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SEOUL — The rival Koreas and the US-led UN Command finished removing firearms and troops from a jointly controlled area at a border village on Thursday, as part of agreements to reduce decades-long animosity on the Korean Peninsula.
South Korea separately announced that its troops found what it believes are Korean War remains in another front-line area where they have been clearing land mines with North Korean soldiers. The rival Koreas plan their first-ever joint searches for war dead there after demining work is done.
Disarming the Joint Security Area at the border village of Panmunjom and the joint searches are among a package of deals the Koreas’ defense ministers struck on the sidelines of their leaders’ summit last month. Other steps include creating buffer zones along their land and sea boundaries and a no-fly zone above the border, as well as removing some of their front-line guard posts.
On Thursday, the Koreas and the UN Command completed a removal of weapons, ammunition, and soldiers manning guard posts at Panmunjom’s Joint Security Area, Seoul’s Defense Ministry said in a statement. The three sides earlier finished removing mines from the village.
The three sides will jointly verify their disarmament work on Friday and Saturday. Under the September deals, the two Koreas are to let 35 ‘‘unarmed personnel’’ from each side guard the Joint Security Area and let tourists freely move around there.
The area symbolizes the Koreas’ seven decades of division. It’s where an armistice was signed at the end of the 1950-53 Korean War. Rival soldiers have faced each other only feet apart in the zone, which has been the scene of numerous incidents of bloodshed. It is also a popular tourist destination.
Soldiers and visitors were previously allowed to move freely inside the area, but the 1976 ax-killing of two American troops by North Korea at Panmunjom led to the creation of ankle-high concrete slabs that mark the border there.
The Koreas are split along the 155-mile-long, 2.5-mile-wide border called the Demilitarized Zone that was originally created as a buffer. But unlike its name, the DMZ is now the world’s most heavily fortified border. An estimated 2 million mines are peppered inside and near the DMZ, which is also guarded by barbed wire fences, tank traps, and combat troops on both sides.
Officially, the entire DMZ area, including Panmunjom, is jointly overseen by North Korea and the UN Command. About 28,500 US troops are deployed in South Korea to deter possible aggression from North Korea.
