Here is something that continues to be a rare occurrence:
Wounded North Korean soldier who defected across the DMZ is rushed to the hospital. [Korea Times]A North Korean soldier defected to South Korea through the Joint Security Area (JSA) in the Demilitarized Zone, Monday, the Joint Chiefs of Staff said.
He received gunshot wounds to the shoulder and elbow from North Korean forces while defecting. The soldier was airlifted by a United Nations Command helicopter to a hospital for treatment after arriving in South Korea, the military said.
“A North Korean soldier defected from a guard post on the North Korean side of the JSA toward our side at 3:31 p.m.,” according to a military official.
After hearing several rounds of gunfire, the South Korean military found him fallen and bleeding on the southern side of the JSA, 25 minutes later, according to the military. He was unarmed and wearing a combat uniform for a low rank, with his identity yet to be found, the military also said. [Yonhap]
You can read more at the link, but North Korean soldiers stationed at the Joint Security Area are chosen for their family’s loyalty to the regime. Assuredly this soldier’s family will be the ones that pay the consequences for his defection.
The fog can get very think around the Imjim River area where Panmunjom is located. I have been out in the field before north of the Imjim where people got lost because of how thick the fog was and had to yell for people to assist them to get back to their vehicle. If the fog was that thick I can understand why the Secret Service would not want to land the helicopter. However, you would think they would have had a Plan B to get the President there by car:
A surprise visit by President Donald Trump to the heavily fortified Korean demilitarized zone was thwarted by bad weather Wednesday — a day after Trump modulated his aggressive rhetoric and urged North Korea to come to the negotiating table.
Trump had been scheduled to make the unannounced early-morning trip to the DMZ amid heightened tensions between the United States and North Korea over Pyongyang’s nuclear program.
Marine One left Seoul at daybreak and flew most of the way to the DMZ but was forced to turn back just five minutes out due to poor weather conditions. Reporters traveling in a chinook helicopter as part of the president’s envoy saw fog out the helicopters’ windows, and weather reports from near the heavily fortified border showed misting conditions and visibility below one mile. Pilots, officials said, could not see the other helicopters in the air.
White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said the president was disappointed he couldn’t make the trip. “I think he’s pretty frustrated,” she told reporters traveling with the president. “It was obviously something he wanted to do.”
Before he left for Asia, a White House official had ruled out the DMZ trip for Trump, claiming the president didn’t have time on his schedule and that DMZ visits have become a little cliché.
But Sanders said the visit had been planned well before Trump’s departure for Asia. The trip was kept secret, Sanders said, for security reasons.
Trump had been scheduled to make the visit with South Korean president Moon Jae-in, who traveled separately and landed about a 20-minute drive from the DMZ. Sanders said the military and the U.S. Secret Service had deemed that landing would not be safe, and Trump deferred to them. [Stars & Stripes]
As the below picture shows US Defense Secretary Mattis decided not to wear his old Marine uniform to the DMZ like he previously indicated he would:
South Korean Defense Minister Song Young-moo (R) and U.S. Secretary of Defense James Mattis issue their statements on North Korea at the truce village of Panmunjom inside the Demilitarized Zone on Oct. 27, 2017. (Joint Press Corps-Yonhap)
Mattis arrived in South Korea earlier in the day. Shortly after landing at Camp Bonifas by Black Hawk chopper, he and Song headed to the OP Ouellette, a hilltop border post, and looked around a bunker underneath the facilities only 25 meters away from the North’s territory.
They were briefed on Panmunjom by U.S. Army Col. Steve Lee, secretary of the United Nations Command Military Armistice Commission (UNCMAC). They then toured the UNCMAC’s blue-colored conference building which stands on the Military Demarcation Line.
The North’s guards closely monitored the ministers’ activities, with a group of tourists looking down from the Panmungak building in the North.
In their Clark talks, the South’s minister proposed Mattis, a former Marine Corps general, wear a combat uniform for the DMZ trip to send a highly symbolic message to the North. Mattis responded positively to the offer at that time, according to Song.
But Mattis was dressed in a suit as usual after internal consultations apparently in order to avoid possible controversy over a dress code reflecting the U.S. defense secretary’s public availability.
Asked whether President Donald Trump can travel to the DMZ when he visits South Korea early next month, Mattis was guarded.
Following the DMZ tour, he paid a courtesy call on President Moon Jae-in at Cheong Wa Dae and met with Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha. [Yonhap]
If the ROK government and the State Department have their way, the answer is no:
It has become the ultimate symbol of American resolve against the threat of North Korea: a visit by the U.S. commander in chief to “freedom’s frontier,” the heavily guarded Demilitarized Zone that has separated the North and South for 64 years.
Wearing bomber-style jackets, surrounded by military officers, peering through binoculars, all but one president since Ronald Reagan has gazed across the barren strip of land at the 38th parallel from an observation post — and been moved to talk tough. In April, Vice President Mike Pence, undertaking the same solemn ritual, said he toured the DMZ so the North Koreans could “see our resolve in my face.”
But as President Donald Trump prepares for a 12-day swing next month through five Asian nations to bolster international pressure on Pyongyang, the administration is divided over whether he should make the pilgrimage, an issue that remains unresolved. Some aides worry a visit could further inflame already heightened tensions on the Korean Peninsula, while others have expressed concern over Trump’s personal safety, according to people who have spoken to administration officials.
Asian foreign policy veterans of both the Obama and George W. Bush administrations said it would be foolish for Trump not to go. But the White House is facing opposition from South Korean President Moon Jae-in’s administration and the U.S. State Department over fears that a visit would ratchet up Trump’s war of words with North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un. [Stars & Stripes]
You can read more at the link, but if people are worried about President Trump saying something provocative about North Korea during his visit does the location really matter? As far as his personal safety does anyone really think the North Koreans will assassinate President Trump while visiting Panmunjom and start a war that will end the regime? I guess we will see how this plays out.
Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop (R) and Defense Minister Marise Payne answer reporters’ questions during a visit to the inter-Korean truce village of Panmunjom on Oct. 12, 2017. (Yonhap)
Gen. Jeong Kyeong-doo (front, R), chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS), visits a front-line outpost near the Korean border on Sept. 30, 2017, in this photo from the JCS. Jeong made the visit as South Koreans go on their 10-day Chuseok (harvest moon) holiday. (Yonhap)
Staff Sgts. Hah Jae-hun (L), who lost both of his legs in a land mine explosion blamed on North Korea during a search operation inside the Demilitarized Zone on Aug. 4, 2015, and Kim Jeong-won, who also lost one of his legs, pose in front of the “Peace Foot” statue during a ceremony to mark the 2nd anniversary of the North’s attack in Paju, north of Seoul, on Aug. 4, 2017. Three land mines were allegedly buried by North Korean soldiers. (Yonhap)
It looks like the North Koreans have flown another drone over the DMZ:
South Korean troops fired warning shots at an “unidentified object” flying across the heavily fortified border from North Korea Tuesday afternoon, the South’s military announced.
The military detected the object traversing the Military Demarcation Line (MDL) southward in the Chorwon area in the eastern province of Gangwon at around 4 p.m., according to the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS).
It added the South’s military fired warning shots along with dispatching a warning broadcast.
A defense source said the military fired more than 90 K-3 machine gun rounds, adding it may have been a drone.
The South’s military is analyzing the object and its route and has beefed up its air defense posture, said the JCS. [Yonhap]
It looks like the ROK military needs to get themselves fielded with these systems to counter the drones North Korea is increasingly using.
Here is another way for visitors to explore the DMZ area north of Seoul:
A DMZ train run by Korea Railroad Corp., or Korail. (Yonhap)
On a cold, snowy day earlier this week, diverse groups of people hopped aboard a special train at Seoul Station.
They headed to a place emblematic of South Korea’s hope for the “end of separation and the beginning of unification” on the peninsula.
“This train is bound for a civilian-restricted area,” a train attendant announced shortly after departure. “All passengers must fill out an application form, with passports or other identification cards checked.”
She was referring to the train’s final destination, a stone’s throw away from the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ), a no man’s land which has served as the inter-Korean border for more than six decades. [Yonhap]
You can read more details about the DMZ train at the link, but it goes to the observatory at Dorasan Station and there is a monorail connection that takes visitors to the 3rd North Korean infiltration tunnel.
