The demilitarization of the ironically named Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) continues:
Military construction crews from North and South Korea, building the first central inter-Korean road in 65 years, met today at Arrowhead Hill in the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) and shook hands.
Arrowhead Hill was the place of one of the bloodiest battle sites of the war is now the first.
In October South and North Korea troops began the task of removing land mines from the Joint Security Area (JSA) in Panmunjom as well as the Arrowhead Hill (Hwasalmeori) region in Cheorwon, Gangwon Province, where joint exhumation of the remains of Korean War MIA/POW are set to take place. (Hani.co.kr)
On Thursday troops from the North and South met and shook hands on Arrowhead Hill. [Gateway Pundit via a reader tip]
S.Korea plan to get rid of 284Km of borderline barbed wire fences and 8299 military facilities bc of mil agreement btw two Koreas and need to spend 330 million USD for this process. <- SK have spend money to build all this and now reverse all history. https://t.co/3AEb718kn6
South Korea has blown up some of its own guard posts within the Demilitarized Zone as part of efforts to implement an inter-Korean military agreement.
The Ministry of National Defense said on Thursday that although it is using excavators to destroy many of the DMZ guard posts, considering concerns about safety and environmental protection, some posts located on hillsides had to be destroyed using explosives.
The ministry also unveiled photos that were taken last Sunday showing how the North Koreans were destroying their own guard posts.
The photos featured North Korean soldiers demolishing the military structure using large-sized hammers. [KBS Global]
At least it is not a white flag flying over South Korean guard posts (sorry I couldn’t resist 😉 ):
These photos provided by the defense ministry show yellow flags at guard posts on the South and North Korean sides of the border. (Yonhap)
South and North Korea raised yellow flags at 11 guard posts each along their heavily fortified border on Sunday in a first step toward dismantling the posts under a military agreement reached as part of September’s summit.
The two sides hoisted the 4-meter by 3-meter flag at each of the 22 guard posts as a mark to indicate that the posts are to be dismantled, according to defense ministry officials.
“This is aimed at enabling each side to observe the progress in dismantlement work so that it can be carried out in a transparent manner,” a ministry official said.
The two sides reached the agreement to pull back the guard posts in the Demilitarized Zone “on a trial basis” as part of the third inter-Korean summit held in September. It’s a key part of the efforts to turn the buffer zone into a “peace zone.” [Yonhap]
The two Koreas and the U.S.-led U.N Command (UNC) on Thursday wrapped up the process of disarming the Joint Security Area in the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ), Seoul’s defense ministry said.
As of 1 p.m., they completed the work of withdrawing military posts, armed troops and firearms from the JSA in the buffer zone separating the two Koreas, in line with last month’s inter-Korean agreement aimed at reducing tensions, preventing accidental clashes and building mutual trust.
On Friday and Saturday, the three sides will carry out joint verification work to ensure that the JSA is completely disarmed.
“The military authorities of the two Koreas and the UNC will make joint efforts to ensure that the JSA disarmament, stated in the Sept. 19 military agreement, will be implemented normally,” the ministry said in a statement. [Yonhap]
You can read more at the link, but the ROK soldiers there better be ready to put their taekwondo to use.
The important thing to remember is that this concession is easily reversible:
The two Koreas are looking to withdraw 11 guard posts within a 1-km radius of the Military Demarcation Line on their border by the end of 2018.PHOTO: REUTERS
North and South Korea and the UN Command agreed on Monday (Oct 22) to withdraw firearms and guard posts in an area within the Demilitarised Zone (DMZ) this week, Seoul’s defence ministry said, the latest move in a fast-improving relationship.
The three sides held their second round of talks at the village of Panmunjom to discuss ways to demilitarise the border in line with a recent inter-Korean pact reached at last month’s summit in Pyongyang.
The US-led UNC, which has overseen affairs in the DMZ since the end of hostilities in the 1950-53 Korean War, was not immediately available for comment, but it said on Friday it supports the two Koreas’ efforts to implement their military deal.
The announcement comes amid US concerns that the inter-Korean military initiative could undermine defence readiness and comes without substantial progress on North Korea’s promised denuclearisation.
The neighbours are looking to withdraw 11 guard posts within a 1km radius of the Military Demarcation Line on their border by the end of the year.
They also plan to pull out all firearms from the Joint Security Area (JSA) at Panmunjom and cut to 35 each the numbers of personnel stationed there and share information on surveillance equipment. [Strait Times]
You can read more at the link, but I would think the American JSA battalion commander will have a well rehearsed battle drill ready to issue weapons at a moments notice in response to this. Does anyone really think the North Koreans will not have weapons stashed on their side of the border? Will the UNC be allowed to conduct no notice inspections to verify? I doubt it.
It will be interesting to see how the US reacts to this:
The two Koreas and the United Nations Command (UNC) discussed disarmament of the Joint Security Area (JSA) Tuesday amid expectations for unarmed soldiers to “guard” the inter-Korean border area in a near future.
“The three-way consultation body had negotiation on measures on having a weapons-free JSA, including the withdrawal of firearms and guard posts,” according to the Ministry of National Defense.
Army Colonel Cho Yong-geun headed the South’s three-member delegation, with the North led by Colonel Om Chang-nam, according to the ministry. United States Army Colonel Burke Hamilton also represented the UNC for the hours-long discussions.
The trilateral meeting is aimed at finalizing details to realize complete disarmament at the JSA. The two Koreas reached a consensus over the plan by signing a joint military agreement during an inter-Korean summit in Pyongyang last month. [Korea Times]
You can read more at the link, but I would not be surprised if this just gets slow rolled because who wants to put faith in the North Koreans complying with this agreement?
One way the US could respond is that they will disarm the JSA if the North Koreans agree to withdraw their artillery 50 kilometers north of the DMZ.
By declaring the NLL a maritime peace zone the Moon administration has given in to North Korean demands that dispute the ROK’s sovereignty of the NLL, of course the Kim regime is going to agree with this:
This map shows the West Sea peace-cooperation special zones proposed by South Korea at the 2007 inter-Korean summit. (Yonhap)
South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said Friday that the leaders of the two Koreas have recognized the Northern Limit Line (NLL), a de facto sea border, as the term was included in this year’s key inter-Korean agreements.
The remarks came amid a dispute over whether the communist state now acknowledges the maritime boundary that it has long disputed on the grounds that it was drawn unilaterally by the U.S.-led U.N. Command after the 1950-53 Korean War.
In the April inter-Korean summit declaration, the two Koreas jointly used the NLL term, while pledging to transform areas surrounding the tense boundary in the West Sea into a “maritime peace zone.” That term also appears in last month’s military agreement aimed at reducing tensions and preventing accidental clashes.
Seoul has used the two agreements to argue that the North has recognized the NLL.
“The two leaders agreed to turn the areas around the NLL into a maritime peace zone and also reaffirmed that in the September military agreement,” the JCS said in a text message sent to reporters.
“This means that the two leaders have recognized the NLL,” it added. [Yonhap]
So what is a maritime peace zone that the Kim regime is so happy to recognize? President Moon’s plan has been to surrender sovereignty of the NLL to the North Koreans by allowing joint fishing along the maritime border. This plan actually dates back an entire decade to the Roh Moo-hyun administration when Moon Jae-in was President Roh’s Chief of Staff. This map shows why the North Koreans are happy with the is arrangement:
The current NLL is depicted with the Blue line and North Korea’s claimed NLL is depicted with the Red line.
Compare the two maps and the proposed joint fishing zones nearly mirror North Korea’s NLL claims. The giving up of sovereignty of this maritime territory will make it harder to defend the South Korean islands along the NLL. Such an agreement would also set a precedent that the Kim regime’s claim against the legitimacy of the NLL is valid. The last time a South Korean leftist government tried to give away the NLL the ROK Defense Ministry was furious. That is likely why the Moon administration cleaned house at the Ministry of Defense before moving forward with this plan.
3 key invasion routes fm #NorthKorea to #SouthKorea: Cheolwon, Gaesong-Munsan (near JSA) & east coast (in Gangwon Prov) approaches. "Remains recovery" is a cover. If they really felt it priority, NK could return 500 still living SK POWs. Instead, invasion routes are clearing. https://t.co/mttjKYJCZS
South Korean troops begin work to remove land mines at the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) near Chorwon, Gangwon Province, on Oct. 2, 2018. (Joint Press Corps-Yonhap)
