PANMUNJOM, North Korea (AP) – Tensions have increased significantly along the Demilitarized Zone since North Korea’s recent nuclear test and rocket launch, a North Korean military official told The Associated Press on Monday, adding that while he could not comment on operational details, “the reality is that it is touch and go.”
Though parts of the world’s most fortified border can seem like a tourist trap, drawing throngs of camera-happy visitors on both sides every year, to the military-trained eye the Cold War-style standoff along the 257-kilometer (160-mile) DMZ – established when the 1950-53 Korean War ended in an armistice, not a peace treaty – is an incident waiting to happen.
That’s now truer than ever, the North Korean officer said, as tensions are escalating between Pyongyang, Seoul and Washington. Thousands of U.S. troops are deployed in South Korea and units based around the DMZ have the motto “Be Ready to Fight Tonight.”
“People come here and they think it’s like a resort. But if you know it better, you know how dangerous it is,” Lt. Col. Nam Dong Ho of the North Korean People’s Army said in Panmunjom, the truce village where the armistice was signed.
Nam said tensions have increased significantly since the nuclear test in January and rocket launch earlier this month. “Something could happen at any time,” he said.