S. Korean, US border guards resume armament in JSA

A security guard looks at the Panmungak building on the north side of the Joint Security Area on Nov. 30. (Joint Press Corps)

The security battalion comprising South Korean and US guard forces responsible for securing the Joint Security Area has reinstated armaments in response to North Korean soldiers carrying firearms across the inter-Korean border, according to the United Nations Command.

The two Koreas had withdrawn firearms from the JSA in the truce village of Panmunjom in late October 2018, around a month after signing the Inter-Korean Comprehensive Military Agreement.

The JSA is the sole location where soldiers from South and North Korea, as well as the United States, stand face-to-face along the low concrete border marker that divides the Korean Peninsula.

However, demilitarization efforts, which were the first of their kind since the 1976 axe murder incident, have been in vain since North Korea's attempts to remilitarize the JSA beginning in late November.

"Given the KPA's current armed security posture, UNC has authorized trained and qualified members of the guard forces on the UNC side of the JSA to re-arm to protect both civilian and military personnel," the UN Command said in an English-language statement.

The guard forces on the UNC side refer to the UNC Security Battalion-JSA, which includes both South Korean and US military personnel. The KPA is the official designation for North Korean forces, known as the Korean People's Army.

The UN Command conveyed its directive for carrying firearms to the South Korean side in early December, according to a South Korean military source who wished to remain anonymous.

"This action is being taken out of an abundance of caution, but UNC has also informed the ROK government and KPA of its position that a disarmed JSA is safer and more peaceful for the Korean Peninsula," the UNC said, referring to South Korea by the acronym of its official name, the Republic of Korea. "And that this can be achieved by reimplementing the previous UNC-KPA agreements."

The UN Command underscored that it "reassured Korean People's Army counterparts that it intends for the Joint Security Area to remain a place for dialogue and Armistice Agreement implementation."

On-duty North Korean soldiers started carrying pistols in the JSA in the Demilitarized Zone in late November. Such action followed North Korea's public declaration of the complete annulment of 2018's Sept. 19 inter-Korean military agreement on Nov. 23.

North Korea's decision came in response to South Korea's announcement on Nov. 22 that it was suspending part of the 2018 Comprehensive Military Agreement, specifically the no-fly zone clause.

South Korea's action was a tit-for-tat measure to a spy satellite launch by North Korea on Nov. 21, which violated multiple UN Security Council resolutions that prohibit North Korea from conducting any launches that employ ballistic missile technology.

Pyongyang has undertaken additional actions to overturn the inter-Korean military agreement.

North Korea has been reinstating guard posts within the Demilitarized Zone, which had been dismantled, and redeploying military personnel and firearm equipment to the posts. Additionally, the South Korean military has observed an increase in the number of gates opening at coastal artillery bases along the inter-Korean maritime border in the West Sea.

By Ji Da-gyum(dagyumji@heraldcorp.com)