pyongyang Korean Border in Global Spotlight
By Jung Sung-ki
Staff Reporter
President Roh Moo-hyun's crossing of the Military Demarcation Line (MDL) dividing the Korean Peninsula into North Korea on foot was in the global spotlight Tuesday because of the symbolism associated with the heavily armed border, often dubbed the Cold War's last frontier.
The MDL, sometimes referred to as the Armistice Line, is the border between South and North Korea that was drawn at the end of the 1950-53 Korean War, which ended in a ceasefire, not a permanent peace treaty.
The MDL runs across land and sea. The Northern Limit Line (NLL) in the West serves as the maritime MDL.
The MDL runs down the center of the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ), a military buffer zone, that crosses the 38th parallel at an angle from southwest to northeast. The DMZ is 248 kilometers long and four kilometers wide.
Former U.S. President Bill Clinton once called the DMZ ``the scariest place on earth.''
In the ceasefire treaty signed on July 27, 1953, by the U.S.-led United Nations Command (UNC), North Korea and China, the DMZ was created as each side agreed in the armistice to move their troops back two kilometers from the MDL, creating a buffer zone. The armistice bans soldiers from each side from carrying weapons.
But South and North Korea have virtually breached the ceasefire treaty due to hostility between the two sides. South Korea operates about 100 guard posts, while North Korea has about 280 inside the DMZ.
Large numbers of troops are stationed along both sides of the line, each side patrolling against potential aggression from the other side. The North has enough artillery on its side of the border to flatten metropolitan Seoul, home to 12 million people, within a few hours.
Though generally calm, the DMZ has been the scene of much saber rattling between the two Koreas over the years. Several skirmishes have occurred within the Joint Security Area, such as the ``axe murder incident'' in 1976 in which North Korean troops killed two American soldiers.
In an effort to reduce military tensions across the border, President Roh is likely to propose disarming the buffer zone and turning it to a ``peace zone,'' government officials said. Roh is also expected to deal with the possible redrawing of the NLL, which the North has intensively demanded.
Roh is also considering proposing talks on arms reductions between the two sides.
South Korea is seeking to transform its 690,000-strong military to a slimmer but stronger one equipped with high-tech weapons systems. North Korea keeps 1.1 million troops armed with nuclear and conventional weapons.