Posted on 10/11/2006 12:59:47 PM PDT by SmithL
PANMUNJOM -- Spitting across the demarcation line that separates the two armies. Making throat-slashing hand gestures. Flashing their middle fingers. Trying to talk to the South Korean troops. North Korean troops in the Demilitarized Zone dividing the two Koreas have been more boldly trying to provoke guards on the other side since the North claimed to have detonated a nuclear bomb Monday, a U.S. military spokesman said.
"They're walking a little taller," Army Major Jose DeVarona of Fayetteville, N.C., told reporters during a tour of the zone Wednesday. "They're more confident about making contact." Still, he said the overall situation was calm.
North and South Korean soldiers face each other in the village of Panmunjom, a cluster of blue huts inside the 2.5-mile-wide, 156-mile-long buffer strip. About 200 U.S. troops are also stationed along the DMZ.
The DMZ is one of the world's most potentially dangerous flashpoints, but Panmunjom is also a tourist trap where buses disgorge thousands of visitors each year who come to gawk at the North Korean soldiers. The village is jointly overseen by the U.S.-led U.N. Command and North Korea, an arrangement established in 1953 to supervise the cease-fire that ended the 1950-53 Korean War.
North Korean troops were not seen engaging in provocative antics during the reporters' tour.
Seven North Korean soldiers, wearing olive green uniforms and tall, round-brimmed hats, guarded U.N. buildings where meetings between the two sides are sometimes held.
South Korean soldiers in black helmets and sunglasses stood in their traditional pose: legs wide apart in a martial-arts stance with arms at their sides, fists tightly clenched and ready to strike.
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
Y'all keep your six clear, y'heanh?
Fire up the steam tables and have an open air buffet.
One thing you have to remember is that the North Korean soldiers have probably been told the test was a remarkable success, even better than Dear leader had hoped for.
They dont have access to the truth like most countries.
I thought it was funny that the commies there used to blare
"Blue Christmas" on their propaganda speakers during our tour on the DMZ at Christmas time.
Even funnier were the cheap pen and tie sets they'd float over via balloons with propaganda to defect to the north.
Like sure, I'll defect for a crummy tie and non-working pen to come there and eat tree bark.
Why does the leader of that group have filthy hands and the little guy on the right has a dirty ass.
Herro, this a Kimchee Kim, can I takee you ordah?
Herro...
With Robster Craws...
"Why does the leader of that group have filthy hands and the little guy on the right has a dirty ass."
He's also in charge of troop morale.
Although I was at the DMZ constantly during my two tours in Korea, I only visited Panmunjom (PMJ) once. Had to dress up in greens and couldn't wear my military intelligence brass on my uniform (had to borrow the eagles of the general staff from someone in my barracks). A very surreal place. Can truthfully say I've been to DPRK/north Korea, as PMJ is in both Koreas. When we were at the DMZ on duty, we wore MP (military police)brassards, as UN troops and north Koreans jointly patrol the area under the cease fire from 1953.
One of the zone's most violent clashes came in 1976, when North Korean troops bludgeoned to death two U.S. military officers who had been trimming branches from a tree in the DMZ to improve their view of the North. Five South Koreans and four other U.S. servicemen were killed in the skirmish. According to U.S. accounts, North Korean soldiers initially agreed to the tree pruning but grew violent as the work went on and attacked. The North Koreans said U.S. troops had attacked their soldiers, sparking the battle.
We were there in South Korea when this happened..
There are tour busses that go there all of the time..but they warn the tourist not to get carried away and think they can take a step into North Korea and live to tell about it..And btw the North Korean army still tain with live ammunition
The best thing the South Koreans can do is to make sure to eat delectable meals in plain sight of the North Koreans while watching television that shows the riches of capitalism! A real in you face political answer to there taunts.
These guys have arguably the funniest military hats in the world. BIG suckers. Bigger and stupider than those of the Gallifrey Timelords Council, if anyone else in here is enough of a geek to know what I mean. If there is a bigger dork leader in the world who wants to be taken more seriously than the Little Pot-Bellied Dictator, I don't know who it is. (Except maybe Putin.)
I see the North Koreans have reverted to emulating the Dems.
And dress up a look-alike as the Dear Leader so he can eat with them
That is funny because it is VERY true!
Remembering Art Bonifas. RIP.
You're telling me. Fusion power and functional anti-grav and maybe we can get off this rock!
While we are at it, let's set the Mooselimbs down on their own planet, like Kahn, and let them sit for a couple of hundred years. By the time six million Imams get done purging the heretics, there should be about a hundred people left, and with a tenth-century love of science, they would never get back up out of the gravity well.
Shhhh, that's the secret plan in case of invasion by NK. Specially built cluster bombs that disperse food are ready for population and soldier suppression. It will stop the invasion in its tracks.
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