North Korea, South Korea & the UN have agreed to further discuss plans to disarm Joint Security Area in the Korean Demilitarized Zone (DMZ ) where the troops from the Korean peninsula face each other. The Joint Security Area (JSA), Panmunjom is the only portion of the Korean Demilitarized Zone..
North Korea, South Korea and the UN have agreed to further discuss plans to disarm the Joint Security Area in the Korean Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) where the troops from the Korean peninsula face each other.
Background
The Joint Security Area (JSA), Panmunjom is the only portion of the Korean Demilitarized Zone which is along the border where North and South Korean troops face each other. The village is used as a meeting point and is often called the Truce Village of Panmunjom. Joint Security Area, an 800-meter (2600 ft) wide enclave, roughly circular in shape, bisected by the Military Demarcation Line (MDL) separates South and North Korea. It is a neutral area, where there was free movement of both sides anywhere within the JSA boundaries.
The JSA is used by the two Koreas for diplomatic engagements and, until March 1991, was also the site of military negotiations between North Korea and the United Nations Command (UNC).
Analysis
North and South Korea and the U.N Command have agreed to withdraw firearms and guard posts in the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ).
The disarmament of “truce village” of Panmunjom is a sign of the warming relationship between the Koreas. The agreement which stemmed from the second round of trilateral talks between Pyongyang, Seoul and the UN Command (UNC) will see 11 guard posts removed from inside a one-kilometre radius of the Military Demarcation Line. Each country will also cut a number of personnel stationed – to 35, with a two-day joint inspection by all sides to follow.
The military agreement entails a series of measures to reduce tensions, prevent accidental clashes and build mutual trust. They include setting up air, ground and maritime buffer zones, withdrawing some border guard posts and disarming the JSA, halt in ‘all hostile acts’ and a no-fly zone around the border. The South and North will be represented by Army Col. Cho Yong-geun and Army Col. Om Chang-nam, respectively. The UNC’s delegation will be headed by U.S. Army Col. Burke Hamilton, the Military Armistice Committee secretary.
“The two Koreas and the UNC [US-led United Nations Command] agreed to take measures of withdrawing firearms and military posts from the JSA by 25 October, and for the following two days, the three parties will conduct a joint verification,” the South Korean defence ministry in Seoul said in a statement.
Earlier this month, the two Koreas began the removal of 800,000 landmines at the JSA, in an operation that took 20 days but only removed a fraction of the landmines known to have been planted in the DMZ since the Korean War.
US General Vincent Brooks, the current commander of US forces in South Korea, said he “supported initiatives that could reduce military tensions”, although he highlighted a “reasonable degree of risk” in Seoul’s plans to dismantle guard posts near the DMZ. The announcement comes amidst US concerns that the inter – Korean military initiative could undermine defence readiness and comes without substantial progress on North Korea’s promised denuclearization.
North and South Korea are technically still at war because the 1950-53 conflict ended in a truce, not a peace treaty, but relations have improved considerably in the last year. After his third summit in Pyongyang, South Korean President Moon Jae-in said the North was ready to invite international experts to watch the dismantling of a key missile site and that they would close the main Yongbyon nuclear complex if Washington took reciprocal actions.
Those actions could include putting a formal end to the 1950-53 war, the opening of a U.S. liaison office in North Korea, humanitarian aid and an exchange of economic experts, Moon said. But Washington demands that North Korea takes irreversible steps to scrap its arsenals, such as a full disclosure of nuclear facilities and material.
The move to disarm Panmunjom was agreed upon when Kim Jong-un and his South Korean counterpart Moon Jae-in met last month in Pyongyang for talks that centred on the stalled denuclearization negotiations. This came after a historic meeting between Mr. Kim and US President Donald Trump in Singapore in June in which the pair agreed, in broad terms, to work towards a nuclear-free Korean peninsula.
Assessment
Our assessment is that the although North Korea has not provided a disclosure on its nuclear programme, it is developing a relationship with South Korea in an effort to improve the relationship and possibly lift the UN and US sanctions. We believe that both countries are keen to extend the existing Armistice mechanism and further advance the implementation of the Comprehensive Military Agreement (CMA).
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