How much worse can relations between North and South Korea get?

North Korea's army says it is moving to permanently shut off and block the border with South Korea. It said it had informed the US military to prevent an accidental clash. But the announcement is seen as symbolic because links across the highly militarized border have already been shut down for years. However some analysts believe that the move is a sign of worsening prospects for re-unification, with Pyongyang also increasing its fortifications on the border.

Why North Korea is the Hardest Country to Escape

 

North Korea threatens to remilitarize DMZ

Relations between North and South Korea remain tense a day after Pyongyang threatened to restart military exercises in the demilitarized zone bordering South Korea. Citing the army, state media reported that troops would be sent to the industrial park in the border town of Kaesong and to the Kumgang Mountains on the east coast. Guard posts in the demilitarized buffer zone between the two countries will be reestablished, it added. Tensions on the Korean peninsula hit a new low Tuesday when Pyongyang blew up its joint liaison office with Seoul.

Poor little Kim-Jong un just isn't getting the love, press and attention he craves from the world. So he's decided that it's best to throw a temper tantrum. You and Donald Trump.

On board the train to Korea's music festival for peace

This 10 Minute Video Is A Briefing On The Defection Of The North Korean Solider

Nine days ago, a North Korean soldier managed to make his way across the border between North Korea and South Korea, one of the most dangerous stretches of land in the world. The daring escape was all caught on video — and that video is now public.

As the 10-minute video below shows, the 24-year-old solider known only by his last name, Oh, drove his car at a high speed toward the border and then took off on foot. Four North Korean soldiers chased after him, shooting at the defector about 40 times and hitting him five times. It was the first North Korea defection over the border in about a decade.

North Korean soldiers shoot defector as he escapes

Footage shows regime soldiers pursuing and shooting at their compatriot, who was hit at least five times as he ran for his life across the border

Dramatic footage has emerged showing a North Korean military defector fleeing across the border to South Korea as he is pursued and shot at by his compatriots before being hauled to safety by troops from the other side.

The video, released on Wednesday by the UN command in the South, shows the soldier, who defected last week, racing towards the border village of Panmunjom in a military vehicle before crashing it and continuing his escape on foot.

Patrolling The DMZ

During the Cold War the most separation and access point between the East and West of Europe was Checkpoint Charlie in Berlin.  It was sunominsess  with the tensions of the time today that has shifted further to the east with the border between North and South Korea taking its place.

On patrol in the DMZ: North Korean landmines, biting winds and tin cans

As tensions on the peninsula escalate, a former South Korean guard describes life at one of the world’s most fortified borders. NK News reports

Of the 130,000 South Korean soldiers conscripted every year, only a handful will ever get to see their sworn enemies in the flesh. They are the ones stationed at the “demilitarised zone” that separates the two Koreas. 

The area, commonly known as the DMZ, is one of the most fortified borders in the world – separating two counties that have technically been at war since 1953. It also a serves as a tourist attraction, visited by thousands of people a year.

Tensions along the border have been raised since two South Korean officers were gravely injured by a landmine last August. Seoul immediately blamed Pyongyang, who rejected the allegations but declared the country on a war footing.

On patrol

For Shin Yong-tae, a former South Korean soldier who took part in patrol missions near the North Korean border, the threat of landmines was always present.