Tag: DMZ

South Korean military captures North Korean crossing border

  SEOUL, South Korea (AFP) — A North Korean man was captured by South Korea’s military on Wednesday after crossing the inter-Korean border, Seoul said. The man was identified by Seoul only as a North Korean male, the Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement. Investigations will be conducted “in cooperation with related agencies for details”, it added, including whether the man sought to defect to the South. No unusual activity of the North’s […]

UN says both Koreas broke armistice in DMZ shooting

SEOUL, South Korea (AFP) — An exchange of gunfire between North and South Korean forces in the Demilitarized Zone dividing the peninsula was a violation of the armistice agreement, the United Nations Command (UNC) said Tuesday. The two sides remain technically at war, since fighting in the Korean War ended with an armistice in 1953 that was never replaced with a peace treaty. North Korean gunfire hit a Southern guard post on May 3, prompting […]

North Korean soldier crosses DMZ into South

  SEOUL, South Korea (AFP) — A North Korean soldier crossed the Demilitarised Zone that divides the peninsula, Seoul’s military said Thursday, in a rare direct defection across the heavily fortified frontier. More than 30,000 North Koreans have escaped to the South since the two were separated by war more than 65 years ago, according to Seoul government data, many of them driven by prolonged economic hardship. But the vast majority have gone first to […]

News in photos: Historic Trump-Kim impromptu meeting at North Korea’s DMZ

  (Eagle News) — It all started with a tweet by US President Donald Trump inviting North Korean leader Kim Jong Un to an impromptu meeting at the Demilitarized Zone. Trump’s invitation on Twitter from the G20 summit in Osaka, read: “if Chairman Kim of North Korea sees this, I would meet him at the Border/DMZ just to shake his hand and say Hello(?)!” He later said he would have “no problem” stepping into the […]

Trump invites Kim to DMZ meeting

  by Richard CARTER / Jerome CARTILLIER Agence France Presse OSAKA, Japan (AFP) — US President Donald Trump on Saturday invited North Korean leader Kim Jong Un to meet for a historic handshake at the demilitarised zone that divides the Korean peninsula, and said he would have “no problem” stepping over the border. The invitation issued on Twitter caught observers by surprise. If Kim accepts, it would be the third meeting between the leaders of […]

N. Korea’s Kim says he is ‘flooded with emotion’ as he enters South

SEOUL, South Korea (AFP) — North Korean leader Kim Jong Un was “flooded with emotion” as he walked into the neighboring South, he told his host Moon Jae-in as they began the first inter-Korean summit for more than a decade. Walking across the cement blocks that mark the border was “so easy,” Kim said, making him wonder “why it took so long to do so after 11 years,” referring to the last summit in Pyongyang […]

North Korea’s Kim and South’s Moon shake hands over demarcation line

  by Sunghee Hwang Agence France Presse SEOUL, South Korea (AFP) — North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and the South’s President Moon Jae-in shook hands Friday over the Military Demarcation Line that divides their countries in a gesture laden with symbolism ahead of a historic summit. “I am happy to meet you,” Moon told Kim before the visitor stepped over the line, making him the first North Korean leader to set foot in the […]

Updated: Pyongyang to reopen “very significant” inter-Korean hotline after Seoul proposes talks

  by Hwang Sunghee Agence France Presse SEOUL, South Korea (AFP) — North Korea said Wednesday it will reopen a hotline with the South to discuss attending the Winter Olympics, forging ahead with peace overtures despite taunts from US President Donald Trump who said he has a “much bigger” nuclear button than Kim Jong-Un. The hotline, which was cut by the North in 2016, is to be restored at 0630 GMT after Seoul proposed high-level […]

North Korean soldier defects to South via DMZ: Seoul

SEOUL, South Korea (AFP) — A North Korean soldier defected to the South on Thursday across the Demilitarized Zone that divides the peninsula, Seoul’s defense ministry said. The “low-ranking” soldier made his way across the central part of the land border, a ministry spokesman said. It came a month after a rare and dramatic defection by a soldier at Panmunjom, the truce village where opposing forces confront each other across a concrete dividing line. On […]

Trump aborts surprise visit to Korean DMZ

SEOUL, South Korea (AFP) — US President Donald Trump was forced to abandon a surprise visit to the Demilitarized Zone that divides the two Koreas on Wednesday due to bad weather, leaving him “pretty frustrated” according to the White House. South Korean leader Moon Jae-In, who had flown earlier before the weather closed in, was left waiting at the border which bristles with electric fences, minefields and anti-tank barriers. The US chief executive, who the […]

Trump won’t go to DMZ during S. Korea visit: White House

WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — US President Donald Trump will not be going to the Demilitarized Zone dividing the Korean peninsula when he visits South Korea next week, a senior administration official said Tuesday. The decision to skip the DMZ at a time of high tensions with nuclear-armed North Korea was attributed to time constraints. “The president is not going to visit the DMZ, there is not enough time in the schedule,” the official said. […]

US VP Pence arrives near DMZ after failed N.Korea missile test: AFP

MUSAN, South Korea (AFP) — Mike Pence arrived at the gateway to the Demilitarized Zone dividing the two Koreas on Monday, an AFP correspondent reported, in a show of United States resolve hours after North Korea failed in its attempt to test another missile. The US vice president flew by helicopter into Camp Bonifas, a US-led United Nations command post just a few hundred meters (yards) south of the DMZ. From there, he was expected to […]