A unification observatory, a tourist attraction in Goseong, a town around 200 kilometers northeast of Seoul near the border, is closed for the third day on Aug. 23, 2015, amid military threats from North Korea, with high-level talks between the two neighbors slated to resume later in the day to discuss how to ease tension on the Korean Peninsula. [Yonhap]
Serving with Korean Augmentees to the US Army (KATUSA) is an experience with a long history for US military servicemembers in Korea. So when I was recently browsing through the Stars & Stripes archives this article about a KATUSA leading a US Army infantry squad caught my attention:
From the November 8, 1967 edition of the Stars & Stripes.
The KATUSA Sergeant J.S.Song due to his competence was chosen as a squad leader for Alpha Company, 2nd Battalion, 38th Infantry Regiment, 2nd Infantry Division that served on the Korean Demilitarized Zone. Back then just like today most KATUSAs are not given positions with such responsibility due to language and cultural differences. The fact that Sergeant Song was given such a position especially back then when combat on the DMZ was a common occurrence shows how competent of a KATUSA Sergeant Song was. Here is what his Platoon Sergeant Guy E. McKean and Sgt Song himself had to say about be given this leadership opportunity:
It is stories like this that makes me wonder if Sergeant Song ever did return to being a farmer after his service was completed. If so he would be an old man now, but hopefully he still has good memories about his time leading US troops on the DMZ.
Maj. Gen. Urs Gerber, who heads the Swiss delegation of the Neutral Nations Supervisory Commission, places a flower in front of the monument to the 1976 ax murders of two U.S. Army officers by North Korean soldiers, during a memorial at the Joint Security Area in the truce village of Panmunjom on Aug. 18, 2015, to pay homage to the victims. (Yonhap)
As it turns out the North Koreans did not fire artillery at the loudspeaker on the ROK side of the DMZ and instead used an anti-aircraft weapon:
The two Koreas traded fire on Thursday after the North launched artillery shells apparently targeting propaganda loudspeakers installed across the border, threatening additional military action against the broadcasts and further heightening tension on the peninsula.
The North fired a 14.5-milimeter anti-aircraft gun once at around 3:53 p.m. at a town in Yeoncheon County, Gyeonggi Province, and then a 76.2-mm direct fire weapon “several times” at 4:15 p.m. within the Demilitarized Zone, military officials here said. Shortly after detection, the Army discharged a 155-milimeter self-propelled gun at 5:04 p.m.
The Army reported no damage. Casualties in the North were not immediately known.
Coincidentally with the exchange of fire, Pyongyang sent two separate letters to the South, calling for a withdrawal of the loudspeakers and threatening military action.
In the letter sent from the General Staff of the North Korean People’s Army to South Korea’s Defense Ministry through a border telephone channel at around 4:50 p.m., Pyongyang warned that it would initiate “military action” unless Seoul stops the propaganda broadcasts within 48 hours from 5 p.m.
In a separate letter by Kim Yang-gon, director of the United Front Department in charge of cross-border affairs, to National Security Office chief Kim Kwan-jin, Pyongyang said the broadcasts constitute a “declaration of war” but it is willing to resolve the current situation and “open a way out for the improvement of the relationship.”
Seoul said it has no plan to dismantle the speakers at this point. (………….)
The North’s anti-aircraft gun ammunition appeared to have hit an uninhabited hill located several kilometers away from a loudspeaker set, an official at Seoul’s Defense Ministry said. Yet the North did not appear to have aimed at the equipment, he noted, without elaborating.
“We detected signs that the North Korean military staged two rounds of firearm provocation in the southern part of the Military Demarcation Line, and fired dozens of rounds of a 155-millimeter self-propelled gun as warning shots,” Joint Chief of Staff spokesman Col. Jeon Ha-kyu said at a news briefing. [Korea Herald]
You can read more at the link.
judging by the quick reaction by the ROK forces they were likely ready for what was a pretty predictable action by the North Koreans to try and destroy one of the propaganda loudspeakers:
South Korea fired tens of artillery rounds towards North Korea on Thursday after the North fired a projectile towards a South Korean loudspeaker that had been blaring anti-Pyongyang broadcasts, the defense ministry in Seoul said.
North Korea did not immediately respond to the South’s shots, it said, as tensions rose on the peninsula.
South Korea said its detection equipment had spotted the trajectory of a suspected North Korean projectile launched at around 3:52 pm (0252 EDT), which did not appear to have damaged the loudspeaker or caused any injuries.
“Our military has stepped up monitoring and is closely watching North Korean military movements,” South Korea’s defense ministry said in a statement.
South Korea’s military raised its alert status to the highest level.
There was no mention of the firing in North Korean state media, which does not typically make immediate comment on events.
The suspected North Korean projectile landed in an area about 60 km (35 miles) north of Seoul in the western part of the border zone, the defense ministry said. South Korean residents in the area were ordered to evacuate, according to the South’s Yonhap news agency.
Yonhap reported that the projectile appeared to have landed in a mountainous area near a South Korean military base in the town of Yeoncheon. [Reuters]
You can read more at the link, but this will not be the last of the tit-for-tat along the DMZ as the North Koreans have threatened more military action if the propaganda speakers are not taken down in 48 hours. In preparation for more provocations civilians along the western DMZ are being evacuated.
Soldiers of the Neutral Nations Supervisory Commission give a salute during a memorial at the Joint Security Area in the truce village of Panmunjom on Aug. 18, 2015, to pay homage to the two U.S. military officers, who were axed to death by North Korean soldiers at the village in 1976. (Yonhap)
Via the Stars and Stripes comes this YouTube video which shows when the two ROK Army soldiers were hit by the planted North Korean landmine:
Here is what experts in the article had to say about detecting such infiltrations:
A South Korean military official, speaking on customary condition of anonymity, said that while South Korean troops aggressively monitor the border with advanced surveillance equipment and their naked eyes, their ability to monitor some portions of the DMZ is limited.
North and South Korean troops man outposts along the Military Demarcation Line, often in forested areas.
“It’s very difficult to keep watch there for 24 hours a day, especially if it’s rainy or foggy,” said Kim Seongmin, a defector and former North Korean military officer who now heads Free North Korea Radio. “If North Korean troops want to violate the armistice agreement, they can do it there,” he said.
An Chanil, who was stationed at the DMZ as a platoon sergeant in the North Korean army, agreed.
“Nobody can see everywhere,” said An, who defected in 1979 and is now president of the World Institute for Korea Studies, a Seoul-based think tank.
He said ordinary North Korean soldiers would have difficulty crossing the demarcation line, though specially trained reconnaissance soldiers could do so with ease.
“The DMZ is their home ground,” he said. [Stars & Stripes]
You can read more at the link, but this is why any North Korean soldiers caught violating the armistice should be shot on site. In the past warning shots were fired when they were caught crossing the DMZ. It is now time to start attriting their operatives who are specially trained for these missions. That will be a deterrent to continuing to launch such attacks.
The ROK probably should have never stopped clearing shrubbery around the DMZ in the first place considering North Korea’s long history of border incursions and provocations:
Han’s remarks came as the South’s military is preparing to take preliminary steps to pave the way for offensive operations within the 250-kilometer stretch of the four-kilometer-wide buffer zone.
It is considering forest burning in some areas, an operational practice the South decided to stop in 2001 following inter-Korean working-level military talks.
An official explained that burning shrubs will help the military secure a view of North Korea’s guard posts and reconnaissance activities ahead of launching offensive operations within the area. The official said if it is conducted, the burning operation would be carried out in the fall to avoid southerly wind.
Amid such considerations, a South Korea-U.S. joint artillery live fire drill began on Wednesday.
Running through the end of this month, the drill will see the participation of cutting-edge weapons, including South Korea’s K-2 tanks and FA-50 fighter jets as well as the U.S.’ Paladin self-propelled howitzers, Apache helicopters and A-10 attack aircraft. [KBS World Radio]
You can read more at the link.
U.S. and ROK forces to hold unscheduled live-fire drills near North Korean border after DMZ ambush HT @ISNJH @140DPRK http://t.co/1ZJ4FYz558
— Andrew NK (@northkoreafront) August 12, 2015
This photo, released on Aug. 11, 2015, by the Defense Ministry, shows loudspeakers that South Korea has installed at a unidentified site on the western front-line bordering North Korea to resume its anti-Pyongyang propaganda broadcasting. The resumption of the loudspeaker campaign is in retaliation of a the North’s bloody mine detonation on South Korean soldiers on the South Korean side of the demilitarized zone in Paju, north of Seoul, on Aug. 4. (Yonhap)
