SEOUL, South Korea -- North and South Korean troops began removing some of the land mines planted at their heavily fortified border on Monday, Seoul officials said, in the first implementation of recent agreements aimed at easing their decades-long military standoff.
The demining comes amid resumed diplomacy over North Korea's nuclear weapons program after weeks of stalemated negotiations. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is to visit Pyongyang, North Korea's capital, this month to try to set up a second summit between President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.
On Monday, South Korean army engineers with demining equipment were deployed to the border village of Panmunjom and another front-line area called "Arrow Head Hill" where the Koreas plan their first joint searches for soldiers killed during the 1950-53 Korean War.
The engineers' efforts Monday began a two-month operation to clear mines and build a road to Arrow Head Hill, also known as Hill 281, the South Korean Defense Ministry said in a statement. Arrow Head Hill was selected as the site for them to jointly conduct a pilot search for remains within the no-man's zone, where some of the fiercest battles of the Korean War were fought.
The troops began removing mines on the southern part of the two sites. Later Monday, the South Korean military detected North Korean soldiers engaged in what it believed was demining on the northern part of the sites, a South Korean defense official said on condition of anonymity, citing department rules.
The official refused to provide more details. North Korea's state media didn't immediately confirm its reported demining.
At Arrow Head Hill, where some of the fiercest battles occurred during the Korean War, Seoul officials believe there are remains of about 300 South Korean and U.N. forces, along with an unspecified number of Chinese and North Korean remains.
The Korean War left millions dead or missing, and South Korea wants to expand joint excavations with North Korea for remains at Demilitarized Zone areas. The Koreas remain split along the 155-mile-long DMZ that was originally created as a buffer zone at the end of the Korean War. About 2 million mines are believed to be scattered in and near the DMZ, which is also guarded by hundreds of thousands of combat troops, barbed wire fences and tank traps.
Mines dislodged by flooding and landslides have occasionally caused deaths in front-line areas in South Korea. In 2015, a land mine blast blamed on North Korea maimed two South Korean soldiers and pushed the Koreas to the brink of war.
The agreement to clear mines, the first such effort since the early 2000s, was among a package of tension-easing deals struck by the Koreas' defense chiefs on the sidelines of a leaders' summit last month in Pyongyang. Aiming to reduce conventional military threats, they also agreed to remove 11 front-line guard posts by December and set up buffer zones along their land and sea boundaries and a no-fly zone above the border to prevent accidental clashes.
The measures also included disarming Panmunjom to turn it into a "peace zone" where tourists from both sides could move around freely.
When the armistice halting the 1950-53 war was signed at Panmunjom, the U.S.-led U.N. Command agreed with Communist generals of North Korea and China to create the "demilitarized" buffer zone to keep the warring armies apart. Despite its name, the 2½-mile-wide buffer has since become the world's most heavily fortified frontier, defended with layers of fences and numerous guard posts.
The inter-Korean border is also among the world's most densely mined. Soldiers venturing into the zone on patrol or occasional defectors from the North have to navigate around mines that have become more treacherous as they are dislodged by floodwaters and landslides.
INTER-KOREAN DEAL
South Korean President Moon Jae-in said on Monday that the military deals will "end all hostile acts on land, sea and sky between South and North Korea." In a speech marking South Korea's 70th Armed Forces Day, Moon also called for a stronger national defense, saying "peace can continue only when we have power and are confidant of protecting ourselves."
Moon, a liberal who aspires to improve ties with North Korea, is a driving force behind U.S.-North Korean nuclear diplomacy. Critics of his engagement policy have lambasted the recent inter-Korean military deals, saying a mutual reduction of conventional military strength would weaken South Korea's war readiness because the North's nuclear program remains largely intact.
"I think it's the worst-ever South-North Korean agreement that made a concession in our defense posture before [North Korean] denuclearization is achieved," Shin Wonsik, a former vice chairman of the South's Joint Chiefs of Staff, said last week.
Many experts say the fate of inter-Korean deals can be affected by how nuclear negotiations go between the United States and North Korea. Past rapprochement efforts were often stalled after a standoff over the North's nuclear ambitions intensified.
After tests of three intercontinental ballistic missiles and a powerful nuclear weapon last year, North Korea entered talks with the United States and South Korea earlier this year, saying it's willing to deal away its expanding nuclear arsenal. Kim Jong Un has subsequently held a series of summits with U.S., South Korean and Chinese leaders and taken some steps such as dismantling his nuclear test site.
The nuclear diplomacy later came to a standstill amid disputes over how sincere North Korea is about disarmament. But Trump, Pompeo and other U.S. officials have recently reported progress in denuclearization discussions with the North.
During his trip to New York late last month, Moon told Trump that Kim was willing to negotiate away his nuclear arsenal.
But speaking at the U.N. General Assembly last week, the North's foreign minister, Ri Yong Ho, reiterated that his country would never give up its nuclear weapons unless Washington took "corresponding" steps, like easing sanctions and declaring an end to the war. Washington insists that North Korea denuclearize before expecting any rewards.
"We have started a bold journey toward a permanent peace and prosperity on the Korean Peninsula," Moon said Monday in his speech. "Because this is a road never traveled before, it's difficult to predict what trouble we may encounter along the way."
Reflecting Moon's efforts to ease tensions, South Korea skipped a parade for its military's 70th anniversary. Instead, Moon attended a ceremony Monday welcoming the remains of 64 South Korean soldiers, missing from the Korean War, flown from the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency in Hawaii.
They were earlier found in North Korea during a joint 1996-2005 excavation project between the United States and North Korea. Forensic identification tests in Hawaii confirmed they belong to South Korean war dead, according to Seoul's Defense Ministry.
Information for this article was contributed by Hyung-jin Kim and Kim Tong-hyung of The Associated Press; and by Choe Sang-Hun of The New York Times.
A Section on 10/02/2018