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The two Koreas have completed the removal of the landmines planted in their shared border village as part of the disarmament efforts in the area within the most fortified border in the world, South Korean officials said on Monday.
The announcement was made following a meeting between Korean military officers and US-led US command at Panmunjom village located earlier Monday. This is the second such trilateral meeting to review the efforts to demilitarize Panmunjom, the best-known site of the 248-kilometer (155-mile) demilitarized zone that divides the two Koreas into two.
Disarming the village was part of a set of tension-reduction deals signed by Korea's defense chiefs, on the sidelines of their leaders' summit in Pyongyang last month.
In the next stages of disarmament in Panmunjom, the two Koreas and the US command agreed to the withdrawal of weapons and guard posts on site by Thursday. The three parties will then spend two days jointly verifying these measures, the Seoul Ministry of Defense said in a statement. The Koreas finally aim to set up 35 unarmed people on either side of the village.
Officially, the entire zone of the demilitarized zone, including Panmunjom, is jointly supervised by North Korea and the US command, a legacy of the Korean War, which resulted in an armistice and not a peace treaty. North Korea and China signed the armistice on one side, while the US command signed on the other side. South Korea was not a signatory of the agreement.
Panmunjom is the place where the armistice was signed. Since the end of the war, many bloodshed and violence have occurred in this country. The rival soldiers face Panmunjom, a few meters away.
As part of the September deal, the two Koreas separately clear mines from another front zone, where they plan their first joint search for the remains of soldiers killed during the Korean War. The Koreas also plan to establish buffer zones along their land and sea borders, as well as a no-fly zone over the border.
Also on Monday, Korean officials met at their newly established liaison office in Kaesong, a border town in North Korea, to discuss how to cooperate in the forestry sector. Korean general officers will meet in Panmunjom on Friday for bilateral talks to discuss further how to implement the agreements to reduce tensions, according to the South Korean Ministry of Defense.
The Seoul Liberal government is pushing for greater engagement with North Korea, but US officials have said such measures should go hand in hand with global efforts for the denuclearization of North Korea.
