North, South Korea begin demilitarizing

'scariest place on earth'

By Paula Hancocks, Jake Kwon and Joshua Berlinger, CNN
Updated 1127 GMT (1927 HKT) October 25, 2018

Seoul, South Korea (CNN) North and South Korea have removed all weapons and
ammunition from the Joint Security Area (JSA), the notorious spot between the two
Koreas where soldiers from North and South stand face to face, guns at the ready.

The move is a highly symbolic one that South Korean President Moon Jae-in and North
Korean leader Kim Jong Un hope will further reduce tensions between Seoul and
Pyongyang.
The JSA, which is also known as the Panmunjom truce village, has long been
considered one of the most dangerous borders on the planet. Former US President Bill
Clinton once called it the "scariest place on earth."
Moon and Kim are out to change that. They held their first-ever meeting at the JSA --
during which each leader symbolically crossed the military demarcation line that runs
through the village -- and vowed to turn the entire demilitarized zone (DMZ) that divides
North and South Korea into what they called a "peace zone."
To that end, the two Koreas and the United Nations Command that administers the
southern part of the DMZ announced they have removed all mines from the region and
withdrawn all guard posts, firearms and ammunition from the JSA as part of an
agreement reached between Moon and Kim last month in Pyongyang, their third face-
to-face meeting of the year.
Since de-mining operations and excavations began at the beginning of October, 14
landmines, 187 explosives and the remains of two soldiers have been dug up,
according to the South Korean Ministry of Defense.
A DNA examination should determine the identity of the soldiers, but the excavation
team believes them to be South Korean based on an ID tag found nearby, the Defense
Ministry said.
Both sides are next expected to withdraw what they called "unnecessary surveillance
equipment" and "install any necessary surveillance equipment through consultations,
and share related information with each other."
The two sides will verify that they have disarmed in the JSA on Friday and Saturday.
The area will now be administered by 70 unarmed personnel -- 35 from North Korea
and another 35 from South Korea and the UN Command.
The JSA is one of the last relics of the Cold War. Last year, a North Korean soldier was
shot multiple times by his compatriots while darting to the south-administered portion of
the DMZ in a defection attempt caught on camera.
The changes in the JSA come after a year of detente between North Korea, its southern
neighbor and its biggest adversary, the United States. Kim and US President Donald
Trump pledged to form a new, peaceful relationship between their two countries during
their history-making summit in Singapore, the first-ever meeting between the sitting
leaders of the US and North Korea. The meeting represented a dramatic turn of events
considering both leaders were threatening each other with nuclear war in 2017.
Trump said another summit between the two leaders will happen after the US midterm
elections in November.