Category: DMZ

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.

I wonder if this was a quid pro quo to get North Korea to return to talks or even release Jeffrey Fowle?:

A giant steel Christmas tree near the border with North Korea that served as a propaganda symbol for the South for 43 years has been pulled down.

It used to stand at Aegibong Peak in Gimpo, Gyeonggi Province and twinkle a message of progress, consumerism and born-again Christianity across the border, to the fury of the North Korean regime.

The local government now plans to build a peace park with the budget of W29.6 billion (US$1=W1,052) there.

Military authorities pulled it down on Oct. 15-16 citing safety reasons. The structure “was rated very dangerous in a safety inspection of military facilities and structures in November last year,” a Defense Ministry spokesman said. [Chosun Ilbo]

You can read more at the link, but few people seem fooled by the safety reasons cited when it has been there for 43 years.

Unsurprisingly the North Koreans are blaming the ROK for the latest border clash despite their soldier intentionally violating the MDL:

North Korea has threatened to retaliate against South Korea if the South continues to make a military response against its patrol activities around the heavily armed inter-Korean border, the defense minister said Monday.

In a telephone message, the North denounced the South firing shots against its soldiers after warning broadcasts, claiming its activity around the military demarcation line (MDL) was just patrols, the ministry said.

The North also said it will continue to patrol around the MDL in the future.

The North’s response came after its second straight provocation around the border between Saturday and Sunday.

On Saturday, about 10 North Korean soldiers who were approaching the MDL near Cheolwon, a central border city of the South, returned to their side after warning shots were fired by the South’s soldiers. On Sunday, other North Korean soldiers advanced toward the MDL near Paju, a city located about 40 kilometers northwest of Seoul to cause warning shots from South Korean soldiers. The North’s soldiers exchanged fire with the South’s soldiers before going back.  [Yonhap]

You can read more at the link, but this is just another example of how the North Koreans continuously try and keep tensions high to pressure the South Koreans to make concessions as well as to make international headlines to show the world they are still a threat.  The latest concessions they want is for the ROK to stop the balloon launches and modify the NLL.

I guess this how you exchange pleasantries on the DMZ:

South and North Korea exchanged fire across the heavily fortified border on Sunday, but there was no report of South Korean casualties.

The incident took around 5:40 p.m. when South Korea fired warning shots against North Korean soldiers who were approaching the military demarcation line in Paju after broadcasting warning messages.

North Korea apparently fired back against South Korea, according to South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff, noting two marks from North Korean guns were found in a South Korean guard post.

South Korea also returned fired against North Korea, according to the JCS. [Yonhap]

When people think of provocations from North Korea most people today think that the deadliest incidents from the rogue regime have been targeted against South Korea. The largest loss of life from one provocation by North Korea was the sinking of the ROK Navy ship the Cheonan in 2010 that killed 46 personnel on the ship and wounded 56 more. What many people don’t realize is that the US military historically has been subject to many provocations from North Korea as well to include the 2nd deadliest attack, the shoot down of an EC-121 reconnaissance plane that killed all 31 men on board.

This deadly attack occurred on April 15, 1969 when the EC-121 which used the call sign “Deep Sea 129” was shot down in international waters 167 kilometers off the coast of North Korea. The EC-121 is an intelligence gathering platform that picks up radio transmissions in the area that it is conducting surveillance of. The mission of the Deep Sea 129 would not only be to pick up radio transmissions from North Korea, but from China and Russia as well. The military has conducted these flights on behalf of the National Security Agency (NSA) for many years.

The routine flight of the Deep Sea 129 began at 0700 local time when it took off from Atsugi, Japan. On board were 8 officers and 23 enlisted men under the command of LCDR James Overstreet. The plane first flew over Japan and then over the Sea of Japan. Once over the Sea of Japan the EC-121 flew in a clockwise ellipse as it collected signal intelligence from the region. LCDR Overstreet was given orders that his flight pattern would not go any further than 90 kilometers from North Korea. Radars at Osan Airbase in South Korea as well as back in Yokota Airbase in Japan tracked the missions progress as well as looking for any aircraft being dispatched from North Korea. At 12:34 local time radars at Osan Airbase detected that two MIG-17s had been launched by North Korea. At 13:00 Deep Sea 129 issued a routine report and everything seemed normal. At 13:22 the radars as Osan lost track of the two MIG-17s and reacquired them at 13:37. When the aircraft were reacquired it became obvious that the MIGs were dispatched to intercept the EC-121. At 13:44 Deep Sea 129 was alerted that they were being intercepted. At 13:47 the MIGs had reached the vicinity of Deep Sea 129 and then at 13:49 the EC-121 disappeared from the radar screen.

After the EC-121 disappeared from the radar screen the operators originally thought that it may have followed normal procedures and dropped to an altitude below radar coverage. This thought prevailed because the operators figured that if the MIGs were acting hostile to the EC-121 than LCDR Overstreet would have radioed something back to Japan. However, after 10 minutes had past and no radio transmission had been received from LCDR Overstreet, people began to fear the worst. Two US jets were dispatched from Japan to conduct a Combat Air Patrol of the area where the EC-121 had last been tracked. By 14:44 almost an hour after Deep Sea 129 was last tracked, the CAP planes could not find the EC-121 and the command in Japan decided to send an urgent message back to the Pentagon and the White House that they feared the EC-121 had been shot down.

The reactions from political leaders in Washington once the news was heard was initially very harsh. On Capitol Hill, Mendel Rivers, chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, proclaimed: ‘There can be only one answer for America-retaliation, retaliation, retaliation!’ Chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, Rep. L Mendel Rivers, called for military retaliation against North Korea with “whatever is necessary. If nuclear weapons are required, let them have it. It’s time to give them what they ask for.”

As the political leadership back at the US reacted to the shoot down the military command back in Japan prepared a massive search and rescue effort to recover the plane and any survivors. The plane had life rafts the crew could have used if the plane crashed intact. The seas were not too rough and temperatures were in the 40s. So if the crew survived the crash they had a high chance of survival in the conditions if found quickly. The search was conducted by C-130s from Japan that were supported by a K-135 Stratotanker to provide fuel support. These search and rescue aircraft were further supported by CAP aircraft. In total 26 aircraft were used during the search and rescue operation. Besides the aircraft two American destroyers, the USS Dale and the USS Tucker reached the suspected crash site around 9PM. The Soviet Union would also dispatch two destroyers to search for survivors as well. The Soviets were probably eager to show the US they did not support the North Koreans actions by assisting with the search and rescue. The Soviet destroyer the Vdokhnovenie recovered pieces of the downed aircraft as well as the only two bodies found during the entire search effort. The bodies of LTJG Joseph R. Ribar and AT1 Richard E. Sweeney were turned over to the USS Tucker on April 17th. This ended the search and rescue operation and the bodies of the other 29 crew members were never recovered.

With the end of the search and rescue operation, US President Richard Nixon had to decide on what to do in response to North Korea’s deadly provocation. During this time period North Korea had even taken the rare step of bragging on their state radio station of shooting down the aircraft that they said was flying over their territorial waters. Despite calls for retaliation from various political figures Nixon decided to go with most other officials were recommending which was essentially to do nothing. With the war raging in Vietnam many US officials thought it was unwise to open up a possible second front war on the Korean peninsula. So he decided not to do anything provocative against the North Koreans such as bombing the airfield where the MIGs that shot down the EC-121 flew from. Instead he conducted a show of force by continuing the reconnaissance flights while backed with appropriate naval and Air Force support to protect them. This showed American resolve to the North Koreans while not creating a second war in Asia.

What I cannot understand is why the EC-121 was left without escort of some kind in the first place? The mission of the EC-121 was very similar to what the USS Pueblo ship was doing when it was fired upon and captured by the North Koreans in 1968. Considering that North Korea had shown previously an intent to target US reconnaissance efforts it seems surprising to me that the Pentagon was allowing the EC-121 flights off the coast of North Korea to continue with out a fighter escort or at least ships in the Sea of Japan that could provide better early warning of any potential North Korean fighters trying to intercept them.

Below is a list of all the lives that were lost by this act of North Korean aggression. Like all the other lives brought to an early end by the thugs and killers of the Kim regime in North Korea these men should not be forgotten:

 

• LCDR James H Overstreet
• LT John N Dzema
• LT Dennis B Gleason
• LT Peter P Perrottey
• LT John H Singer
• LT Robert F Taylor
• LTJG Joseph R Ribar
• LTJG Robert J Sykora
• LTJG Norman E. Wilkerson
• Louis F Balderman, ADR2
• Stephen C Chartier, AT1
• Bernie J Colgin, AT1
• Ballard F Connors, Jr, ADR1
• Gary R DuCharme, CT3
• Gene K Graham, ATN3
• LaVerne A Greiner, AEC
• Dennis J Horrigan, ATR2
• Richard H Kincaid, ATN2
• Marshall H McNamara, ADRC
• Timothy H McNeil, ATR2
• John A Miller, CT3
• John H Potts, CT1
• Richard T Prindle, AMS3
• Richard E Smith, CTC
• Philip D Sundby, CT3
• Richard E Sweeney, AT1
• Stephen J Tesmer, CT2
• David M Willis, ATN3
• Hugh M Lynch, SSGT, USMC
• Frederick A. Randall, CTC
• James Leroy Roach, AT1

10 years ago, the 2002 West Sea Naval Battle, also known as the 2nd Battle of Yeonpyeong took place which at the time was an event that clearly showed the contradictions within South Korean society in regards to their perceptions of North Korea and the United States.  Before getting into the political and social aspects of this battle, first let me recap what happened.

Replica of ROK Chamsuri 357 that fought in the 2nd Battle of Yeonpyeong.

On June 29, 2002, one day before the closing ceremony of the World Cup being held in Korea that year, the North Koreans likely tried to draw attention from away from all the glory South Korea had been receiving from their amazing World Cup performance that year by prevoking a naval battle in the West Sea.  They did this by sending a patrol boat, the Yukto 388 across the disputed Northern Limit Line that demarcates the border between North and South Korea along the Yellow Sea.  The ship crossed near Yeonpyeong Island which is the same island that the North Koreans launched an artillery attack against in 2010 that killed two ROK Marines as well as two civilians.

A South Korean naval vessel the Chamsuri 357 was sent to escort the North Korean ship back into North Korean waters shortly before 10 AM that day.  A 2nd North Korean ship the Tungsangot 684 then crossed the NLL as well.  Both North Koreans ship crossed 3-5 kilometers south of the NLL before being intercepted by the Chamsuri 357.  Since a 2nd North Korean ship was spotted the Chamsuri 358 was dispatched to help as well.   The two South Korean ships intercepted the North Korean ships and issued three warnings by radio to return across the NLL.

That is when the North Korean ship the Tungsangot began to open fire with its 85mm gun at about 450 meters away causing severe damage to the South Korean Chamsuri 357.  In this initial attack five sailors on the Chamsuri 357 were killed to include the captain Lieutenant Yun Yong-ha.  Despite heavy damage the crew of the Chamsuri 357 fired back and the Chamsuri 358 began to open fire as well on the two North Korean ships.  As additional ROK Navy ships began to respond to the attack both North Korean ships retreated back across the NLL where the Tungsangot was seen burning heavily.  The battle was over before 11:00 AM when ROK Naval authorities decided not to pursue the North Korean ships across the NLL in order to avoid escalating the conflict. The clash ultimately ended up costing the lives of six South Korean sailors with 18 more wounded.

It is believed that the North Koreans suffered 13 deaths and 25 wounded, but their two ships were both able to limp back into harbor while the Chamsuri would eventually sink while being towed away from the NLL.  North Korean defectors would later provide details about the aftermath of the battle.  In September of 2002 the gunner of the 85mm gun that made the deadly hit against the Chamsuri 357 was honored by the North Korean authorities as a “Hero of the Republic”.  The North Korean sailor named Seo Ju Cheol was then allowed to visit his hometown where a big celebration was given in his honor.

There was also celebrating in South Korea after the battle as well, but it wasn’t for the sailors that bravely fought off the North Korean provocation.  Instead the country largely ignored the battle in its euphoria of not only hosting a widely successful World Cup, but the fact that the South Korean team reached the tournament’s semi-finals sending nationalism in the country to an all-time high.  In fact the ROK sailors would receive little recognition at all by the South Korean government.  The Kim Dae-jung government at the time wanted to minimize what happened and keep the grieving families quiet because they did not want to upset their Sunshine Policy with North Korea, especially in a presidential election year in the ROK.  Interestingly many of these same ROK politicians were busy encouraging or doing nothing about the anti-Americanism in the aftermath of the US Army Armored Vehicle Accident that tragically killed two South Korean teenagers two weeks before the naval clash.   So basically the Korean government turned a blind eye to the premeditated murder of six ROK sailors while actively encouraging anti-Americanism against their long-time ally because of a tragic traffic accident.

In commemoration of the second anniversary of the West Sea naval battle, memorial services were held at the headquarters of the Navy’s 2nd Fleet in Pyeongtaek, Gyeonggi Province on Tuesday. Hwang Eun-tae, father of the late Petty Officer First Class Hwang Do-hyun, weeps while reading a letter in front of his son’s portrait.

Even more heartless was the the fact that the South Korean government sent no flag officers to attend a memorial ceremony or the President even offer any condolences to the families after the attack. USFK however did send representatives to the ceremony and USFK Commander General LaPorte offered the families his condolences.  The memorial service was held on a ROK Navy base in order to minimize media access and prevent anti-North Korean activist groups from attending the memorial. One wife of a deceased sailor was so fed up with how the Korean government treated her, that she left Korea and went to the United States. This is what she said before boarding the plane:

“If the indifference and inhospitality shown to those soldiers who were killed or wounded protecting the nation continue, what soldier will lay down his life in the battlefield?”

Here’s a quote from one of the fathers of one of the murdered sailors that really struck a cord with me:

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]

“Frankly, I hate Korea”, no those are not the words of a disgruntled American expat or GI saying that, that is a Korean woman who was so outraged by the actions of the Korean government that she left the country.  She is not alone in her criticism of the Korean government over what happened in 2002.

The Chosun Ilbo newspaper published a series of interviews from some of the sailors injured in the 2002 attack and here are excerpts of what they had to say:

Another naval gunner, Kim Taek-jung, 25, has given up his dream of becoming a civil engineer and is preparing for the civil service exam instead. “Because civil engineering requires active work at the site, I’ve made a realistic decision to become a public servant, I still have four or five pieces of shrapnel in my body,” Kim said. “One night I remembered the faces of my six dead comrades, but I couldn’t recall the name of one of them, so I sobbed all night.”

Although they suffer from sleepless nights and nightmares, those without external injuries are not entitled to benefits as “persons of merit.” Ko Kyug-rak, 25, also a naval gunner, said, “For over a year after the incident I was unable to sleep more than three hours a night.” Aboard the patrol boat that turned into a sea of flame, Ko saw his peers burned and their heads blown away and lost some of his hearing. But when he went to a military hospital to claim benefit, Ko was given cool treatment. “A doctor ignored the psychological problems and only asked me to show any external wounds,” he said. “If benefits for persons of merit are granted for this level of injuries, the doctor said, it would have an adverse effect on the state budget.”

Another wounded veteran, Kim Myun-joo, 26, has applied for meritorious benefit twice, but in vain. “I’m just sad because I feel like that post-traumatic stress disorder and efforts to safeguard the country are being neglected,” he said

Of the six victims this paper interviewed, three have office jobs and three are students, all trying hard to make a future for themselves despite the difficulties. What they want from the country is just one thing: that it remembers that many young people were killed or wounded while safeguarding the country on June 29, 2002. “I just wish they remembered the battle once a year, even if they don’t pay much attention. Nothing else,” said Lee Jae-yong, 25.

President Roh did not attend a memorial ceremony for the murdered sailors and the memorial services in later years were attended largely by ROK Navy and USFK leaders. The South Korean ruling party failure to honor these brave sailors was only a further example of the failure of the Sunshine Policy. The South Korean government gave massive amounts of aid to North Korea and they murder South Korean sailors, fire a tactical ballistic missiles, and test nuclear weapons among of host of other provocations. Probably the worst example of North Korean appeasement is how the South Korean political left ignored the plight of hundreds of South Korean citizens that had been abducted by North Korean commandos and agents over the years.  A South Korean wife of one of the abductees had to mount her own personal rescue operation to free her husband from enslavement in North Korea while the South Korean government did nothing to assist her.  So the 2nd Battle of Yeonpyeong was just one of many incidents in a long line of appeasement of North Korea.  In the ensuing years the South Korean government under left wing President Roh Moo-hyun would send North Korea a record of over one billion dollars in aid which is more than they pay to help fund the US-ROK alliance.

Fortunately once President Lee Myung-bak was elected to office he ended the outrage committed against the families of the deceased sailors and began a policy of properly honoring the veterans from West Sea Naval Battle.  In fact a replica of the Chamsuri 357 now sits at the War Memorial in Yongsan where children visit it to learn about the West Sea Naval Battle.

In fact the change in attitude under the Lee Myung-bak government caused the wife of the deceased ROK sailor to return home from the US:

The widow of Petty Officer Han Sang-guk, who was killed in a June 2002 naval battle with North Korea near Yeonpyeong Island in the West Sea, will return to her mother country in April three years after her departure to the U.S. Kim Jong-seon left the country in April 2005 due to disappointment that the government ignored those killed in the battle. Kim told the Chosun Ilbo on Monday she is winding up her life in the U.S. and booked a flight leaving for South Korea on April 1.

Kim had said until last year she would not return to South Korea although she missed her family, since the nation seemed to pay inappropriate respect to the young soldiers who sacrificed their lives for it. Now she has changed her mind, motivated by reports that president-elect Lee Myung-bak’s Transition Team and the Defense Ministry decided to upgrade the memorial service for the victims of the West Sea Battle to a state event.   [Chosun Ilbo]

In addition to honoring the sailors killed in the 2nd Batlle of Yeonpyeong, the Lee administration also drastically cut aid to the North Koreans.  The North Koreans would respond by not only launching the artillery attack against Yeonpyeong Island, but also sinking the ROK Naval vessel the Cheonan that resulted in the deaths of 46 ROK sailors.  However, unlike the brave sailors of the 2nd Battle of Yeonpyeong these sailors were not forgotten and continue to be honored by the ROK government for their service to the nation.  Hopefully it never happens again that any ROK servicemember who gives their life for their nation should ever be forgotten and their families treated like criminals by the government they were serving to protect.  Considering all the provocations in recent years along the North Limit Line there will undoubtedly be more ROK servicemembers murdered by the North Korean regime which shows that today there isn’t a bigger DMZ Flashpoint than the Northern Limit Line.

Note: You can read more DMZ Flashpoints articles at the below link: