North Korean officer’s terse warning to US, as DMZ tensions rise
South Korea halted tours to its side of the DMZ the day after the January 6 nuclear test, when it also announced it would resume cross-border propaganda broadcasts.
Tensions have increased significantly along the Demilitarised Zone since North Korea’s recent nuclear test and rocket launch, a North Korean military official said on Monday, adding that while he could not comment on operational details, “the reality is that it is touch and go”.
Though parts of the world’s most fortified border can seem like a tourist trap, drawing throngs of camera-happy visitors on both sides every year, to the military-trained eye the cold war-style stand-off along the 257km DMZ – established when the 1950-53 Korean war ended in an armistice, not a peace treaty – is an incident waiting to happen.
That’s now truer than ever, the North Korean officer said, as tensions are escalating between Pyongyang, Seoul and Washington. Thousands of US troops are deployed in South Korea and units based around the DMZ have the motto: “Be Ready to Fight Tonight.”
People come here and they think it’s like a resort. But if you know it better, you know how dangerous it is
“People come here and they think it’s like a resort. But if you know it better, you know how dangerous it is,” Lt. Col. Nam Dong Ho of the North Korean People’s Army said in Panmunjom, the truce village where the armistice was signed.
Nam said tensions have increased significantly since the nuclear test in January and rocket launch earlier this month.
“Something could happen at any time,” he said.
To stand on the North Korean side of the Demilitarised Zone is almost otherworldly. After crossing through military checkpoints and passing roadside concrete structures rigged to detonate and keep any vehicles from passing – defences that are also common in the South – the air is peaceful and fresh, and birds can be heard chirping as they fly over a carefully manicured landscape dotted with rock monuments and meticulously maintained historical buildings.
But closer to the Demarcation Line that marks the actual border, soldiers stand rigidly on guard, armed and intimidating, often just a few steps away from their South Korean counterparts.