Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
The Demilitarized Zone that separates the two Koreas was set up as a four-kilometer-wide
military buffer zone after the Korean War Armistice Agreement was signed 60 years ago.
But now, an environmental research group has revealed the DMZ is actually a fair bit thinner
than it used to be.
Ji Myung-kil reports. The Demilitarized Zone, or DMZ as it's commonly known, was drawn up
as part of the 1953 Korean War Armistice Agreement.
The DMZ was two kilometers south and north of the military demarcation line.
As the DMZ has been untouched by humans in six decades it has become a haven for rare
animals and plants.
Unfortunately for them, a local environmental research group has revealed the size of the
DMZ has shrunk more than 40 percent compared to its original size.
In 1968, North Korea pushed the Northern Limit Line south from the original two-kilometer
limit.
South Korea followed suit, pushing its Southern Limit Line north.
The distance from the Northern Limit Line to the Southern Limit Line should be four
kilometers but in some parts of Gangwon Province the Southern Limit Line is only 7-hundred
meters from the military demarcation line.
"Firstly, we checked the DMZ then we analyzed the demarcation lines through satellite images
and we also calculated the total area of the DMZ."
In 1953, the DMZ measured 9-hundred-92 square kilometers.
Now the area only measures 5-hundred-70 square kilometers.
The environmental research group says the ecosystem in the DMZ has been damaged as the
demarcation lines were not obeyed.
Ji Myung-kil, Arirang News.