[The army engineers’ efforts on Monday began a two-month operation to clear mines and build a road to Arrowhead Hill, also known as Hill 281, in the DMZ, the South Korean Defense Ministry said in a statement. Arrowhead Hill was selected as the site for them to jointly conduct a pilot search for remains within the no-man’s zone, where some of the fiercest battles of the Korean War were fought.]
By Choe Sang-Hun
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South
Korean soldiers searching for land mines near the Demilitarized Zone that
separates
the two Koreas in Yeoncheon, South Korea, in 2010. North and South
Korea began removing mines at two sites along
their heavily fortified border
Monday,
as part of an effort to ease military tensions. Credit Lim
Byung-Shick/Yonhap,
via Associated Press
|
SEOUL,
South Korea — Army engineers
from North and South Korea began clearing land mines on Monday in the
Demilitarized Zone between their nations as they prepared to search there for
the remains of soldiers killed during the Korean War.
A similar mine-clearance operation also began
in Panmunjom, a truce village in the DMZ, a buffer zone two and a half miles
wide. Although Panmunjom was originally created as a neutral area, it has since
been the site of armed standoff and occasional violence.
When President Moon Jae-in of South Korea and
North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong-un, met last month in Pyongyang, the North’s
capital, they agreed to take steps to lower tensions along the border, like the
banning of military flights or drills near the frontier. The measures also
included jointly searching for Korean War dead — including American and French
troops — within the DMZ and disarming Panmunjom to turn it into a “peace zone”
where tourists from both sides could move around freely.
When the armistice halting the 1950-53 war
was signed at Panmunjom, the American-led United Nations Command agreed with
Communist generals of North Korea and China to create the “demilitarized” buffer
zone to keep the warring armies apart. Despite its name, the DMZ has since
become the world’s most heavily fortified frontier, defended with layers of
fences and numerous guard posts.
The inter-Korean border is also among the
world’s most densely mined. Soldiers venturing into the zone on patrol or
occasional defectors from the North have to navigate around mines that have
become more treacherous as they are dislodged by floodwaters and landslides.
The army engineers’ efforts on Monday began a
two-month operation to clear mines and build a road to Arrowhead Hill, also
known as Hill 281, in the DMZ, the South Korean Defense Ministry said in a
statement. Arrowhead Hill was selected as the site for them to jointly conduct
a pilot search for remains within the no-man’s zone, where some of the fiercest
battles of the Korean War were fought.
About 300 American and French troops who
fought for South Korea as United Nations forces during the war are believed to
be buried around Arrowhead Hill, along with hundreds of Korean soldiers from
both sides.
Mr. Moon and Mr. Kim held their first summit
meeting in April at Panmunjom, which has served as a place for negotiation
since the war.
Also known as the Joint Security Area,
Panmunjom was originally created as the only place in the DMZ where soldiers
and officials from both sides could move around freely. But the village has had
its share of tensions and violence over the years.
In 1976, North Korean soldiers wielding axes
killed two American Army officers there. After that, a demarcation line was
drawn across the village so that armed guards could patrol their own sides.
Last November, North Korean troops unleashed a hail of bullets at a fellow
Communist soldier dashing across the line to escape to the South. He was
severely wounded but made it across the border.
Mr. Moon has been eager to turn Panmunjom
into a neutral zone, as it was intended, as part of his broader efforts to
improve ties with the North. His success will rest largely on whether North
Korea and the United States can agree on how to denuclearize the North.
During his trip to New York late last month,
Mr. Moon told President Trump that Mr. Kim was willing to negotiate away his
nuclear arsenal. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo plans to visit Pyongyang this
month to help arrange a second meeting between Mr. Kim and Mr. Trump.
But speaking at the United Nations General
Assembly last week, the North’s foreign minister, Ri Yong-ho, reiterated that
his country would never give up its nuclear weapons unless Washington took
“corresponding” steps, like easing sanctions and declaring an end to the war.
Washington insists that North Korea denuclearize before expecting any rewards.
“We have started a bold journey toward a
permanent peace and prosperity on the Korean Peninsula,” Mr. Moon said on
Monday in a speech marking the South’s Armed Forces Day. “Because this is a
road never traveled before, it’s difficult to predict what trouble we may
encounter along the way.”
Reflecting Mr. Moon’s efforts to ease
tensions, South Korea skipped a parade for its military’s 70th anniversary.
Instead, Mr. Moon attended a ceremony on Monday welcoming the remains of 64
South Korean soldiers flown from the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency in
Hawaii.
Those remains were among hundreds of Korean
War dead that United States officials recovered at battle sites in North Korea
from 1996 to 2005, when search operations were suspended.
When Mr. Kim and Mr. Trump first met in
Singapore in June, they committed to recovering Korean War remains. In July,
North Korea returned remains believed to be those of 55 American troops killed
in the war, a concession Mr. Trump has called a major diplomatic victory. Both
sides agreed to help recover more remains.