthinkable ― the defection of an American soldier to North Korea.

The incident occurred at Guard Post Oullette, one of the most forward American positions at that time in South Korea. PFC Joseph T. White, a member of the 1st Battalion of the 31st Infantry Regiment, was alone at his post when he shot off the lock of one of the gates leading into the 2.5-mile-wide DMZ, and made his way into one of most heavily fortified and mined zones in the world.

White was equipped with an M-16 with an attached grenade launcher, ammo, night-vision goggles, operating instructions for radio equipment and some unclassified information on radar and sensor systems, but all of these were left behind except his weapon and ammo. 

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.

I have never heard of a park that can stop invading troops and tanks. Too bad Syngman Rhee did not know about this back in 1950:

Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha said Thursday that turning the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) that bisects the two Koreas into a global peace zone will serve as a “physical guarantee of security” and solidify peace in the region.

She made the remark as Seoul was marking the 74th anniversary of the establishment of the United Nations, referring to President Moon Jae-in’s proposal to the U.N. General Assembly in New York last month. 

“When the DMZ is turned into such a peace zone with the participation of the international community, it will surely serve as a physical guarantee of security of both Koreas, cement the foundation for lasting peace on the Korean Peninsula and contribute to greater peace and stability in Northeast Asia,” Kang told a U.N. Day ceremony held in Seoul.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

It looks like the United Nations Command is not to eager to move forward with the Moon administration’s so called “Peace Park” within the DMZ:

Unification Minister Kim Yeon-chul said Monday that South Korea and the United Nations Command (UNC) are cooperating closely to narrow “differences” on how to enforce rules restricting entry to the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ).

Kim made the remark during a parliamentary audit in response to a lawmaker’s call for a need to “supplement” UNC regulations on passage in the DMZ that bisect the two Koreas. The UNC has jurisdiction over the area.

“There have been differences in opinions (between the government and the UNC) over matters involving entry to and exit from the DMZ and passage of the MDL (military demarcation line),” Kim told lawmakers. “We are now closely in discussion to narrow the differences.”

“While keeping safety measures in place, I think there should be regulatory supplementation with regard to entry to and exit from the DMZ when it has a non-military nature,” he added. “Under the armistice agreement, the right for permission is confined to things with military character.”

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

The swine flu is reportedly out of control in North Korea and the infected wild pigs have caused the disease to spread to South Korea. To stop the spread snipers have been placed around the DMZ to shoot the pigs:

South Korea will send military snipers and civilian hunters to its northern border Tuesday to eliminate wayward, contagion-carrying pigs from Kim Jong Un’s reclusive neighboring state.

The government will also use thermal vision drones to search for hogs infected with African swine fever near the civilian control line, a buffer region near the strip of land dividing the Korean Peninsula, the agriculture ministry said Sunday. The intensified measures aim to exterminate feral pigs in areas including Incheon, Seoul, Goseong and Bukhan River.

Five wild boars were found dead in or near border areas this month before being tested positive for the viral hemorrhagic disease, officials in South Korea said. The finding reflects the freedom with which animals roam the area, and hints at a spillover of the deadly virus from North Korea, where unofficial reports indicate the disease is spreading out of control.

Bloomberg

You can read more at the link.