09-151.pdf

for about ten years but from the summer of 1959 North Korea began
to fortify its checkpoints in the DMZ. These checkpoints were built to
provide early warnings of attacks from the enemy, to supervise
violations of the armistice and to observe the South’s movements. In
addition, “From 1963-1965, the North Koreans constructed extensive
fortifications and introduced well-armed military forces armed with
heavy and automatic weapons into their part of the DMZ in gross
violation of the pertinent provisions of the Armistice Agreement” that
only allowed single-shot rifles or pistols. Between 1963 and 1965,
North Korea built strategic military camp sites to connect the checkpoints.
They were connected by underground tunnels and covered
with planted trees. As of 1965, most checkpoints had become fortifications.
Combat troops equipped with heavy and automatic weapons
and even tanks were occasionally brought into the zone.
The South responded by reinforcing its bunkers and trenches
and from 1965 stationing military troops armed with heavy and automatic
weapons in self-defence. However, the former international
relations advisor of the UNC/MAC, James M. Lee (2000), points out
that while the North Korean fortifications and camp sites were well
camouflaged, the South’s defence camps were situated above ground
with the South Korean flag and UN flag flying above them. In order to
prepare for North Korean intrusions, from the early 1960s South
Korea began to build iron railing fences in connection with the
Southern Boundary Line, depending on the topography, that were far
to the north of the line (cf. p. 41). Consequently, according to the
above Seong-Ho Jhe (1997), the two kilometres of the DMZ north and
south of the MDL, as it had been defined in the Armistice Agreement,
hardly existed any longer in 1997. The distance between the two
132 Peace-keeping in the Korean Peninsula