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CAMP RED CLOUD, South Korea — After a long run or grueling workout, U.S. servicemembers around South Korea will now be able to reach for a refreshing bottle of “DMZ” brand natural mineral water. That’s right, bottled water named after the Demilitarized Zone — one of the most dangerous places on the planet, known for its land mines and the ongoing tension between North and South Korea. Chun Woo-chul, spokesman for the Lotte Chilsung Co., which distributes the water nationwide, conceded that company officials “had fears and concerns about the negative image many people have of the DMZ, such as...

A South Korean navy ship has rescued a North Korean soldier whose boat drifted into southern waters across the Yellow Sea border, officials said Monday. Security authorities have been questioning the soldier since he was rescued Sunday, a defence ministry spokesman told AFP. The outcome of the investigation would be disclosed later. The soldier said his boat went adrift while he was fishing and asked investigators to send him back to North Korea, Yonhap news agency reported. He will be returned later this week through the truce village of Panmunjom in the Demilitarised Zone which bisects the peninsula, it said....

You stand atop an elevated tee box on the first and only hole of the world's most dangerous golf course. And you consider your chances. This deadly little par 3 measures 192 yards but plays more like 250 in the face of the vicious winds that often blow out of North Korea across an exclusive piece of real estate called the DMZ just a few yards away. Underneath your feet and off to the right are bunkers. The military kind. To the left, over an 18-foot-high security fence topped by concertina wire, are hazards that make high rough, deep water...

DEMILITARIZED ZONE, Korea — The water deer nibbled away on the vegetation on the gently sloping bend along the Imjin River, seemingly unaware of the dozen people pointing and staring at it through a field scope from the opposite shoreline. Nearby, the group observed a family of white-naped cranes feeding, something the endangered species does when wintering in the relative solitude of the Demilitarized Zone that divides North and South Korea. While mention of the DMZ conjures images of stone-faced soldiers, barbed-wire fences, guns and guard towers, the area between North and South Korea has remained virtually untouched by humans...

Playing a 'round' near the DMZ By Drew Gallagher ESPN U.S. ARMY CAMP BONIFAS, South Korea -- We've all hit tee shots that could be described as "dangerous." Tight fairways. Intimidating water hazards. Thick fescue. All of these make for "dangerous" conditions. But I've never hit a tee shot with the North Korean army just a mulligan away. A soldier from the North Korean Army stands guard at the border. Such is golf at U.S. Army Camp Bonifas, South Korea, home to one of the world's most unique golf courses. The "course" consists of a single 192-yard, par-3 hole that...

DEMILITARIZED ZONE, Korea — You might call it a case of keeping up with the Joneses, or in this case the Kims. Work is under way on the South Korean side of the Demilitarized Zone to renovate three guard posts and two checkpoint buildings into bigger, more modern structures. The construction comes a year after North Korea finished work on the replacement of four guard posts on its side of the DMZ, and a decade after the two sides engaged in a tit-for-tat battle to see who could build the more impressive reception centers in the Joint Security Area —...

A senior US military officer said Tuesday that any North Korean attack on South Korea would be sudden and "extremely destructive", but would ultimately fail. Major General Johnny A. Weida, outgoing deputy chief of staff for the US Forces Korea, also said such an attack is highly unlikely because it would spell the end of Kim Jong-Il's regime. More than two-thirds of the North's forces are within 90 km (56 miles) of the border with South Korea, Weida said. "They could attack, if they were so inclined, with very little notice," he told a group of civilians touring the Demilitarised...

Japanese Held After Bid To Cross Border To North Korea SEOUL (AFP)--South Korean soldiers have detained a Japanese man who attempted to cross the heavily guarded border into North Korea, in what local media described as a one-man peace protest. The Japanese embassy in Seoul confirmed that a Japanese had tried to cross the frontier at the Demilitarized Zone, or DMZ, which divides the peninsula. Information official Satoshi Nishijima said he had no details and didn't know the man's motive. Yonhap news agency said the 40-year-old approached a barbed-wire fence in the Cheorwon area on Wednesday night but was detained...

SEOUL, South Korea – North Korea put its troops on alert and cut the last hot line to Seoul on Monday as the American and South Korean militaries began joint maneuvers. The communist regime warned that even the slightest provocation could trigger war.

SEOUL, South Korea - A North Korean soldier has defected to South Korea through the heavily fortified border dividing the two countries, an official from the South's spy agency said Tuesday, in only the second such defection in a decade. Meanwhile, North Korea warned it would turn South Korea into "debris" and break off all relations if Seoul does not halt "confrontational" activities against the communist country. "The puppet authorities had better remember that the advanced pre-emptive strike of our own style will reduce everything opposed to the nation and reunification to debris, not just setting them on fire," the...

DEMILITARIZED ZONE, Korea — Much like today’s incoming officers, members of the U.S. Military Academy class of 1966 knew what they were getting into when they left West Point. Arthur Bonifas and William McKinney each deployed to different units in Vietnam. They made it back, but 40 or so of their classmates did not, McKinney said Thursday. The tragedies took their toll, but after a while they were no longer shocking. "The numbness wore off, and then boom, 10 years later after Vietnam, out of the blue … it wasn’t supposed to happen after Vietnam," McKinney said. On Aug. 18,...

North Korea testing South with jet fighters: report Sun Mar 30, 2008 10:07pm EDT By Jon Herskovitz SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korean jet fighters have sortied close South Korea's airspace at least 10 times since conservative president Lee Myung-bak took office last month, prompting Seoul to scramble its own planes in response, the Chosun Ilbo newspaper reported on Monday The flights add to a list of provocative gestures from the North since Lee's government warned Pyongyang that if it wants to keep receiving aid, it should improve human rights, abide by an international nuclear deal and start returning the more...

DEMILITARIZED ZONE — When you grow up a few hundreds yards from North Korea, having armed guards at your elementary school graduation isn’t strange. Neither is having the senior member of the United Nations Command’s Military Armistice Commission as your guest speaker or throngs of newspaper and television journalists capturing your every move during the 90-minute ceremony. For the three graduating sixth-graders at the Dae Sung Dong Elementary School — Friday’s ceremony was just another day in the slightly surreal life in the only village located in the southern half of the demilitarized zone. And living, working, playing and studying...

PANMUNJOM, South Korea — Soldiers from the U.S. and South Korean militaries gathered in the Demilitarized Zone’s Joint Security Area on Wednesday to honor a fallen comrade. As they have every year since 1984, members of the United Nations Command Security Battalion gathered at a small memorial outside Freedom House to lay wreaths, play taps and conduct last roll call for South Korean army Cpl. Jang Myoung-ki. “The late Corporal Jang is one of our heroes, who have made it possible for the Republic of Korea to be in existence today,” said Lt. Col. Jeon Dong-jin, battalion deputy commander. “Thus...

Seoul - A North Korean general cracked a joke about US President George W Bush at the start of military talks on Tuesday with South Korea that takes aim at president's unpopularity for being mired in the Iraq war and other issues. "I read a political joke, called 'Saving the President,' on a US internet site a while ago," Lieutenant General Kim Yong Chol told his South Korean counterpart as they opened three days of meetings at the truce village of Panmunjom in the Demilitarized Zone dividing the Koreas, according to pool reports. "US President Bush, distressed by the Iraq...

Lost chapter - The DMZ War in Korea By KEVIN P. CRAVER - kcraver@nwherald.com Pvt. Robert Haynes awoke from his first night in his new post in South Korea to a nightmare. The hustle of men and the metallic clicks of loading rifles roused him from his sleep Nov. 2, 1966, before a truck pulled up with seven bodies. Six Americans and one South Korean on patrol were ambushed by North Korean troops. Their bodies, filled with grenade shrapnel and bullets, had been mutilated after death. One American survived. Haynes, an 18-year-old vehicle mechanic in the 2nd Infantry Division, witnessed...

Natural Selections: Roaming Free in the DMZ War can sometimes establish unexpected havens for wildlife. By Mary C. Pearl DISCOVER Vol. 27 No. 11 | November 2006 | Environment Strewn with mines and bordered with barbed wire, the demilitarized zone between North and South Korea extends in a narrow band about 150 miles long and two and a half miles wide. No permanent structures or settlements exist in the DMZ, and over the past 50 years, only occasional soldiers, observers, and the 225 residents of Daeseong-dong, a little village on the southern border, have been allowed in. Because of this...

PANMUNJOM -- Spitting across the demarcation line that separates the two armies. Making throat-slashing hand gestures. Flashing their middle fingers. Trying to talk to the South Korean troops. North Korean troops in the Demilitarized Zone dividing the two Koreas have been more boldly trying to provoke guards on the other side since the North claimed to have detonated a nuclear bomb Monday, a U.S. military spokesman said. "They're walking a little taller," Army Major Jose DeVarona of Fayetteville, N.C., told reporters during a tour of the zone Wednesday. "They're more confident about making contact." Still, he said the overall situation...

just breaking on fox website now.. in the banner.

Warning shots fired at Korea border 32 minutes ago South Korean troops fired warning shots on Saturday after five North Korean soldiers briefly crossed into the southern side of the demilitarized zone (DMZ) dividing the two, South Korea's joint chiefs of staff said. The skirmish comes amid rising tension on the peninsula after Pyongyang said on Tuesday it planned to conduct a nuclear test. "Our troops fired warning shots at the five North Korean soldiers after they climbed over the military demarcation line despite several loudspeaker warnings," the military command said in a statement. It said they went about 30...

SEOUL (Reuters) - North and South Korean troops along their heavily fortified border exchanged gunfire for the first time in about a year, a military official said on Tuesday, with the incident coming as ties between the two have soured. North Korean troops fired two shots at a South Korean guard post near the Demilitarised Zone on Monday night and South Korean troops returned six shots, an official said by telephone. "No one was injured in the incident," the Joint Chiefs of Staff official said. One of the shots hit the guard post, causing South Korean troops to immediately return...

In 1976, two U.S. Army officers trimming a view-blocking tree in the DMZ were attacked by some 30 North Korean soldiers who bludgeoned and hacked them to death with metal pipes, axe handles and the Americans’ own hatchets. In late 1984, a full-blown, albeit brief, gun battle erupted between the two Koreas in the DMZ’s Joint Security Area. In 1996, a North Korean submarine ran aground off the South’s coast. Twenty-six heavily armed commandos then disembarked, split up and moved inland on various deep-reconnaissance missions aimed at gathering intelligence on South Korean military bases. All this is just scratching the...

Just saw on t.v. that US troops back on the DMZ and monitoring the situation.

Starting on the Fourth of July, North Korea launched a salvo of seven short-, medium- and long-range missiles. Despite the failure of the single long-range missile, the Taepo Dong-2, the launches confirmed that North Korea is seeking to advance its missile arsenal in order to threaten both the United States and its allies in Asia. The short- and medium-range missiles, the Scud and No Dong respectively, all flew in the direction of Japan, so it seems that North Korea is focused on achieving a military capability to threaten Japan in particular. It remains unclear at this point whether North Korea...

Taking South Koreans by surprise North Korea has cancelled all test runs for the two cross-border railways that join the two nations, just one day before the tests were scheduled to take place, the Unification ministry announced yesterday. "We (the South Korean government) deeply regret that this has happened," Deputy Unification Minister Shin Un-sang said during a press conference after receiving a telegram from Pyongyang yesterday. "Because of the lack of a military guarantee for the safety of those involved in the test-runs, the North Korean government has decided not to go ahead," Shin explained to journalists. The decision to...

YEONCHEON, South Korea, Sept. 6 (Yonhap) -- North Korea has suddenly released a massive amount of water from a dam near the demilitarized zone last week, causing hundreds of millions of won in flood damages in the northern part of South Korea's Gyeonggi Province, officials said Tuesday. The officials said the North opened the gates of its April 5 Dam on the Imjin River on Friday without prior notice to the South, raising the water level of the border river to a near-flood level of 3.96 meters, up from the normal level of 1.16 meters in a little over...

Ex-CNN president arrives in North Korea SEOUL, Aug. 13 (Yonhap) -- Former CNN President Ted Turner arrived in North Korea Saturday, heading a 10-member delegation that included a U.S. congressman, the North's media reported. Turner flew to the North's capital, Pyongyang, with Curt Weldon, a Republican congressman from Pennsylvania, and former U.S. Ambassador to South Korea Donald Gregg, the Korean Central News Agency said in a brief report. The group is scheduled to visit South Korea Aug. 15-18. Their itinerary in South Korea includes a meeting with former President and Nobel peace laureate Kim Dae-jung. The KCNA report gave...

/begin my translation S. Korea: Robot Sentry Developed For DMZ Duty After a recent shooting accident inside guard post at DMZ, (S. Korean) military is looking into the possibility of installing unmanned intelligent robot sentry. On July 7th, at Dodam System inside Daeduk Research Park, Taejon City, a research team is testing a cutting-edge intelligent sentry and combat robot 'Aegis.' Armed with thermal imaging and infrared sensors, Aegis can remotely target and shoot enemies up up 1 km away. It would help relieve the burden from soldiers at guard post, and help reduce the number of soldiers stationed at guard post. [Lee Ok-hyun in Taejon, Yonhap News, 2005.7.7]   /begin my translation

SEOUL (Reuters) - A bullied South Korean soldier on duty at the fortified Demilitarised Zone border with the North threw a grenade at sleeping comrades on Sunday then opened fire on them, killing eight, the Defense Ministry said. The private, identified by his surname "Kim," fired 40 shots from his rifle after throwing the grenade at his guard post in Yonchon at the DMZ, about 60 km (40 miles) north of the capital Seoul, a ministry spokesman said. Kim was arrested later. It was the highest number of deaths suffered by the South Korean army since 2000, Yonhap news agency...

Three North Koreans Flee to South Three apparent defectors from North Korea were found on Friday morning, two in the West Sea and one in Gangwon Province, a day after a show of inter-Korean unity marking the fifth anniversary of the June 15 Joint Declaration came to an end in Pyongyang. Police and military officials are investigating how the three crossed the DMZ and whether they intended to defect. Soldiers on Friday patrol the village of Daema in Choelwon County, Gangwon Province where a North Korean defector was discovered earlier that day. Early on Friday morning, a 65-year-old Cheolwon...

This is a revised version of a paper delivered at the DMZ Forum Spring Seminar Program entitled "Creating a World Peace Park in Korea’s DMZ: Social, Political and Military Perspectives," presented by the Samuel Rubin Foundation, the Institute of Public Administration at New York University and members of the DMZ Forum in cooperation with The Korea Society. The seminar was held at New York University on May 16, 2001. On November 3, 1968, near Ulchin-Samchok, about 150 miles southeast of Seoul along the east coast of Korea, a 17-year-old villager wrote a message on a small piece of paper: "We...

YONGSAN GARRISON, South Korea — In a low-key end to more than fifty years of history, U.S. troops quietly transferred leadership of the security mission at the Joint Security Area to South Korean forces on Sunday, officials confirmed Monday. The mission handover, long scheduled to occur on Oct. 31, is one of 10 to be transferred gradually to South Korean forces under a plan to give them a greater role in defending their country, officials said. The handover was in the works for weeks, officials said, and was completed Sunday. U.S. Forces Korea said no formal ceremony was held to...

/begin my translationAll N. Korean Guard Dogs at DMZ Relocated to Sino-N. Korean Border To Prevent N. Korean Escapees Kang Chol-hwan Date: 10/15/2004 N. Korean Authorities relocated to Sino-N. Korean border all military guard dogs from Civilian Affairs Police Unit at DMZ, in order to prevent N. Korean defection (at the Sino-N. Korean border.) Credible Chinese source on N. Korea relayed to us, "Since last month, two guard dogs were allocated to each squad of border guard units. Each company is provided with 10 guard dogs." He went on to say, "The newly deployed guard dogs used to guard DMZ....

Feature: DMZ, flashpoint in Korea By Jong-Heon Lee UPI Correspondent In Demilitarized Zone, South Korea, Oct. 12 (UPI) -- In appearance, the Demilitarized Zone, the dividing line between the two Koreas since their war in the early 1950s, is quiet enough to belie military tensions caused by the communist North's nuclear and missile ambitions. -- North Korea keeps 1.17 million soldiers, the world's fifth-largest force, to face off against 690,000 South Korean troops, which are augmented by 34,000 U.S. troops. -- In the first hour of a war, North Korea could rain 25,000 artillery shells onto Seoul, destroying the South...

(Sgt. Charles Robert) Jenkins Ready for Court-Martial Yomiuri Shimbun Charles Jenkins, the husband of former abductee Hitomi Soga, has confided to his nephew that he is prepared to be court-martialed, The Yomiuri Shimbun has learned. Jenkins, who is accused of deserting the U.S. Army while stationed in South Korea in 1965, made the comment in a handwritten note delivered to James Hyman before he returned to his North Carolina home last Sunday. Hyman claimed in a press conference Friday in Tokyo that the Japanese government had prevented him from seeing his uncle. In the letter, Jenkins, whose full name...

WASHINGTON: The United States has announced that all of the US troops based in Seoul would be moved out of the South Korean capital by December 2008. The Pentagon, in a statement, said US and South Korean officials had finalized an agreement here this week to redeploy the approximately 8,000 US troops in Seoul to new military facilities in Pyongtaek, some 50 miles (80 kilometers) south of the capital. "The relocation of US forces out of Seoul will be completed by December 2008," the US Defense Deparment statement said. It said that US and South Korean officials, at their...

Notes Left by (U.S.) Soldier at Heart of Korea Desertion Case The U.S. says ex-Sgt. Charles Jenkins left incriminating notes when he disappeared into North Korea in 1965. BY ROBERT BURNS Associated Press WASHINGTON - The Army's desertion case against Charles Jenkins seems to hinge on four notes he left behind that cold morning on Jan. 5, 1965, when he disappeared while on patrol in a wooded no man's land. ''I am going to North Korea,'' he wrote in one of the notes, this one to his mother. The Army says Jenkins deserted inside the Demilitarized Zone separating North...

Mr Jenkins has an extraordinary story to tell A United States soldier who has spent the last four decades in North Korea could soon be leaving the country. Charles Robert Jenkins is expected to travel to Indonesia to be reunited with his Japanese wife, possibly this month. The US considers Mr Jenkins a deserter who must face military justice, though his family has always denied this. Indonesia has no extradition treaty with the US, making it a convenient meeting place for the 62-year-old American and his family. Mr Jenkins went missing in 1965 while leading a patrol near the...

US already moving on pullout of DMZ as larger troop cuts loom in South Korea By Associated Press Wednesday, June 9, 2004 PANMUNJOM, Korea (AP) — The U.S. military is on track to pull almost all of its troops from their last outpost on the tense border with North Korea by October, a U.S. Army officer said Wednesday, amid discord over relocation plans. The two allies were also eyeing more negotiations over a separate U.S. proposal to remove a third of the 37,000 American troops in South Korea by the end of next year. The issues signal a new test...

SEOUL: The United States and South Korea will begin talks next month on a US proposal to cut the number of troops stationed on the Korean peninsula, defense officials here said Friday. Negotiators from the two countries are to meet in Seoul in June for a fresh round of talks on South Korea-US alliance, Oh Jeong-Hee of the defense ministry spokesman’s office, said. "The agenda will focus on a proposed US troop withdrawal, launching formal negotiations on a possible cut in American forces in South Korea," Oh said. Washington made an initial proposal to discuss a reduction in the 37,000...

WASHINGTON (AP) - The Pentagon is moving 3,600 U.S. soldiers from bases in South Korea to the conflict in Iraq this summer, possibly marking a permanent reduction in the size of the American military force that has helped deter war on the Korean Peninsula for the past half-century. Soldiers from the 2nd Brigade of the 2nd Infantry Division will rotate into Iraq on one-year tours, senior Pentagon officials said Monday, confirming an announcement made earlier in Seoul. The troops are among the 37,000 American troops permanently stationed in South Korea to deter an invasion by forces of communist North Korea....

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) - North Korea on Sunday criticized the U.S. military plans to withdraw from a key outpost along the inter-Korean border and warned that it would review the armistice that ended the Korean War five decades ago. The turnover of Observation Post Ouellette, a dusty crag with a view deep into North Korea, would mean U.S. troops would no longer patrol the tense border. Duties along the heavily fortified buffer area, called the Demilitarized Zone, would be handed over to South Korea. The South has a 600,000-member military staring off against North Korea's armed forces, the world's...

The U.S. military will withdraw most if its forces from the Demilitarized Zone separating North and South Korea this year, an official announced today.SNIPSouth Koreans have long complained that the U.S. military occupies prime real estate and that its bases near densely populated cities contribute to crime. But the majority support the presence as a deterrent against the North.

Tuesday, April 13, 2004 The U.S. military will withdraw most if its forces from the Demilitarized Zone separating North and South Korea this year, an official announced today. The withdrawal means the United States will no longer have combat troops anywhere on the DMZ except at Panmunjom, where a U.S.-Korean battalion, commanded by a U.S. army lieutenant colonel, remains on guard in what is known as the Joint Security Area. Therefore South Korea, which has a 600,000-member military, will face North Korea's armed forces, the world's fifth largest with 1.1 million soldiers, most of whom are concentrated near the DMZ....

  U.S. Plan to Shift Korea Forces Still a 'Go' By Gerry J. GilmoreAmerican Forces Press ServiceWASHINGTON, April 1, 2004 – The U.S. military's top officer in South Korea says plans are in motion to move 2nd Infantry Division troops away from the north- south border region and most other forces out of the capital city of Seoul. American troops have been deployed at the Demilitarized Zone and in several encampments near the northern border to deter potential aggression from the North since the armistice that ended the 1950-53 Korean War. A sizable U.S. military presence also has been...

YONGSAN GARRISON, South Korea — U.S. Marines, in their highest numbers in South Korea since 1994, are training closer to the Demilitarized Zone than ever before. “We are here to sharpen our skills so that our enemy to the north will some day realize he has no chance of winning on the battlefield and he will stop oppressing the North Korean people, come to the peace table and allow Korea to be united peacefully,” said Col. J.J. Patterson, commander of the 3rd Marine Regiment, in a news release. Through this month, U.S. and South Korean Marines are participating in the...

South Korea (news - web sites) will deploy a battalion of Russian tanks and armored vehicles for the first time along the border with North Korea (news - web sites), military officials said. The deployment of T-80 U tanks and BMP-3 combat vehicles will bolster South Korea's capability to deter any aggression by North Korea, which relies on Russian-built weapons for its ground forces, the defense ministry said. "This will be the first deployment of Russian weapons in front-line areas," a ministry official told AFP. North Korea deploys more than 6,000 tanks and armored vehicles along the heavily armed border...

U.S. and North Korean negotiators agreed Wednesday to improve markedly several areas of cooperation in operations to recover the remains of American soldiers missing in action from the Korean War. During talks in Bangkok, Thailand, both sides agreed to resume repatriating remains recovered during joint recovery operations in North Korea across the demilitarized zone at Panmunjom. This practice has not occurred since 1999. U.S. team members will accompany the remains into South Korea. Additionally, supplies and equipment for the 2004 operations will be moved by ground transportation across the DMZ. “I am encouraged by the level of cooperation the North...

President Chen has refused to hold talks with pre-conditions Taiwanese President Chen Shui-bian has called for a demilitarised zone to be set up between Taiwan and China. Mr Chen said troops and missiles should be removed from the area as a prelude to talks between the two sides. The president also repeated a call for Taiwan and China to swap envoys and develop relations - absent since Taiwan split from China in 1949. China regards Taiwan as part of its territory and has repeatedly threatened to take it over by force. The mainland has been angered by Mr Chen's...

SEOUL : North Korea on Saturday accused South Korea of illegally deploying "artillery pieces" inside the Demilitarized Zone separating the two Koreas . North Korea 's official KCNA news agency did not provide any details of the weapons, and South Korean defence ministry spokesman Maj Kim Ki-boem rejected the accusation as a "lie" Under a ceasefire accord, only rifles and other small arms are allowed inside the DMZ, which was created after the 1950-53 Korean War as a buffer between the two divided states. KCNA , quoting unidentified military sources, said the South Korean army deployed the artillery pieces on...