DEMILITARIZED ZONE KOREAN PENINSULA: Tension remains a day after North Korea said it would return to six-party talks

A day after North Korea said it would return to six-party talks, tensions remained on the border between the two Koreas on Wednesday (October 25, 2006). Only in the Joint Security Area (JSA) do North and South Korean soldiers stand face-to-face along the 241-km (154 mile) Demilitarized Zone (DMZ). The South Korean soldiers stand behind blue huts, where the truce to end the Korean War of 1950-53 was signed. A few steps North, North Korean soldiers keep a close eye on the South. A soldier can be seen looking through binoculars inside Panmungak, where the armistice was signed. Occasionally, the North's soldiers march when visitors come to tour the JSA. Today, the North hosted two foreign visitors. A United Nations Command media official said the North receives visitors occasionally, but visits have decreased in recent weeks. Yet for the United Nations Command troops, who guard the JSA with the South Korean soldiers, today was just business as usual. "This is pretty much business as usual. And we are always very alert of the threat that's possibly coming from the North. Everyone up here is great professional soldiers and selected particularly for this battalion every soldier here," he said. Near the DMZ, North Korean workers are seen farming amidst a North Korean flagpole, the world's tallest. One million troops are believed to be massed on either side of the DMZ with enough artillery to turn large parts of the rival Korean states to ash. Seoul is a mere 50 km (31 miles) from the border. The two Koreas technically remain at war, as a peace treaty was never signed after the 1950-53 conflict. North Korea said on Tuesday (October 31) it decided to return to the six-party talks on the premise that the issue of lifting financial sanctions will be discussed and settled between the DPRK and the U.S. within the framework of the talks. The agreement to return to the negotiations - which Pyongyang has spurned for the past year - was reached during talks between envoys from North Korea, the United States and China in Beijing this week. U.S. President George W. Bush welcomed the decision but said he would send teams to Asia to ensure U.N. Security Council sanctions were enforced on the budding nuclear power after it conducted a test explosion on October North Korea has come under increased pressure from China, the closest Pyongyang has to an ally, to return to the talks. North Korea had conducted an underground nuclear test on October 9, causing the U.N. Security Council to impose financial and arms sanctions on the communist state. fy/fc

ITN Source | November 1, 2006

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