Two Koreas, UN Command Agree to Withdraw All Arms From Truce Village

Joint Security Area will only contain unarmed personnel

The latest meetings between North and South Korea and the UN Command ended with a major deal on disarming the Joint Security Area surrounding the truce village of Panmunjom. The deal will see all arms and guard posts removed.

Under the deal, the next year will see everything removed to at least a 1 kilometer radius of the area. Panmunjom itself will be guarded by 70 military personnel, 35 from each Korea, and none of them carrying guns.

There have already been several deals surrounding the disarmament of this area, with both sides starting to remove land mines from the area earlier this month. This is a substantial further step in Panmunjom, which is itself a test case for the rest of the demilitarized zone.

Last week, the two Koreas agreed to reconnect road and rail lines, and they are advancing toward a settlement of the 1950 Korean War. Once finalized, a proper peace deal could see the demilitarized zone closed outright, and the border normalized to the sort other countries have.

Author: Jason Ditz

Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.