Soldiers stationed on the southern side of the Joint Security Zone on the inter-Korean border have permission to carry weapons, the United Nations Command (UNC) announced on Tuesday, amid renewed tensions between Seoul and Pyongyang.
South and North Korean soldiers facing off in the United Nations-controlled Joint Security Area (JSA) north of Seoul had been disarmed since a deal signed between the two neighbors in 2018, but Korean troops began carrying weapons again last month.
Seoul partially suspended that agreement last month after Pyongyang launched its first spy satellite. In response, the North abandoned the agreement entirely and warned that it would “never be bound to it again.”
The decision to allow UNC troops to carry weapons was made after North Korean People's Army soldiers resumed “an armed security posture,” a UNC statement said.
“The UNC has authorized trained and qualified Guard Force members on the UNC side of the JSA to rearm to protect civilian and military personnel,” the command added, saying it had, however, informed the South and North Korean governments, ” “Having a disarmed JSA is safer and more peaceful.”
While the border fortifications are important, only a concrete wall separates the two countries at the level of the Joint Security Zone, which until this year was a popular tourist spot where hundreds of visitors went daily, on the South Korean side.
Those visits were suspended after a U.S. soldier, Travis King, ran north across the border last July. He was released by Pyongyang in September before being accused of desertion by the American army.
According to South Korea's Yonhap news agency, tourist tours partially resumed last month but were suspended again for security reasons after North Korea re-armed its troops.
In 2017, a North Korean soldier crossed the JSA demarcation line, first in a military jeep and then on foot. He was wounded by fire from the North Korean side and survived.
And in 1976, in the JSA, two American soldiers were hacked to death by North Koreans during a dispute over a tree.