Tag: DMZ

I hope everyone has a great Christmas holiday this year. Don’t forget to sing to all your neighbors, Chickenhead’s hilarious carol Twas the Night Before Christmas on the DMZ.

‘Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the DMZ, the darkness was stirred by a lone Christmas tree.

Love gifts were hung from the balloons with care, in hopes they’d pass north through the cold winter air.

The soldiers were nestled all snug in their bunks, while visions of peaceful reunification gave them goose bumps.

With a ho in her hooker boots, and I in the buff, I had just bent her over to treat her ass good and rough.

When out on the lawn arose loud banging and clicking, I sprang from my bed to see whose ass needed kicking.

Away to the window I flew all in fear, knocked over my soju and two bottles of beer.

The moon on the snow and the flares in the sky, gave the luster of mid-day so I could not deny.

When, what to my wondering eyes should I see, but a horde of Nork soldiers, tanks and artillery.

With pictures of Dear Leader and muzzle flashes aglow, I wished for more combat training instead of briefings from EO.

They yelled threats and commands, I knew I was funked. My Tagalog was great but my Korean skills sucked.

“Now, Kim! Now, Lee! Now, Park and Gong! On, Choi! On Kwak! On, Nam and Song!

To the top of the hill! To the top of the wall! Now kill the white devils, kill them all!”

And they hit the main gate the first time they tried, where napping KATUSAs with empty guns died.

They attacked the wall of the BX and opened a chasm, and looted the place, a black market orgasm.

And then, in a twinkling, I heard down the hall, shooting and stabbing and harsh Han Gook Mal.

As I searched for a weapon and looked all around, an evil Nork soldier came in with a bound.

He was dressed all in rags, from his head to his foot, and his sockless toes could be seen through his boot.

A smoking AK he had flung on his back, and I picked up my XBox to give him a whack.

His eyes – how they twinkled! Narrow and scarry! But he looked like a teen who still had his cherry!

His droll little mouth was drawn up in rage, and though I hadn’t saved my game, I had to engage.

A rusty old knife, he held in his teeth, as with hunger abound, he’d likely eaten the sheath.

He had a big square head and lacked any belly, while I only passed my tape test on a diet of petroleum jelly.

I put down my XBox and said, “Here’s the deal.” “If you don’t kill me, I’ll cook you a meal.”

A wink of his eye and a twist of his head, soon gave me to know I had nothing to dread.

He spoke not a word, but went straight to his plate, and gobbled Hamburger Helper like a trailer park date.

To get him to leave, I thought of more ploys, “Why don’t you take my hot juicy back to your boys?”

He sprang out the door with my juicy in tow, and the last that I saw, they’d formed a line in the snow.

I hid under my bed with my XBox on, And played Medal of Honor ’till the airstrike got here from Guam.

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.

I wonder how much Gloria Steinem is being paid to attend this event?:

World-renowned activists in the areas of peace and human rights are coming to South Korea early this autumn to call for peace on the Korean Peninsula.

Scheduled attendees for the “Let’s DMZ” event taking place to commemorate the first anniversary of the September 19 Pyongyang Joint Statement between the South and North Korean leaders include Gloria Steinem, a social activist known as the “godmother of the global women’s rights movement”; Phan Thi Kim Phuc, a human rights campaigner known as the “napalm girl”; and Mikis Theodorakis, a Greek composer and democracy activist with a history of resistance fighting.

Let’s DMZ includes numerous different events taking place around the Gyeonggi Province area over the month of September with the aim of transforming the Demilitarized Zone from a symbol of division into one of peace that can be seen, heard, and experienced by everyone. Gyeonggi Vice Governor for Peace Lee Hwa-young described plans for four major events – a DMZ Forum, Live DMZ, DMZ Festa, and Art DMZ – in a Let’s DMZ briefing on Aug. 28 at the Gyeonggi Provincial Office in Suwon.

Hankyoreh

You can read more at the link, but maybe North Korea will launch some more missiles during this event to show what they think of the so called peace process these activists are championing.

Another North Korean soldier has defected:

 A North Korean soldier defected to South Korea in a midnight river crossing in the border area known as the Demilitarized Zone, South Korea’s military said Thursday.

The defection comes at a sensitive time. Efforts by Seoul to improve relations between the two Koreas have been stymied amid stalled U.S.-North Korean nuclear talks.

The soldier was spotted via a thermal observation device in the Imjin River at about 11:38 p.m. Wednesday after crossing a central section of the Military Demarcation Line that divides the peninsula, according to the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

The river was swollen from rainy weather, making it difficult for local troops to determine the object in the river was a person until the soldier emerged from the water just before midnight, officials told reporters at a briefing.

The local military unit then sent a team and took the individual safely into custody, they said, adding that no unusual North Korean military movements were detected in the area.

“The man is an active-duty soldier who expressed his desire to defect to the South,” officials said. “Related procedures are underway.”

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link, but that is quite a swim getting across the Imjim River during monsoon season. According to Yonhap this was the first defection across the Imjim River since 2010.

A cut of 118,000 servicemembers is going to be quite a reduction in the size of the ROK military by 2022:

Concerns are being raised over possible regional economic crises in cities near the inter-Korean border as they are seeing a considerable population outflow with military units in the region having been or set to be withdrawn or unified in the near future. This is in line with the country’s overall Defense Reform 2.0 troop drawdown plan.

Under the five-year plan announced by President Moon Jae-in last July, the military is seeking to be smaller but “smarter” to counter the demographic cliff the country is facing. The combined number of troops in the ROK Armed Forces ― the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marines ― is currently 618,000 but the government is planning to cut this by 118,000 by 2022. 

Out of the eight corps currently being operated by the Republic of Korea Army, two ― VI Corps in Pocheon, Gyeonggi Province and VII Corps in Yangyang, Gangwon Province ― will be disbanded, while the number of Army divisions will also see a reduction from 39 to 33, according to military sources. 

Korea Times

You can read the rest at the link, but the governments of the cities near the DMZ are concerned about the loss of population from the troop cuts and how it will effect regional economies. The governments are planning to turn towards DMZ eco-tourism to fill the economic gap the cuts in troops is going to cause.

Whatever you say:

 An unidentified object detected on military radars flying near the border with North Korea turned out to be a flock of birds, the Joint Chiefs of Staff said Monday, after the detection prompted fighter jets to scramble.

Earlier in the day, the JCS said that the military “is checking and taking measures after the military radar captured an unidentified object in the sky above the Demilitarized Zone in the central portion of the inter-Korean border in Gangwon Province at around 1 p.m.

The object was found some 4.5 kilometers above the ground, inside the no-fly zone that the two Koreas set up along the border under the inter-Korean military agreement signed in September last year, according to a JCS officer.

“Upon spotting that, the military deployed several jets in response, which later confirmed that the trace was made by around 20 birds, which were presumed to be wild geese,” the officer said. 

While scrambling the jets, the South Korean military sent a notification to North Korea via the inter-Korean military communication channel in accordance with the military pact in order to prevent any accidental clashes, he added.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link, but I have heard of doppler radar picking up geese, but you would think the ROK would have more sensors to detect aircraft than just a doppler radar.

If Kim Jong-un does meet with President Trump at the DMZ, it seems that should be taken as a sign that the regime believes a deal to reopen the Kaesong Industrial Complex and Kumgang Tours is a real possibility. Meeting with the President at the DMZ would be a perfect opportunity for Kim to make his case for reopening the complex directly to the U.S. President:

U.S. President Donald Trump said Saturday he expects to have a “really interesting” visit to the inter-Korean border amid keen attention on the possibility of his meeting North Korean leader Kim Jong-un there.

He was speaking to pool reporters just before joining a welcome dinner hosted by President Moon Jae-in and first lady Kim Jung-sook at Cheong Wa Dae, Seoul’s presidential office, shortly after his arrival in South Korea.

On a potential three-way summit between the two Koreas and the U.S. during his tour of the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) on Sunday, Trump said, “We’re gonna see. We are working things out right now.”

When a reporter asked him about whether he has “heard anything” from North Korea, he said, “We have. Yes.” He did not elaborate.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.