North Korean tanks take position at border, point canons at South Korea
Visitors to a South Korean observatory overlooking North Korea said on Tuesday (October 27) that the appearance of artillery pieces with their barrels pointed south on the border was worrying, as tensions intensify.
The two Koreas have traded barbs and strengthened their postures at the demilitarized zone (DMZ) since September, after a mine blast there wounded three South Korean soldiers. South Korea has demanded that North Korea apologise, while Pyongyang has accused Seoul of fabricating the incident.
Kim Yo Jong, the powerful sister of North Korea’s leader, said on Thursday (October 22) that Pyongyang would place loudspeakers that can blast anti-South Korean propaganda on standby along the entire border within days and had put unspecified new countermeasures on alert.
On Friday (October 23), South Korean media photographed an armoured vehicle in clear view near the frontier. By Monday (October 26) there were three of them with their gun barrels pointed south, according to a Reuters witness.
South Korea’s Yonhap news agency on Monday identified the three vehicles as self-propelled 122-mm howitzers, saying their deployment marked a rare public display of such artillery.
“I’d only seen on TV that North Korea had deployed 122-mm artillery, but seeing the area in person makes me realise just how real the danger is,” Jang Gil-seong, an 83-year-old Vietnam War veteran, said outside the Aegibong observatory, about 1.4 km from North Korea’s Kaephung county.
“I’m really concerned about how much South Korea will need to do to prepare for and respond to this threat in the future,” he added.
The DMZ remains a draw for foreign and local tourists despite periodic flare-ups in tensions between the Koreas, which are technically still at war.
Hannah Robbins, a 28-year-old tourist from Canada, said she had only learned of the artillery from her tour guide at the observatory.
“We’re a bit scared obviously,” she said. “The tour guide was like ‘don’t worry, they won’t shoot’ but then it’s a bit of a worry that we have right now.” (Reuters).
