Category: DMZ

This month will be the 13 year anniversary of the 2002 West Sea Naval Battle that saw six South Korean sailors murdered by the North Koreans along the Northern Limit Line in the West Sea.  What was probably the most disgraceful about this attack was how the then South Korean government did everything possible to cover up the attack to maintain the illusion of the Sunshine Policy.  Even worse was that the deceased sailors were treated like they were criminals:

The father said, “My son is buried in the National Cemetery. But I’m going to take my son’s remains to my family burial site in my hometown.” Having watched the situation develop, he thought his son who was killed by North Korean soldiers was considered nothing more than a criminal.

Some parents said that they are more scared of people who consider the U.S. a bigger enemy than North Korean leader Kim Jong-il, who killed their son. We lose courage to defend the country, when we hear that a wife whose husband fell in the battle is preparing to leave this country. Reading a condolence letter from the USFK commander to mark the second anniversary, the wife said, “The Americans remember my husband and his brothers-in-arms better than Koreans… Frankly, I hate Korea.”  [Chosun Ilbo]

You can read more about this attack at the below link:

• DMZ Flashpoints: The 2002 West Sea Naval Battle

However, times have changed and now with Sunshine Policy exposed for the fraud that it was the Korean movie industry is releasing a movie this month heroically depicting the ROK sailors that fought in the 2002 West Sea Battle:

The forgotten sacrifices made by young South Korean sailors during a bloody naval clash with North Korea 13 years ago will be portrayed on the silver screen in a new film funded partly by citizens.

The movie titled “Battle of Yeonpyeong,” to be released next week, is based on the naval skirmish between the two Koreas on June 29, 2002, in waters off the South Korean border island of Yeonpyeong in the Yellow Sea.
Six sailors were killed and 18 others were injured after a fierce exchange of fire, which was sparked when two North Korean patrol boats infiltrated the maritime border.

The occasion, which is known to also have caused some 30 casualties in the North, is called the Second Battle of Yeonpyeong, with the first battle taking place in 1999.  “I’ve wanted to depict the ironic situation where the young sailors, who are someone’s beloved sons, fathers, and friends, were killed on one side, while others were overwhelmed by the 2002 World Cup,” Kim Hak-soon, director of the film, said Wednesday ahead of a press preview.  [Korea Observer]

You can read the rest of the article at the link, but I look forward to watching this movie.

It looks like the Kim regime is intent to keep tensions high along the maritime DMZ:

North Korea is building military camps for shore batteries on a tensely guarded Yellow Sea border island, the South’s military authorities said Tuesday.

“Five bunker-shaped camps have been built on the island of Gal,” a military officer said, requesting anonymity, citing the North Korean island just above the de-facto inter-Korean western sea border of the Northern Limit Line (NLL).

“The North is expected to either deploy 122-millimeter multiple rocket launchers there or to use them as guard posts,” he said, adding the military is closely monitoring the movements there.

This file photo, dated May 28, 2009, shows a Chinese fishing vessel sailing past the island of Gal just above the de-facto inter-Korean western sea border of the Northern Limit Line in the Yellow Sea. South Korea`s military officials said on May 26, 2015. (YONHAP) (END)
The island is located just 4.5 kilometers away from South Korea’s Yeonpyeong Island, where the communist country launched an artillery attack in November 2010, killing two Marines and two civilians, and wounding more than a dozen others. [Yonhap]

The North Koreans seem to be building up to another provocation cycle over the Northern Limit Line in the Yellow Sea:

Adm. Choi Yun-hee, the chairman of South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff, visited the Navy’s western command headquarters on Saturday, vowing to defend the Yellow Sea border against possible provocations from North Korea.

Also on Saturday, North Korea test-fired three anti-ship missiles into the sea off its east coast in what was seen as its latest show of force against Seoul.

South Korean military officials identified the North’s anti-ship missiles KN-01 cruise missiles and said the missiles were fired off into the sea off Wonsan, a major port on the North’s east coast, in a span of one hour starting at 4:25 p.m.

The missiles with a range of 100 kilometers are believed to have been modified from Chinese Silkworm missiles, they said.  [Yonhap]

You can read the rest at the link, but all though the North Koreans test fired the missiles into the East Sea in was clearly intended to send a message to the South Korean Navy operating ships along the NLL.

It appears that the North Koreans may be ramping up to justify a provocation in the Yellow Sea:

South and North Korea exchanged barbs on Friday over Pyongyang’s claims of South Korean ships’ violation of the western sea border.

In what it called “an emergency special warning,” the communist country’s Command in Southwestern Sector of Front claimed that South Korean Navy speedboats made a “military provocation” by deeply intruding into the North’s territorial waters in the Yellow Sea two or three times a day between May 1 and 7.

“From this moment, it will make a sighting strike without any prior warning at any warship of the South Korean Navy intruding into the extension of demarcation line in the hotspot (of the sea),” said the statement carried by the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).

North Korea also threatened to successively deal stronger blows to the South’s ships if South Korea makes counterattacks on the North, according to the KCNA.

Pyongyang does not acknowledge the border, known as the Northern Limit Line (NLL), which was drawn unilaterally by the U.S.-led United Nations Command when the 1950-53 Korean War ended in a ceasefire. The North has long demanded that the line be drawn farther south.  [Yonhap]

You can read more at the link.

This reminds me of people complaining about aircraft noise after they build a home near an airport:

South Korean officials say they will replace portions of a 16.4-mile stretch of barbed wire along the northeast coast with electronic surveillance equipment after residents complained the fence is ugly.

The barbed wire was meant to protect the coast against sea infiltration by countries such as North Korea, a Ministry of National Defense spokesman said Tuesday on customary condition of anonymity.

The fence will be removed in 41 areas in Gangwon province, which borders North Korea, in the first half of 2015, according to the ministry. North Korean subs were discovered along that stretch of coastline in the 1990s near the cities of Sokcho and Donghae.

The MND spokesman said officials are not concerned about reduced security because the unmanned surveillance equipment has already been tested. He would not comment on whether removing the fence would affect South Korean troop levels along the eastern coast.  [Stars & Stripes]

You can read the rest at the link.

Volunteers plant trees in the demilitarized zone in Cheorwon, Gangwon Province on Friday. /Newsis

I wonder if the North Koreans intentionally set this fire or not?

A fire broke out on North Korea’s side of the heavily guarded demilitarized zone (DMZ) on Monday afternoon, South Korean authorities said.

The fire spread through the barbed-wire fence separating the two Koreas at 1:15 p.m., reaching the Dora Observatory in Paju City, Gyeonggi Province.

“The fire started in North Korean territory and spread south,” an official said.

The northern region of Gyeonggi Province recently issued a drought warning.

Seven fire engines and about 50 firemen fought the blaze.  [Korea Times]

You can read more at the link.

Our Run DMZ t-shirt is back by popular demand! Get it here: http://t.co/b4NPZBdTCH pic.twitter.com/kVgVx0Dr6Q

— Liberty in NK (@LibertyinNK) February 25, 2015

Back due to popular demand is Chickenhead’s hilarious carol “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.

Two months ago the infamous DMZ Christmas tree was pulled down and now for whatever reason the Defense Ministry has decided to allow a Christian group to construct a new one:

A North Korean religious association slammed a South Korean Christian group’s plan to light a big Christmas tree in the Aegibong Peak Observatory in Gimpo, south of the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ).

It said Friday that the lighting is, “an act of madness and it is unacceptable.”

“The Christian Council of Korea (CCK) attempts to use religion as a means to spur confrontation between the people of the two sides. It should realize that the malicious plan could lead to a military action from the North,” the North’s association said.

The reaction came weeks after the CCK unveiled a plan to set up a big Christmas tree in the observatory and light it on Dec. 23. The tree will be dressed in Christmas lights for two weeks until Jan. 6, the group said.

The Ministry of National Defense approved the plan.  [Korea Times]

You can read more at the link, but the tree is used by the ROK military as a psychological warfare weapon.  The North Koreans can look across the border and see the lights of South Korea to include this Christmas tree which stands in stark contrast to the regular power outages they face in North Korea.