103-546: The Korean Demilitarized Zone ( Korean : 한반도 비무장 지대 ) is a heavily militarized strip of land running across the Korean Peninsula near the 38th parallel north . The demilitarized zone (DMZ) is a border barrier that divides the peninsula roughly in half. It was established to serve as a buffer zone between the sovereign states of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea) and
206-578: A Korail train went through the DMZ to the North on the new Donghae Bukbu Line built on the east coast of Korea. However, the resurrection of this line was short-lived, as it closed again in July 2008 following an incident in which a South Korean tourist was shot and killed. The JSA is the location of the famous Bridge of No Return , over which prisoner exchanges have taken place. There are several buildings on both
309-692: A de facto international border and one of the most tense fronts in the Cold War . Both the North and the South remained dependent on their sponsor states from 1948 to the outbreak of the Korean War. That conflict, which claimed over three million lives and divided the Korean Peninsula along ideological lines, commenced on 25 June 1950, with a full-front DPRK invasion across the 38th parallel, and ended in 1953 after international intervention pushed
412-612: A system of speech levels and honorifics indicative of the formality of any given situation. Modern Korean is written in the Korean script ( 한글 ; Hangeul in South Korea, 조선글 ; Chosŏn'gŭl in North Korea), a system developed during the 15th century for that purpose, although it did not become the primary script until the 20th century. The script uses 24 basic letters ( jamo ) and 27 complex letters formed from
515-474: A "wall" divided Korea. He said the south side of the wall is packed with soil, which permits access to the top of the wall and makes it effectively invisible from the south side. He also claimed that it served as a bridgehead for any northward invasion. The United States and South Korea deny the wall's existence, although they do claim there are anti-tank barriers along some sections of the DMZ. Dutch journalist and filmmaker Peter Tetteroo also shot footage of
618-484: A Korean influence on Khitan. The hypothesis that Korean could be related to Japanese has had some supporters due to some overlap in vocabulary and similar grammatical features that have been elaborated upon by such researchers as Samuel E. Martin and Roy Andrew Miller . Sergei Starostin (1991) found about 25% of potential cognates in the Japanese–Korean 100-word Swadesh list . Some linguists concerned with
721-718: A Soviet tourist named Vasily Matuzok (sometimes spelled Matusak), who was part of an official trip to the JSA (hosted by the North), ran across the MDL shouting that he wanted to defect to the South. As many as 30 North Korean soldiers pursued him across the border, opening fire. Border guards on the South Korean side returned fire, eventually surrounding the North Koreans. One South Korean and three North Korean soldiers were killed in
824-526: A US M14 mine , 29 grams of tetryl is used, while 240 grams of TNT is used in a Russian PMN mine . Anti-personnel blast mines are the most common type and are typically deployed on the surface (hidden by leaves or rocks) or buried under soil at a depth of 10–15 cm. They are activated by pressure, i.e. when the victim steps on them, but it could also be a vehicle driving over them. They were designed for use as area denial weapons . Weapons of this type are supposed to deny opposing military forces access to
927-601: A barrier in 2001 which his North Korean guides said was the Korean Wall. A 2007 Reuters report revealed that there is no coast to coast wall located across the DMZ and that the pictures of a "wall" which have been used in North Korean propaganda have merely been pictures of concrete anti-tank barriers. While 800,000 landmines were being removed in 2018, it was shown that the Joint Security Area along
1030-404: A border incident occurred where two South Korean soldiers were wounded after stepping on landmines that had allegedly been laid on the southern side of the DMZ by North Korean forces near an ROK guard post. Both North Korea and South Korea then resumed broadcasting propaganda by loudspeaker. After four days of negotiations, on 25 August 2015 South Korea agreed to discontinue the broadcasts following
1133-480: A core vowel. The IPA symbol ⟨ ◌͈ ⟩ ( U+0348 ◌͈ COMBINING DOUBLE VERTICAL LINE BELOW ) is used to denote the tensed consonants /p͈/, /t͈/, /k͈/, /t͡ɕ͈/, /s͈/ . Its official use in the extensions to the IPA is for "strong" articulation, but is used in the literature for faucalized voice . The Korean consonants also have elements of stiff voice , but it is not yet known how typical this
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#17327722514961236-463: A few extinct relatives which—along with the Jeju language (Jejuan) of Jeju Island and Korean itself—form the compact Koreanic language family . Even so, Jejuan and Korean are not mutually intelligible . The linguistic homeland of Korean is suggested to be somewhere in contemporary Manchuria . The hierarchy of the society from which the language originates deeply influences the language, leading to
1339-400: A huge compressive force upwards, ejecting the mine casing and any soil covering the mine along with it. When the blast wave hits the surface, it quickly transfers the force into the subject's footwear and foot. This results in a massive compression force being applied. In most cases, the victim's foot is blown off by the blast wave. The resulting injuries to a human body depend on the size of
1442-416: A large area. This process can be done manually, via dispensers on land vehicles, or from helicopters or aircraft. Alternatively, they can be dispensed by cargo-carrying artillery shells. Other uses specific to anti-personnel mines are where they are deployed on an ad hoc basis in the following situations: Typically, anti-personnel blast mines are triggered when the victim steps on them. Their primary purpose
1545-483: A meeting point between the two Korean states, where negotiations take place: the small Joint Security Area (JSA) near the western end of the zone. The Korean Demilitarized Zone intersects but does not follow the 38th parallel north , which was the border before the Korean War . It crosses the parallel on an angle, with the west end of the DMZ lying south of the parallel and the east end lying north of it. The DMZ
1648-414: A mine without any metal components in it cannot be found using a metal detector. The fuze mechanism is designed to set off the detonator , either by striking it with a spring-loaded firing pin , compressing a friction sensitive pyrotechnic composition, or by passing an electric charge through it. Most mines employ a spring-loaded striker that hits a stab detonator when activated by the victim. Typically,
1751-476: A much larger charge than blast mines, they can cause severe damage to an unarmoured vehicle which runs directly over one. These mines (such as the Russian POMZ ) are entirely above ground, having a fragmenting warhead mounted on a stake at a suitable height, concealed by vegetation or rubbish and triggered by one or more tripwires . Bounding mines have a small lifting charge that, when activated, launches
1854-508: A possible relationship.) Hudson & Robbeets (2020) suggested that there are traces of a pre- Nivkh substratum in Korean. According to the hypothesis, ancestral varieties of Nivkh (also known as Amuric ) were once distributed on the Korean Peninsula before the arrival of Koreanic speakers. Korean syllable structure is (C)(G)V(C), consisting of an optional onset consonant, glide /j, w, ɰ/ and final coda /p, t, k, m, n, ŋ, l/ surrounding
1957-597: A series of skirmishes along the DMZ resulted in the deaths of 81 American , 299 South Korean and 397 North Korean soldiers . This included the Blue House Raid in 1968, an attempt to assassinate South Korea President Park Chung Hee at the Blue House . In 1976, in now-declassified meeting minutes, U.S. deputy secretary of defense William Clements told U.S. secretary of state Henry Kissinger that there had been 200 raids or incursions into North Korea from
2060-528: A skeleton crew of caretakers in an effort to preserve the illusion of activity. In the 1980s, the South Korean government built a 100 m (328 ft) flag pole in Daeseong-dong, which flies a South Korean flag weighing 130 kg (287 lb). The North Korean government responded by building the 160 m (525 ft) Panmunjeom flagpole in Kijŏng-dong, only 1.2 km (0.7 mi) west of
2163-507: A specific area. While blast mines are designed to cause severe injury to one person, fragmentation mines (such as the World War II era German S-mine ) are designed to project fragments across a wide area, causing fragmentation wounds to nearby personnel. Fragmentation mines are generally much larger and heavier than blast mines, and contain a large amount (often several kilograms) of ferrous metal. As such, they are easy to detect if
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#17327722514962266-507: A statement from North Korea's government expressing regret for the landmine incident. On 8 January 2016, in response to North Korea's supposed successful testing of a hydrogen bomb , South Korea resumed broadcasts directed at the North. On 15 April 2016, it was reported that the South Koreans purchased a new audio system to combat the North's broadcasts. Both North and South Korea have held balloon propaganda leaflet campaigns since
2369-504: A subsequent exploration of this tunnel, US Navy Commander Robert M. Ballinger and ROK Marine Corps Major Kim Hah-chul were killed in the tunnel by a North Korean explosive device. The blast also wounded five Americans and one South Korean from the United Nations Command. The tunnel, which was about 0.9 by 1.2 m (3 by 4 ft), extended more than 1 km (1,100 yd) beyond the MDL into South Korea. The tunnel
2472-490: Is 162 m (531 ft). It is currently the world's sixth largest flagpole. Since demarcation, the DMZ has had numerous cases of incidents and incursions by both sides, although the North Korean government typically never acknowledges direct responsibility for any of these incidents (there are exceptions, such as the axe incident). This was particularly intense during the Korean DMZ Conflict (1966–1969) when
2575-475: Is 250 km (160 mi) long, approximately 4 km (2.5 mi) wide. Though the zone itself is demilitarized, the zone's borders on both sides are some of the most heavily militarized borders in the world. The Northern Limit Line , or NLL, is the disputed maritime demarcation line between North and South Korea in the Yellow Sea , not agreed in the armistice. The coastline and islands on both sides of
2678-656: Is an agglutinative language . The Korean language is traditionally considered to have nine parts of speech . Modifiers generally precede the modified words, and in the case of verb modifiers, can be serially appended. The sentence structure or basic form of a Korean sentence is subject–object–verb (SOV), but the verb is the only required and immovable element and word order is highly flexible, as in many other agglutinative languages. Question 가게에 gage-e store- LOC 가셨어요? ga-syeo-sseo-yo go- HON . PAST - CONJ - POL 가게에 가셨어요? gage-e ga-syeo-sseo-yo store-LOC go-HON.PAST-CONJ-POL 'Did [you] go to
2781-511: Is closer to a near-open central vowel ( [ɐ] ), though ⟨a⟩ is still used for tradition. Grammatical morphemes may change shape depending on the preceding sounds. Examples include -eun/-neun ( -은/-는 ) and -i/-ga ( -이/-가 ). Sometimes sounds may be inserted instead. Examples include -eul/-reul ( -을/-를 ), -euro/-ro ( -으로/-로 ), -eseo/-seo ( -에서/-서 ), -ideunji/-deunji ( -이든지/-든지 ) and -iya/-ya ( -이야/-야 ). Some verbs may also change shape morphophonemically. Korean
2884-432: Is located between 50 and 160 m (160 and 520 ft) below ground, but is larger than the first, approximately 2 by 2 m (7 by 7 feet). The third tunnel was discovered on 17 October 1978. Unlike the previous two, the third tunnel was discovered following a tip from a North Korean defector . This tunnel is about 1,600 m (5,200 ft) long and about 73 m (240 ft) below ground. Foreign visitors touring
2987-399: Is mainly reserved for specific circumstances such as newspapers, scholarly papers and disambiguation. Today Hanja is largely unused in everyday life but is still important for historical and linguistic studies. The Korean names for the language are based on the names for Korea used in both South Korea and North Korea. The English word "Korean" is derived from Goryeo , which is thought to be
3090-399: Is of faucalized consonants. They are produced with a partially constricted glottis and additional subglottal pressure in addition to tense vocal tract walls, laryngeal lowering, or other expansion of the larynx. /s/ is aspirated [sʰ] and becomes an alveolo-palatal [ɕʰ] before [j] or [i] for most speakers (but see North–South differences in the Korean language ). This occurs with
3193-581: Is the national language of both North Korea and South Korea . Beyond Korea, the language is recognized as a minority language in parts of China , namely Jilin , and specifically Yanbian Prefecture , and Changbai County . It is also spoken by Sakhalin Koreans in parts of Sakhalin , the Russian island just north of Japan, and by the Koryo-saram in parts of Central Asia . The language has
Korean Demilitarized Zone - Misplaced Pages Continue
3296-470: Is to amplify the shock of the detonator and initiate the main explosive charge. The main charge consists of a stable explosive that is detonated by the booster charge. This is necessary, because making a mine entirely out of a highly sensitive detonator or booster explosive would be more expensive, and make the device more sensitive and thereby susceptible to accidental detonation . In most AP blast mines TNT , Composition B or phlegmatized RDX are used. On
3399-407: Is to blow the victim's foot or leg off, disabling them. Injuring, rather than killing, the victim is viewed as preferable to increase the logistical (evacuation, medical) burden on the opposing force. When a person steps on a blast mine and activates it, the mine's main charge detonates , creating a blast shock wave consisting of hot gases travelling at extremely high velocity. The shock wave sends
3502-747: Is well attested in Western Old Japanese and Northern Ryukyuan languages , in Eastern Old Japanese it only occurs in compounds, and it is only present in three dialects of the Southern Ryukyuan language group . Also, the doublet wo meaning "hemp" is attested in Western Old Japanese and Southern Ryukyuan languages. It is thus plausible to assume a borrowed term. (See Classification of the Japonic languages or Comparison of Japanese and Korean for further details on
3605-524: The Korean dialects , which are still largely mutually intelligible . The Chinese language , written with Chinese characters and read with Sino-Xenic pronunciations , was first introduced to Korea in the 1st century BC, and remained the medium of formal writing and government until the late 19th century. Korean scholars adapted Chinese characters (known in Korean as Hanja ) to write their own language, creating scripts known as idu , hyangchal , gugyeol , and gakpil. These systems were cumbersome, due to
3708-558: The M18 Claymore ) differ from other types in that they are designed to direct their fragments only in a limited arc. They are placed so that the blast will be directed at the target area and away from friendly forces. This design also allows forces to protect themselves by placing these types of mines near their own positions, but facing the enemy. They are triggered in a conventional manner with either tripwire or command detonation. They are generally referred to as claymore mines from
3811-570: The Polish mine detector . The Germans responded with mines that had a wooden or glass casing to make detection harder. Wooden mines had been used by the Soviets in 1939, before the appearance of metal detectors, to save steel. Some, like the PP Mi-D mine , continued to be used into the 1980s as they were easy to make and hard to detect. Wood has the disadvantage of rotting and splitting, rendering
3914-608: The Republic of Korea (South Korea) under the provisions of the Korean Armistice Agreement in 1953, an agreement between North Korea, China , and the United Nations Command . The DMZ is 250 kilometers (160 mi) long and about 4 kilometers (2.5 mi) wide. There have been various incidents in and around the DMZ , with military and civilian casualties on both sides. Within the DMZ is
4017-568: The Three Kingdoms of Korea (not the ancient confederacies in the southern Korean Peninsula), while " -eo " and " -mal " mean "language" and "speech", respectively. Korean is also simply referred to as guk-eo , literally "national language". This name is based on the same Han characters ( 國語 "nation" + "language") that are also used in Taiwan and Japan to refer to their respective national languages. In North Korea and China ,
4120-968: The 16th century for all Korean classes, including uneducated peasants and slaves. By the 17th century, the yangban had exchanged Hangul letters with slaves, which suggests a high literacy rate of Hangul during the Joseon era. In the context of growing Korean nationalism in the 19th century, the Gabo Reform of 1894 abolished the Confucian examinations and decreed that government documents would be issued in Hangul instead of literary Chinese. Some newspapers were published entirely in Hangul, but other publications used Korean mixed script , with Hanja for Sino-Korean vocabulary and Hangul for other elements. North Korea abolished Hanja in writing in 1949, but continues to teach them in schools. Their usage in South Korea
4223-424: The 1950s. The town was oriented so that the bright blue roofs and white sides of the buildings would be the most distinguishing features when viewed from the border. However, based on scrutiny with modern telescopic lenses, it has been confirmed that the buildings are mere concrete shells lacking window glass or even interior rooms, with the building lights turned on and off at set times and the empty sidewalks swept by
Korean Demilitarized Zone - Misplaced Pages Continue
4326-685: The Civilian Control Line. The Civilian Control Zone is necessary for the military to monitor civilian travel to tourist destinations close to the Southern Limit Line of the DMZ like the discovered infiltration tunnels and tourist observatories. Usually when traveling within the Civilian Control Zone, South Korean soldiers accompany tourist buses and cars as armed guards to monitor the civilians as well as to protect them from North Korean intruders. Right after
4429-473: The DMZ. According to a 2018 article in The Economist , North Korea could bombard Seoul with over 10,000 rounds every minute. Experts believe that 60 percent of its total artillery is positioned within a few kilometers of the DMZ acting as a deterrent against any South Korean invasion. From 1953 until 2004, both sides broadcast audio propaganda across the DMZ. Massive loudspeakers mounted on several of
4532-469: The DMZ. In addition to using balloons as a means of delivery, North Koreans have also used rockets to send leaflets to the DMZ. On 23 April 2018, both North and South Korea officially cancelled their border propaganda broadcasts. On 1 May 2018, the loudspeaker systems across the Korean border were dismantled. Both sides also committed to ending the balloon campaigns. On 5 May 2018, an attempt by North Korean defectors to disperse more balloon propaganda across
4635-425: The DMZ. Residents of Tae Sung Dong are governed and protected by the United Nations Command and are generally required to spend at least 240 nights per year in the village to maintain their residency. In 2008, the village had a population of 218 people. The villagers of Tae Sung Dong are direct descendants of people who owned the land before the 1950–53 Korean War. To continue to deter North Korean incursion, in 2014
4738-638: The Demilitarized Zone. Both North and South Korea maintain peace villages in sight of each other's side of the DMZ. In the South, Daeseong-dong is administered under the terms of the DMZ. Villagers are classed as South Korean citizens, but are exempt from paying tax and other civic requirements such as military service . In the North, Kijŏng-dong features a number of brightly painted, poured-concrete multi-story buildings and apartments with electric lighting. These features represented an unheard-of level of luxury for rural Koreans, North or South, in
4841-411: The Korean War. In recent years, mainly South Korean non-governmental organizations have been involved in launching balloons targeted at the DMZ and beyond. Due to the winds, the balloons tend to fall near the DMZ where there are mostly North Korean soldiers to see the leaflets. As with the loudspeakers, balloon operations were mutually agreed to be halted between 2004 and 2010. It has been assessed that
4944-523: The Korean War. The new building incorporated the old Freedom House Pagoda within its design. Since 1953 there have been occasional confrontations and skirmishes within the JSA. The axe murder incident in August 1976 involved the attempted trimming of a tree which resulted in two deaths ( Captain Arthur Bonifas and First Lieutenant Mark Barrett). Another incident occurred on 23 November 1984, when
5047-551: The Korean border was guarded by standard barbed wire. The North Korean side of the DMZ primarily serves to stop an invasion of North Korea from the south. Its other purpose is to ensure that North Korean citizens face significant difficulty in any effort to defect to South Korea. From the armistice until 1972, approximately 7,700 South Korean soldiers and agents infiltrated into North Korea in order to sabotage military bases and industrial areas. Around 5,300 of them never returned home. North Korea has thousands of artillery pieces near
5150-592: The MDL. On 15 October, 2018, during the high-level talks in Panmunjeom, military officials of the rank of colonel from the two Koreas and Burke Hamilton, Secretary of the UNC Military Armistice Commission , announced measures to reduce conventional military threats, such as creating buffer zones along their land and sea boundaries and a no-fly zone above the border, removing 11 front-line guard posts by December, and demining sections of
5253-720: The NLL are also heavily militarized. The 38th parallel north—which divides the Korean Peninsula roughly in half—was the original boundary between the United States and Soviet Union's brief administration areas of Korea at the end of World War II . Upon the creation of the North Korea (formally the Democratic People's Republic of Korea or DPRK) and South Korea (formally the Republic of Korea or ROK) in 1948, it became
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#17327722514965356-450: The North and the South, large numbers of troops are stationed along both sides of the line, each side guarding against potential aggression from the other side, even 71 years after its establishment. The armistice agreement explains exactly how many military personnel and what kind of weapons are allowed in the DMZ. Soldiers from both sides may patrol inside the DMZ, but they may not cross the MDL. Sporadic outbreaks of violence in and around
5459-501: The South Korean DMZ may view inside this tunnel using a sloped access shaft. A fourth tunnel was discovered on 3 March 1990, north of Haean town in the former Punchbowl battlefield. The tunnel's dimensions are 2 by 2 m (7 by 7 feet), and it is 145 m (476 ft) deep. The method of construction is almost identical in structure to the second and the third tunnels. According to North Korea, between 1977 and 1979,
5562-477: The South Korean and United States authorities constructed a concrete wall along the DMZ. North Korea, however, began to propagate information about the wall after the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, when the symbolism of a wall unjustly dividing a people became more apparent. Various organizations, such as the North Korean tour guide company Korea Konsult, claimed a wall was dividing Korea, saying that: In
5665-579: The Southern Limit Line DMZ fence. The whole estuary of the Han River is deemed a "Neutral Zone" and is off-limits to all civilian vessels and is treated like the rest of the DMZ. Only military vessels are allowed within this neutral zone. Korean language Korean ( South Korean : 한국어 , Hanguk-eo ; North Korean : 조선어 , Chosŏnŏ ) is the native language for about 81 million people, mostly of Korean descent. It
5768-749: The US and the Soviet Union during World War II, but never deployed. During the Cold War, the US produced the M23 chemical mine containing VX . A small explosive charge burst the mine open and dispersed the chemical when the mine was triggered. Anti-personnel mines are a typical example of subject-matter excluded from patentability under the European Patent Convention , because the publication or exploitation of such inventions are contrary to
5871-499: The US mine of this type. In the conflicts of the 21st century, anti-personnel improvised explosive devices ( IED ) have replaced conventional or military landmines as the source of injury to dismounted (pedestrian) soldiers and civilians. These injuries were recently reported in BMJ Open to be far worse than landmines , resulting in multiple limb amputations and lower body mutilation. This combination of injuries has been given
5974-563: The United States government exempted the Korean DMZ from its pledge to eliminate anti-personnel landmines . On 1 October 2018, however, a 20-day process began to remove landmines from both sides of the DMZ. Inside the DMZ, near the western coast of the peninsula, Panmunjeom is the home of the Joint Security Area (JSA). Originally, it was the only connection between North and South Korea but that changed on 17 May 2007, when
6077-417: The action. Matuzok survived and was eventually resettled in the U.S. In late 2009, South Korean forces in conjunction with the United Nations Command began renovation of its three guard posts and two checkpoint buildings within the JSA compound. Construction was designed to enlarge and modernize the structures. Work was undertaken a year after North Korea finished replacing four JSA guard posts on its side of
6180-408: The activists' balloons may contribute to the decay of remaining cooperation between the Korean governments, and the DMZ has become more militarized in recent years. Many North Korean leaflets during the Cold War gave instructions and maps to help targeted South Korean soldiers in defecting. One of the leaflets found on the DMZ included a map of Cho Dae-hum 's route of defection to North Korea across
6283-616: The area south of the Military Demarcation Line, which cuts across Korea at its waist, there is a concrete wall which ... stretches more than 240 km (149 mi) from east to west, is 5–8 m (16–26 ft) high, 10–19 m (33–62 ft) thick at the bottom, and 3–7 m (10–23 ft) wide in the upper part. It is set with wire entanglements and dotted with gun embrasures, look-outs and varieties of military establishments. In December 1999, Chu Chang-jun, North Korea's ambassador to China , repeated claims that
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#17327722514966386-469: The basic ones. When first recorded in historical texts, Korean was only a spoken language . Since the turn of the 21st century, aspects of Korean culture have spread to other countries through globalization and cultural exports . As such, interest in Korean language acquisition (as a foreign language ) is also generated by longstanding alliances, military involvement, and diplomacy, such as between South Korea–United States and China–North Korea since
6489-455: The beginnings of words. /l/ becomes alveolar flap [ɾ] between vowels, and [l] or [ɭ] at the end of a syllable or next to another /l/ . A written syllable-final ' ㄹ ', when followed by a vowel or a glide ( i.e. , when the next character starts with ' ㅇ '), migrates to the next syllable and thus becomes [ɾ] . Traditionally, /l/ was disallowed at the beginning of a word. It disappeared before [j] , and otherwise became /n/ . However,
6592-413: The blast wave further up a target's foot and leg and causing greater injury, in some cases even described as severe as traumatic amputation of the leg up to the knee. Secondary injuries from a blast mine are often caused by the material that has been torn loose by the mine's explosion. This consists of the soil and stones that were on top of the mine, parts of the victim's footwear and the small bones in
6695-427: The border from South Korea was halted by the South Korean government. The no-fly zone which was established on 1 November 2018 also designates a no-fly zone for all aircraft types above the MDL, and prohibits hot-air balloons from traveling within 25 km of the Korean border's MDL. In 2024, as a response to continuing leaflets from South Korean activists, the North flew several hundred balloons filled with trash over
6798-405: The border have killed over 500 South Korean soldiers, 50 American soldiers and 250 North Korean soldiers along the DMZ between 1953 and 1999. Daeseong-dong (also written Tae Sung Dong and known as “Freedom Village”), in South Korea, and Kijŏng-dong (also known as the "Peace Village"), in North Korea, are the only settlements allowed by the armistice committee to remain within the boundaries of
6901-758: The border with South Korea. It flies a 270 kg (595 lb) flag of North Korea . In 2014, the Panmunjeom flagpole was the fourth tallest in the world, after the Jeddah Flagpole in Jeddah , Saudi Arabia , at 170 m (558 ft), the Dushanbe Flagpole in Dushanbe , Tajikistan , at 165 m (541 ft) and the pole at the National Flag Square in Baku , Azerbaijan , which
7004-411: The border, resulting in a June 2024 decision by the South to suspend the above deal and resume military drills near the border. The Civilian Control Line (CCL), or the Civilian Control Zone (CCZ, 민간인출입통제구역 ), is a line that designates an additional buffer zone to the DMZ within a distance of 5 to 20 km (3.1 to 12.4 mi) from the Southern Limit Line of the DMZ. Its purpose is to limit and control
7107-449: The buildings delivered DPRK propaganda broadcasts directed towards the south as well as propaganda radio broadcasts across the border. South Korean broadcasts featured "popular music and lectures on freedom and democracy," while the North Korean broadcast featured "martial music and praises to the country's rulers." In 2004, the North and South agreed to end the broadcasts as part of an agreement to ease diplomatic tensions. On 4 August 2015,
7210-402: The ceasefire, the Civilian Control Zone outside the DMZ encompassed 100 or so empty villages. The government implemented migration measures to attract settlers into the area. As a result, in 1983, when the area delineated by the Civilian Control Line was at its largest, a total of 39,725 residents in 8,799 households were living in the 81 villages located within the Civilian Control Zone. Most of
7313-494: The detonator contains a tiny pellet of lead azide . The fuze is the most complicated component in any mine, although the amount of effort required to design and manufacture a simple fuze mechanism is quite low, similar to the retraction mechanism in a ballpoint pen . More sophisticated examples, such as the Italian SB-33 mine , have a fuze mechanism that detonates the mine if subject to gradual, steady pressure, but locks
7416-675: The end of World War II and the Korean War . Along with other languages such as Chinese and Arabic , Korean is ranked at the top difficulty level for English speakers by the United States Department of Defense . Modern Korean descends from Middle Korean , which in turn descends from Old Korean , which descends from the Proto-Koreanic language , which is generally suggested to have its linguistic homeland somewhere in Manchuria . Whitman (2012) suggests that
7519-530: The entrance of civilians into the area in order to protect and maintain the security of military facilities and operations near the DMZ. The commander of the 8th US Army ordered the creation of the CCL and it was activated and first became effective in February 1954. The buffer zone that falls south of the Southern Limit Line is called the Civilian Control Zone. Barbed wire fences and manned military guard posts mark
7622-488: The environment is not too heavily contaminated with iron. These mines are deemed to be more efficient than purely "blast effect" mines, because the shrapnel covers a greater area, potentially injuring more combatants. The shrapnel from these mines can even disable some armoured vehicles, by puncturing their tires and—in the case of soft-skinned vehicles—also penetrating the skin and damaging internal components or injuring personnel. Because fragmentation mines generally contain
7725-399: The first Korean dynasty known to Western nations. Korean people in the former USSR refer to themselves as Koryo-saram or Koryo-in (literally, " Koryo/Goryeo persons"), and call the language Koryo-mal' . Some older English sources also use the spelling "Corea" to refer to the nation, and its inflected form for the language, culture and people, "Korea" becoming more popular in
7828-542: The front of the war back to near the 38th parallel. In the Armistice Agreement of 27 July 1953, the DMZ was created as each side agreed to move their troops back 2,000 m (1.2 miles) from the front line, creating a buffer zone 4 km (2.5 mi) wide. The Military Demarcation Line (MDL) goes through the center of the DMZ and indicates where the front was when the agreement was signed. Owing to this theoretical stalemate, and genuine hostility between
7931-456: The fundamental disparities between the Korean and Chinese languages, and accessible only to those educated in classical Chinese. Most of the population was illiterate. In the 15th century King Sejong the Great personally developed an alphabetic featural writing system , known today as Hangul , to promote literacy among the common people. Introduced in the document Hunminjeongeum , it
8034-405: The fuze if subject to a sudden shock. This defeats one of the main methods of clearing a path through a minefield – detonating the mines with explosive devices, such as mine-clearing line charges . The booster charge is a highly sensitive explosive that will activate easily when subjected to the shock of the detonator . Typically, a pea-sized pellet of RDX is used. The purpose of the booster
8137-479: The inflow of western loanwords changed the trend, and now word-initial /l/ (mostly from English loanwords) are pronounced as a free variation of either [ɾ] or [l] . All obstruents (plosives, affricates, fricatives) at the end of a word are pronounced with no audible release , [p̚, t̚, k̚] . Plosive sounds /p, t, k/ become nasals [m, n, ŋ] before nasal sounds. Hangul spelling does not reflect these assimilatory pronunciation rules, but rather maintains
8240-408: The issue between Japanese and Korean, including Alexander Vovin, have argued that the indicated similarities are not due to any genetic relationship , but rather to a sprachbund effect and heavy borrowing, especially from Ancient Korean into Western Old Japanese . A good example might be Middle Korean sàm and Japanese asá , meaning " hemp ". This word seems to be a cognate, but although it
8343-578: The language is most often called Joseon-mal , or more formally, Joseon-o . This is taken from the North Korean name for Korea (Joseon), a name retained from the Joseon dynasty until the proclamation of the Korean Empire , which in turn was annexed by the Empire of Japan . In mainland China , following the establishment of diplomatic relations with South Korea in 1992, the term Cháoxiǎnyǔ or
8446-455: The late 1800s. In South Korea the Korean language is referred to by many names including hanguk-eo ("Korean language"), hanguk-mal ("Korean speech") and uri-mal ("our language"); " hanguk " is taken from the name of the Korean Empire ( 대한제국 ; 大韓帝國 ; Daehan Jeguk ). The " han " ( 韓 ) in Hanguk and Daehan Jeguk is derived from Samhan , in reference to
8549-476: The logistical (mostly medical) support system of enemy forces that encounter them. Some types of APLs can also damage the tracks on armoured vehicles or the tires of wheeled vehicles. The International Campaign to Ban Landmines has sought to ban mines and destroy stockpile. For this purpose, it introduced in 1997 the Ottawa Treaty , which has not yet been accepted by over 30 states and has not guaranteed
8652-479: The main body of the mine out of the ground before it detonates at around chest height. This produces a more lethal spray of shrapnel over a larger area. One such mine – the US M16 mine – can cause injuries up to 200 metres (660 ft) away. The steel shrapnel makes bounding mines easy to detect, so they may be surrounded by minimum metal mines to make mine clearance harder. Directional fragmentation weapons (such as
8755-697: The middle of the conference tables where the North Koreans and the United Nations Command (primarily South Koreans and Americans) meet face to face. Facing the Conference Row buildings are the North Korean Panmungak (English: Panmun Hall ) and the South Korean Freedom House . In 1994, North Korea enlarged Panmungak by adding a third floor. In 1998, South Korea built a new Freedom House for its Red Cross staff and to possibly host reunions of families separated by
8858-581: The mine non-functional after a comparatively short time in the ground (or the advantage, in that the mine can be considered self-disabling, and will be less likely to cause unintended injuries years later). Mines manufactured after the 1950s generally use plastic casings to hinder detection by electronic mine detectors. Some, referred to as minimum metal mines , are constructed with as little metal as possible – often around 1 gram (0.035 oz) – to make them difficult to detect. Mines containing absolutely no metal have been produced, but are uncommon. By its nature,
8961-403: The mine's main charge, the depth, type of soil it was laid in and how the victim contacted it, e.g. stepping on the mine, using all or part of the foot. Different types of soil will result in different amounts of energy being transferred upward into the subject's foot, with saturated "clay-like" soil transferring the most. Larger main charges result in a release of significantly more energy, driving
9064-505: The mine. Small blast mines will severely damage a tire, rendering it irreparable while some types could also damage adjacent running gear. The mine casing houses the components of the mine and protects it from its environment. Early mines, such as the ones used in the World War II era, had casings made of steel or aluminium. However, by the middle of the conflict, the British Army was using the first, practical, portable metal detector –
9167-751: The name "Dismounted Complex Blast Injury" and is thought to be the worst survivable injury ever seen in war. During World War II, flame mines known as the flame fougasse were produced by the British during the invasion crisis of 1940 . Later, the Soviets produced a flame-mine, called the FOG-1. This was copied by the Germans to produce the Abwehrflammenwerfer 42 , these devices were effectively disposable, trip-wire triggered flamethrowers . Chemical mines have also been made. They were made by Britain,
9270-402: The north and the south side of the MDL, and there have been some built on top of it. All negotiations since 1953 have been held in the JSA, including statements of Korean solidarity, which have generally amounted to little except a slight decline of tensions . Within the JSA are a number of buildings for joint meetings called Conference Rooms. The MDL goes through the conference rooms and down
9373-438: The protection of citizens against APLs planted by non-state armed groups. Anti-personnel mines are used in a similar manner to anti-tank mines, in static "mine fields" along national borders or in defense of strategic positions as described in greater detail in the land mine article. What makes them different from most anti-tank mines, however, is their smaller size, which enables large numbers to be simultaneously deployed over
9476-638: The proto-Koreans, already present in northern Korea, expanded into the southern part of the Korean Peninsula at around 300 BC and coexisted with the descendants of the Japonic Mumun cultivators (or assimilated them). Both had influence on each other and a later founder effect diminished the internal variety of both language families. Since the establishment of two independent governments, North–South differences have developed in standard Korean, including variations in pronunciation and vocabulary chosen. However, these minor differences can be found in any of
9579-669: The short form Cháoyǔ has normally been used to refer to the standard language of North Korea and Yanbian , whereas Hánguóyǔ or the short form Hányǔ is used to refer to the standard language of South Korea. Korean is a member of the Koreanic family along with the Jeju language . Some linguists have included it in the Altaic family, but the core Altaic proposal itself has lost most of its prior support. The Khitan language has several vocabulary items similar to Korean that are not found in other Mongolian or Tungusic languages, suggesting
9682-444: The south, though not by the U.S. military. Details of only a few of these incursions have become public, including raids by South Korean forces in 1967 that had sabotaged about 50 North Korean facilities. Since 15 November 1974, South Korea has discovered four tunnels crossing the DMZ that had been dug by North Korea. The orientation of the blasting lines within each tunnel indicated they were dug by North Korea. North Korea claimed that
9785-456: The store?' Response 예/네. ye/ne AFF Anti-personnel mine An anti-personnel mine or anti-personnel landmine ( APL ) is a form of mine designed for use against humans, as opposed to an anti-tank mine , which target vehicles. APLs are classified into: blast mines and fragmentation mines ; the latter may or may not be a bounding mine . APLs are often designed to injure and maim , not kill, their victims to overwhelm
9888-441: The tense fricative and all the affricates as well. At the end of a syllable, /s/ changes to /t/ (example: beoseot ( 버섯 ) 'mushroom'). /h/ may become a bilabial [ɸ] before [o] or [u] , a palatal [ç] before [j] or [i] , a velar [x] before [ɯ] , a voiced [ɦ] between voiced sounds, and a [h] elsewhere. /p, t, t͡ɕ, k/ become voiced [b, d, d͡ʑ, ɡ] between voiced sounds. /m, n/ frequently denasalize at
9991-434: The third tunnel sloped slightly upwards as it progressed southward, to prevent water stagnation. Today, visitors from the south may visit the second, third and fourth tunnels through guided tours. The first of the tunnels was discovered on 15 November 1974, by a South Korean Army patrol, noticing steam rising from the ground. The initial discovery was met with automatic fire from North Korean soldiers. Five days later, during
10094-428: The tourist and media photos of the "DMZ fence" are actually photos of the CCL fence. The actual DMZ fence on the Southern Limit Line is completely off-limits to everybody except soldiers, and it is illegal to take pictures of the DMZ fence. The CCL fence acts more as a deterrent for South Korean civilians from getting too close to the dangerous DMZ and is also the final barrier for North Korean infiltrators if they get past
10197-448: The tunnels were for coal mining; no coal was found in the tunnels, which were dug through granite. Some of the tunnel walls were painted black to give the appearance of anthracite . The tunnels are believed to have been planned as a military invasion route by North Korea. They run in a north–south direction and do not have branches. Following each discovery, engineering within the tunnels has become progressively more advanced. For example,
10300-464: The underlying, partly historical morphology . Given this, it is sometimes hard to tell which actual phonemes are present in a certain word. The traditional prohibition of word-initial /ɾ/ became a morphological rule called "initial law" ( 두음법칙 ) in the pronunciation standards of South Korea, which pertains to Sino-Korean vocabulary. Such words retain their word-initial /ɾ/ in the pronunciation standards of North Korea. For example, ^NOTE ㅏ
10403-413: The victim's foot. This debris creates wounds typical of similar secondary blast effects or fragmentation . Special footwear, including combat boots or so-called "blast boots", is only moderately protective against the destructive effects of blast mines, and the loss of a foot is a typical outcome. Blast mines have little effect on armoured vehicles, but can damage a wheeled vehicle if it runs directly over
10506-585: Was called eonmun ('colloquial script') and quickly spread nationwide to increase literacy in Korea. The Korean alphabet was denounced by the yangban aristocracy, who looked down upon it too easy to learn. However, it gained widespread use among the common class and was widely used to print popular novels which were enjoyed by the common class. Since few people could understand official documents written in classical Chinese, Korean kings sometimes released public notices entirely written in Hangul as early as
10609-405: Was reinforced with concrete slabs and had electric power and lighting. There were weapon storage areas and sleeping areas. A narrow-gauge railway with carts had also been installed. Estimates based on the tunnel's size suggest it would have allowed considerable numbers of soldiers to pass through it. The second tunnel was discovered on 19 March 1975. It is of similar length to the first tunnel. It
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