乐鱼体育

What is it like to work like in Korea鈥檚 Demilitarized Zone (DMZ)? For decades, the United Nations Command Security Battalion (UNCSB) post in the Joint Security Area that divides Korea was a tense and volatile place referred to as 鈥渢he world鈥檚 loneliest outpost.鈥� Post-2018 diplomatic initiatives and newly-minted cooperation between UNCSB troops and their North Korean counterparts made the DMZ a far less forbidding border, yet recent months have brought renewed tensions to one of the world鈥檚 most-contested landscapes.

Lt . Col. Sean Morrow,  who served as the Commander of the UNCSB from 2018 until June of this year, has a unique perspective on the DMZ. As Morrow writes in an essay in the new issue of The Wilson Quarterly 鈥�&苍产蝉辫; 鈥�&苍产蝉辫; he played a key role in implementing diplomatic agreements to demilitarize the Joint Security Area over the past two years.

Watch the moderated discussion between Lt. Col. Morrow and longtime foreign correspondent Jean H. Lee, who as AP鈥檚 Pyongyang bureau chief made many trips to the DMZ from the North Korean side and now serves as director of the 乐鱼 体育鈥檚 Korea Center. 

Selected Quotes

Jean H. Lee

鈥淲e don鈥檛 normally mark the beginning of a conflict, but as Congressman Harman mentioned, it鈥檚 been 70 years and there has not been an end to this particular conflict. We thought it was important to recognize this conflict because it has such a bearing on not only on what鈥檚 happening on the Korean Peninsula but in the region today.鈥�

鈥淲e have so little information about North Korea, especially now when they鈥檝e shut the borders. The North Korean state has such a tight hold [on information] and a very industrious propaganda machinery. They鈥檙e good about cultivating the images that we see of North Korea, but I think that just beyond that DMZ, that sort of theatrical set that North Koreans have created, for me coming from Pyongyang from the North side into the DMZ, you see the poverty that lies just outside that zone.鈥�

鈥淔or people like my parents who survived the Korean War, often when I show them pictures of North Korea today, my mother would say that鈥檚 what it looked like in 1953. So much of it has not developed. Of course, that鈥檚 a huge contrast to South Korea, which as we know has the world鈥檚 twelfth largest economy, is so vibrant, and is such a leader in so many areas. It鈥檚 always a stark reminder when you鈥檙e dealing with the North Koreans, how different the two Koreas are in that sense.鈥�

Sean Morrow

鈥淲hen I took command, it was during a period of tremendous opportunity, where we were able to engage our counterparts from the KPA [Korean People鈥檚 Army of North Korea], really for the first time as a Security Battalion since 1976.鈥�

鈥淎s we had more interaction, we saw them start to loosen up. They would ask questions about our families, but not in necessarily an intelligence gathering way 鈥� we talked about family. They would share, occasionally, a photograph of their family, talk about their aspirations for their sons to serve in the military, to serve the Chairman, but also to grow up to become engineers, or professors, or doctors. Just kind of the same things that any of us would want for our children鈥�.

鈥淭hey always, always made sure that we knew where their loyalties lie. There was no question that if we asked them something about the current situation we knew what side they were gonna come down on, and there was no, no hedging of that.鈥�

鈥淭hat鈥檚 when they [North Korean soldiers] made the comment that, you know, 鈥榶ou guys were different than we were taught you鈥檇 be.鈥� And to me that鈥檚 probably one of the most poignant moments in my two years there because it just, one, helped us realize what information and propaganda mean to a population, to a people. How hate and mistrust can be built and developed, but how something as simple as interaction can start, slowly, slowly, chip away at that.鈥�

鈥淚 truly believed in some of the ways that they opened up: that they shared the stories of their children, that one old officer even said, 鈥榤aybe someday our grandkids can play together.鈥� Those are powerful sentiments, and I think that, you know, we might鈥檝e not have changed North Korea during these interactions in Panmunjom, but I think we definitely changed a few individual minds.鈥�