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Soldiers on duty at North Korea’s Panmungak conversing while they monitor US Ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield’s visit to the Joint Security Area (JSA) on Tuesday morning. (Kim Hye-yun/The Hankyoreh)

Soldiers on duty at North Korea’s Panmungak closely monitored US Ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield’s visit to the Joint Security Area (JSA) on Tuesday morning.

At 10:25 am on Tuesday, Thomas-Greenfield visited the JSA’s Freedom House on the inter-Korean border. Before surveying the JSA, she headed to the meeting room of the UNC Military Armistice Commission. From that point on, soldiers with Canon cameras and binoculars emerged from the third floor of North Korea’s Panmungak on the other side of the DMZ to monitor the situation.

US Ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield (center) stands with UNC commander Gen. Paul LaCamera (second from left) and others at Panmunjom on the border between South and North Korea. (Kim Hye-yun/The Hankyoreh)

Wearing light blue face masks, the soldiers monitored the situation through binoculars and snapped shots individually before grouping up and chatting as they kept an eye on whether any regulations were broken. 

From the first floor of Panmungak, an armed soldier quietly stood guard. 

US Ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield walks through the United Nations Command Military Armistice Commission Conference Building at JSA on April 16, 2024. (Kim Hye-yun/The Hankyoreh)

A North Korean soldier stands guard at Panmungak. (Kim Hye-yun/The Hankyoreh)

North Korea reintroduced arms to its soldiers on guard in the JSA in late November of last year, following its renunciation of the buffer-creating Sept. 19 inter-Korean military agreement of 2018. Soldiers on the North side continue to guard with arms.  

Once Thomas-Greenfield and members of US Embassy staff entered the House of Freedom, the soldiers who had been keeping tabs on the ambassador from the third-floor balcony of Panmungak went back inside. 

North Korean soldiers with a camera and binoculars peer over the balcony of Panmungak at the JSA. (Kim Hye-yun/The Hankyoreh)

North Korean soldiers with a camera and binoculars peer over the balcony of Panmungak at the JSA. (Kim Hye-yun/The Hankyoreh)

The North Korean soldiers didn’t reappear when the ambassador and members of the UN Command leadership surveyed the JSA from the rooftop of the House of Freedom. 

UN Command explained that it would monitor any visitors to the JSA on the North's side the same way. 

North Korean soldiers with a camera and binoculars peer over the balcony of Panmungak at the JSA. (Kim Hye-yun/The Hankyoreh)

By Kim Hye-yun, staff reporter

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