[Reportage] The DMZ peace projects

Posted on : 2019-11-04 18:04 KST Modified on : 2019-11-06 15:34 KST
Assessing ways to utilize the inter-Korean border for peaceful and ecological purposes
The DMZ's peace zone conversion and its ecological status
The DMZ's peace zone conversion and its ecological status

Across the Imjin River, the North Korean landscape was red with the evening sun. An enormous statue standing 10m tall lowered its head humbly toward the twilit North Korean ground.

“We raised ‘Greetingman’ here as a way of calling for South and North to open their hearts and travel a path of reconciliation and peace. We want to have another ‘Greetingman’ the same size put up across the way on Mt. Maryang (317m) in North Korea’s Changpung County to create a symbol of South and North each being humble and respectful in their greetings toward the other.” 

Sculptor Yu Yeong-ho explained the reasoning behind his work while speaking to the Hankyoreh at Ongnyeo Peak (205m) in Gunnam Township, Yeoncheon County, Gyeonggi Province, on the evening of Oct. 19. The sky sprawled high and wide over the unreachable territory. 

The ‘Greetingman’ statue on Ongnyeo Peak in Gunnam Township, Yeoncheon County, Gyeonggi Province, bows toward North Korea.
The ‘Greetingman’ statue on Ongnyeo Peak in Gunnam Township, Yeoncheon County, Gyeonggi Province, bows toward North Korea.

While human beings have had to live with the wounds of division, plants and animals have transformed the war-scarred DMZ into a nest of peace with their own vitality and energy. Even as inter-Korean relations have descended into a deep chill recently with Pyongyang’s demand for the demolition of facilities at Mt. Kumgang, an active debate is taking place over the peaceful use of the DMZ area and its ecological repository. A home to rare flora and fauna such as the Siberian musk deer, Eurasian otter, black swan, golden eagle, and Korean necklace-pod, the DMZ has been noted for its worth as a natural preserve, with different historical and cultural resources rarely found in other settings, including the Joint Security Area (JSA), Panmunjeom, the Civilian Control Line (CCL), and the Armistice Line.

To promote the area’s peaceful use, the South Korean government moved last April to pilot a “Peace Trail” project, with an existing trail in Goseong, Gangwon Province, joined by others in Cheorwon and Paju. Prior to their temporary closure to halt the spread of African swine fever (ASF), the Peace Trails were immensely popular, despite charges by some critics that their opening process was “sloppy.”

Part of the DMZ Peace Trail that stretches from Daemyeong Port to Munsu Fortress. (photos by Park Kyung-man)
Part of the DMZ Peace Trail that stretches from Daemyeong Port to Munsu Fortress. (photos by Park Kyung-man)



DMZ walking trail opens gateway of peace

Around the North Korean border, visitors’ thirst for peace has been eased with the creation of a number of walking trails boasting regional color -- including the DMZ Punchbowl Trail in Yanggu County, the Paro Lake Sanso 100-ri Trail in Hwacheon County, the Hantan River Jusangjeolli Trail in Pocheon City and Yeoncheon County, the Uiju Trail in Paju City, and the Goyang Nuri Trail in Goyang City. The most striking of them all is the Pyeonghwanuri Trail, which stretches for 189km through the four Gyeonggi border cities and counties of Gimpo, Goyang, Paju, and Yeoncheon.

The Gimpo portion, which spans 39km from Daemyeong Port to the southern gate of Munsu Fortress, the entrance to Aegi Peak, and Jeollyu-ri Port, is popular among visitors as a place for observing migratory birds in North Korean territory across the Yeomha Stream and Jo Stream and the migratory boards of South Korea’s Gimpo Plain. Quiet and cozy farming villages line the Han and Imjin Rivers in the Goyang section (19km), which travels by Haengju Fortress and Lake Park, and the Paju section (68 km), which travels from Dongpae to Seongdong Junction, Bangujeong Pavilion, Yulgok Wetland Park, and Jangnam Bridge. The final Yeoncheon section (63km) continues past Jangnam Bridge to Sungui Shrine, Gunnam Dam, and Sintalli Station to the border in Cheorwon, affording views of the settings of past glories at Gorangpo Port and the red cliffs of the Imjin River.

Created by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism (MCST) and four other agencies at a cost of over 4.3 billion won (US$3.71 million), the DMZ Peace Trails are the first hiking trails to open the DMZ up to the general public. From the Mt. Kumgang observatory at Goseong, visitors can see some notable North Korean sites off in the distance: Mt. Kumgang’s Chubong Ridge, the Haegum River, Kam Lake (backdrop for “The Lumberjack and the Fairy”), Sagong Rock, and Oechu Islet. The South Korean government described the Peace Trails as both an implementation of last year’s Sept. 19 inter-Korean military agreement and an initial effort in the formation of a “DMZ world peace park.”

In addition to the Peace Trails, an effort is now being pursued to create a 456km “DMZ trail to open up reunification,” which is to span the width of the Korean Peninsula from Ganghwa in the west to Goseong in the east. In December 2018, the Ministry of the Interior and Safety announced plans to build a “Korean ‘Camino de Santiago’” through 2022 at a cost of 28.6 billion won (US$24.65 million). The government’s targets are to attract over 1 million visitors a year and generate an economic impact of around 250 billion won (US$215.45 million).

At the same time, there are major concerns about the government’s unilateral promotion of these projects. Environmental activist groups such as Green Korea and the Korean Federation for Environmental Movements have criticized the government for “bringing people onto a trail that was thrown together in just three months without adequately reviewing the impact on the ecosystem or threats to public safety.”

“North Korea needs to be on board with projects being planned around the DMZ. The priority should be placed on projects that involve remembrance and reflection on the wounds inflicted by the war and division of the country,” said Hwang Pyeong-woo, director of the Korea Cultural Heritage Policy Research Institute.

The “Peace Dam” built in 1987 Donchon Village, Hwacheon County, Gangwon Province, during the Chun Doo-hwan administration.
The “Peace Dam” built in 1987 Donchon Village, Hwacheon County, Gangwon Province, during the Chun Doo-hwan administration.



Ongoing efforts to turn the DMZ into a peace zone

The discussion about creating a peace zone in the DMZ has proceeded steadily for some time, despite occasional reverses resulting from the shifting political relationships between South Korea, North Korea, and the US.

South Korean President Moon Jae-in proposed turning the DMZ into an international zone for peace during his speech to the UN General Assembly this past September. Moon then reiterated his commitment to that project during a summit with Spanish King Felipe VI on Oct. 23: “I hope that the DMZ will become a path of peace, like Spain’s Camino de Santiago, and that people from around the world will walk together along it.”

The Camino de Santiago, which runs for 807km on the border between Spain and France, reportedly attracts 6 million people every year, who pump 1 trillion won (US$861.88 million) into local commerce.

When former South Korean President Park Geun-hye announced before a joint session of the US Congress that one of the objectives of her Korean Peninsula trustpolitik was to build a “world peace park” at the DMZ, the news triggered sharp competition between local governments near the DMZ eager to participate in the project.

A variety of proposals have been made about peaceful utilization of the DMZ. These include connecting the inter-Korean transportation network, preventing natural disasters in the Imjin River basin, sharing water resources, preserving and managing the natural environment, running an inter-Korean fishery, cooperating on industry, excavating and restoring cultural and historical sites, opening the mouth of the Han River to shipping, and setting up a “special unification economic zone.” But the reality is that none of these proposals are likely to be implemented without inter-Korean deliberations about the joint use and development of the DMZ, which would require improvements in inter-Korean relations.

The first agreement reached by South and North Korea about the peaceful use of the DMZ was the Inter-Korean Basic Agreement, which was adopted in 1991, during the presidency of Roh Tae-woo. Based on the inter-Korean reconciliation, non-aggression, and exchange and cooperation delineated in that agreement, the two sides created a joint military commission that launched deliberation about the peaceful use of the DMZ, but those ideas were scrapped after a controversy over the Team Spirit joint drills carried out the following year by the South Korean and US militaries.

The June 15 Joint Statement, which was issued by the Kim Dae-jung administration in 2000, represented the first realization of the peaceful use of the DMZ. During a meeting of defense ministers on Jeju Island that September, the two sides reached a military security agreement about connecting roads and railways, leading to the connection of Highway 1, Highway 7, the Gyeongui (Seoul-Shinuiju) Line, and the East Sea Line. The Oct. 4 Joint Statement released by the Roh Moo-hyun administration in 2007 included provisions about easing military tension, building trust, accelerating economic cooperation projects, and organizing trips to Mt. Paektu, but these plans came to nothing after Lee Myung-bak became president.

In the Apr. 27 Panmunjom Declaration and the Sept. 19 Comprehensive Military Agreement, both reached last year, South and North Korea made plans to transform the DMZ into a peace zone and to designate “waters of peace” in the Yellow Sea. Subsequently, the two sides both destroyed ten of their own guard posts, removed heavy weaponry from the Joint Security Area, and carried out a survey of waterways in the Han River estuary. But they haven’t moved ahead with other matters they’d agreed to, such as joining forces to recover the remains of soldiers and setting up a joint military commission.

A steam locomotive that was bombed during the Korean War (left) exhibited a Imjingak Resort, Paju, Gyeongg Province
A steam locomotive that was bombed during the Korean War (left) exhibited a Imjingak Resort, Paju, Gyeongg Province



Collaborative approach to governance needed for development and preservation

I
n order for the discussion about creating a peace zone in the DMZ to bear fruit, experts agree, there needs to be collaboration not only between stakeholders in South Korea but between South and North Korea.

“The thing that’s most necessary for establishing a peace process that can overcome the division of the Korean Peninsula is a methodical and collaborative approach to governance. North Korean policy that lacks this type of governance process is liable to be discarded by the succeeding administration, which means that policy continuity is not guaranteed. The reason that the ‘national joint unification plan’ announced in 1994 is still acknowledged today is because it was able to receive the consent and cooperation of opposing parties through various kinds of collaborative governance,” said Choi Wan-kyu, director of the Institute of Trans-Division and Border Studies at Shinhan University.

Others say that South and North Korea need to work on narrowing the gap in their respective viewpoints.

“While there’s a high level of public agreement about the value of DMZ conservation, the peace zone plan that’s actually being implemented in line with the inter-Korean military agreement could undermine its conservation value. South and North Korea need to take more time to align their attitudes about the value of the DMZ,” said Park Eun-jin, head of management and strategy at the National Institute of Ecology.

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By Park Kyung-man, North Gyeonggi Province

Please direct comments or questions to [english@hani.co.kr]


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