Where the Two Koreas Meet By John Yoon and Chang W. LeeJuly 19, 2023
Where the Two Koreas Meet
John YoonReporting from Seoul A U.S. soldier crossed into North Korea at the border with South Korea at the Joint Security Area.
Here’s what the compound is like →
Chang W. Lee/The New York Times
The Joint Security Area, also known as Panmunjom, was created as part of the 1953 armistice that halted the Korean War. Both sides have troops stationed there. Conference buildings straddle the border.
A journalist on a recent tour stood in one such building with a foot in each Korea, as a South Korean soldier stood watch at the door. Outside, the border was demarcated by a concrete slab that visitors weren’t allowed to cross.
Chang W. Lee/The New York Times
Panmunjom is in the demilitarized zone, or DMZ, a 2.5-mile-wide strip of land that’s strewn with mines and lined with barbed wire. The DMZ is a buffer between the Koreas, which technically are still at war.
A short walk from Panmunjom’s buildings is a hill, from which visitors can see a North Korean town called Kijong. Each Korea built a village within the DMZ, for propaganda purposes, after the 1953 armistice; Kijong is the North’s.
Chang W. Lee/The New York Times
Panmunjom is suffused with history.
On the side of one building, there were still bullet holes from Nov. 13, 2017, when North Korean troops fired on a fellow soldier as he fled to the South through the compound.
The soldier, Oh Cheong-seong, was shot five times but made it across the border, in one of the most dramatic and dangerous flights from the North since the armistice. He is now a South Korean citizen.
Chang W. Lee/The New York Times
Wherever they went, visitors were watched by soldiers from the South and the United States. (The Americans are there under the auspices of the multinational United Nations Command.) The soldiers were unarmed, abiding by a 2018 agreement between the Koreas.
No soldiers from North Korea could be seen. But visitors were told they sometimes peeked out from Panmungak, a three-story North Korean building across the border.
Chang W. Lee/The New York Times
A memorial for fallen soldiers from the Korean War stood on the nearby hill.
The monument, installed next to a military observation tower, also expressed hope for the reunification of the two Koreas.
“We promise for eternal prosperity and peaceful unification in the Korean Peninsula,” it read.
Chang W. Lee/The New York Times
Read more about the Koreas:
What We Know About How a U.S. Soldier Ended Up in North Korea
The Korean War Emptied the Town. Those Who Rebuilt It May Now Be Rewarded
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Where the Two Koreas Meet
John YoonReporting from Seoul A U.S. soldier crossed into North Korea at the border with South Korea at the Joint Security Area.
Here’s what the compound is like →
Chang W. Lee/The New York Times
The Joint Security Area, also known as Panmunjom, was created as part of the 1953 armistice that halted the Korean War. Both sides have troops stationed there. Conference buildings straddle the border.
A journalist on a recent tour stood in one such building with a foot in each Korea, as a South Korean soldier stood watch at the door. Outside, the border was demarcated by a concrete slab that visitors weren’t allowed to cross.
Chang W. Lee/The New York Times
Panmunjom is in the demilitarized zone, or DMZ, a 2.5-mile-wide strip of land that’s strewn with mines and lined with barbed wire. The DMZ is a buffer between the Koreas, which technically are still at war.
A short walk from Panmunjom’s buildings is a hill, from which visitors can see a North Korean town called Kijong. Each Korea built a village within the DMZ, for propaganda purposes, after the 1953 armistice; Kijong is the North’s.
Chang W. Lee/The New York Times
Panmunjom is suffused with history.
On the side of one building, there were still bullet holes from Nov. 13, 2017, when North Korean troops fired on a fellow soldier as he fled to the South through the compound.
The soldier, Oh Cheong-seong, was shot five times but made it across the border, in one of the most dramatic and dangerous flights from the North since the armistice. He is now a South Korean citizen.
Chang W. Lee/The New York Times
Wherever they went, visitors were watched by soldiers from the South and the United States. (The Americans are there under the auspices of the multinational United Nations Command.) The soldiers were unarmed, abiding by a 2018 agreement between the Koreas.
No soldiers from North Korea could be seen. But visitors were told they sometimes peeked out from Panmungak, a three-story North Korean building across the border.
Chang W. Lee/The New York Times
A memorial for fallen soldiers from the Korean War stood on the nearby hill.
The monument, installed next to a military observation tower, also expressed hope for the reunification of the two Koreas.
“We promise for eternal prosperity and peaceful unification in the Korean Peninsula,” it read.
Chang W. Lee/The New York Times
Read more about the Koreas:
What We Know About How a U.S. Soldier Ended Up in North Korea
The Korean War Emptied the Town. Those Who Rebuilt It May Now Be Rewarded
1 of 7 1 of 7
Item 1 of 7
1 of 7 1 of 7