As security escort for tourists visiting the heavily fortified Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) in Pan Mun Jom, 50 kilometers north of the South Korean capital Seoul, Heilig conducts tours three times a day, except on Sundays.[break]
“I have done more media tours since the communist North Korea´s latest provocations,” quips Heilig. “But there´s nothing special here, it´s just been a regular security mechanism.”
His orders to visiting journalists, participants of a World Journalists Conference in Seoul last week, did not sound normal, however.
“No signs, no gesture to the North and no unwarranted movement,” he announces while briefing the visiting journalists in front of the UN Command Military Armistice Commission (UNCMAC) buildings in the Joint Security Area (JSA) in the heart of the DMZ.
South Korean soldiers man the Joint Security Area at the Dimilitarized Zone in Pan Mun Jom.
This is the area where tourists used to come face to face with the armies of North and South Korea at an observation deck and pavilion. These are now off-limits for ordinary tourists. The JSA command decided to open the meeting room for the visiting journalists. JSA command is 90 percent South Korean army and 10 percent US army. Heilig refused to divulge the number of personnel in the DMZ established 60 years ago.
There are minefields all across the 250-kilometer border between the two Koreas manned 24 hours a day, Heilig informs, as South Korean soldiers stand by in combat-ready positions inside and outside the blue UNCMAC buildings. Despite Heilig´s assurances, the situation seemed pretty tense at the world´s most militarized border. Freedom Highway along the Han River, which ends at the DMZ, is lined throughout by heavy barbed-wire fencing.
Visitors on the South Korean side get an opportunity to see North Korean building at the JSA known as Panmungak. One could see North Korean army personnel watching the journalists.
During the tour, Specialist Heilig shows the journalists what he termed “Propaganda Village” in North Korean territory. “The communist North built this village as a showcase. No one lives there,” he says, while calling a similar village in the South “Freedom Village”.
Journalists utilize the opportunity to take pictures inside the meeting room
It´s pretty quiet inside the UNCMAC meeting room, where the talks table is manned by the armies. No talks have been held here since the North Korean government decided to stop all communications with the South in 2008, according to Heilig. He recalls that the last exchange of fire between the two sides was in 1984, and nothing has happened since then.
However, the latest threat from North Korean President Kim Jong-un has ignited fresh tensions.
In early March, North Korea came out with fresh war rhetoric, threatening nuclear war in the Korean Peninsula. The world watched tensely when the young, newly-appointed North Korean president told his army to be on the ready for any military action.
Many people back in the South Korean capital, however, feel that the North´s rhetoric is meant just to get the UN to loosen its sanctions against Pyongyang, which the world body tightened after the North carried out a long-range rocket launch in December and conducted a nuclear test in February, in violation of Security Council resolutions.
Specialist Kyle Heilig briefing journalists
South Korean Minister of Foreign Affairs Yung Byung-se terms the situation in the Korean Peninsula a fragile peace.
“Even after 60 years of signing the Armistice Agreement, which established DMZ, it is still a very difficult challenge, posing an ever-growing threat to South Korea with WMDs (Weapons of Mass Destruction) and conventional weapons,” the foreign minister told the journalists.
The recent series of North Korean provocations, starting with the launch of the long-range ballistic missile; the nuclear test -- the third of its kind; the March announcement of withdrawal from the armistice agreement; an announcement in April to reactivate the nuclear facility in Youngbyon; and the blocking of entrance to the Gaesung Industrial Complex, are Pyongyang´s latest attempts to destabilize the South and the whole region by spawning fear and uncertainty, minister Byung-se said.
But he added that the North will gain nothing from its provocations and threats. Instead, these will only further isolate Pyongyang and deepen the suffering of its people. “I want to point out one thing very clearly: North Korea has not been, and will never be successful in its attempt.”
Byong-se also called on all stakeholders to revive the six-party talks and bring North Korea back to the negotiating table, but he was quick to add that the “prospect of reviving the six-party talks is not very high.”
A view of a North Korean village from the Dimilitarized Zone in Pan Mun Jom
The World Journalists Conference, attended by 110 journalists from 74 countries, came up with the World Journalists´ Declaration for Peace on the Korean Peninsula. The declaration said that the Conference supports initiatives for the divided Korea to strive toward bilateral compromise and trust for co-development and denuclearization on the Korean Peninsula, as a step toward establishing peace.
It spoke of serious concern over the recent increase in tensions on the Korean Peninsula, accompanied by fears of a crisis situation, raising the need for immediate dialogue to seek viable solutions, adding, “North Korea should tone down its provocative acts and hostile rhetoric to prove itself a responsible member of the international community.”
It also stated that the two countries cannot afford to repeat the tragedy of 60 years ago. This tragedy still haunts Korean people, young and old.
Life in Seoul is normal, with latest sensation Psy the talk of the town. His latest single Gentleman has hit the charts also after the record-beating single Gangnam Style. But fear of yet another confrontation looms over the South.
“I hope the government of President Park Geun-hye (the newly-elected first female president in Korea´s modern history) will ease the tensions soon,” says Kim Eunji, 25, who talks about Korean history four times a day to visitors at the National Museum of Korea in Seoul.
“I feel that dialogue is the only way out,” the young woman says. “But the talks are blocked now and it might take a long time.”
Related story
Living with fear
