Choi Won-suk is a photojournalist at The Korea Times. Before joining the newspaper, he also worked as a photojournalist with AFP and St. Joseph News-Press in Missouri. He spent 13 years in the United States, graduating with a Bachelor of Journalism degree (Cum Laude) from the University of Missouri - Columbia and a Master of Arts in Photography from Ohio University - Athens. Over the past 11 years, Choi covered various news events such as presidential elections, the 2019 North Korea-United States Hanoi Summit and 2022 Qatar World Cup. But above all, Choi believes in local journalism and finds a lot of joy telling life stories of ordinary citizens in small neighborhoods.
South Korea exhumes remains of soldiers in DMZ
South Korea exhumed the remains of two soldiers in the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) during its demining operation this week, the South's defence ministry said on Thursday.
South Korea has dug up the remains of two soldiers it believes were killed during the Korean war. The country's defense ministry says the exhumations happened in the 'Demilitarized Zone' - or DMZ - during a demining operation.
Separating North and South Korea, the barrier is one of the world's most heavily fortified frontiers. The conflict between the two sides ran from 1950 - 1953.
It's thought the bodies of more than 10,000 soldiers are still in the zone, including UN fighters. The team also unearthed a military identification tag typical of a South Korean soldier.
The two Koreas have been removing mines in the DMZ to make it safe before a joint project to exhume war remains next year. It's part of a military agreement signed by both sides after the third inter-Korean summit in Pyongyang last month.
Isolated North Korea and democratic South Korea are still technically at war. That's because the 1950s conflict ended in a truce - not a peace treaty.
But South Korean President Moon Jae-in is now keen to formally end the war by the end of 2018. But Washington has linked this to progress on denuclearization.
As part of the thaw in relations, the two Koreas are also working together to pull out some guard posts on their border, withdraw firearms and share information on surveillance. (Reuters)