Three-way talks begin on disarming the JSA
The two Koreas and the United Nations Command (UNC) held their first trilateral consultations Tuesday
on disarming the Joint Security Area (JSA) in the heavily fortified border area, Seoul’s Defense Ministry
said. The closed-door meeting took place at the truce village of Panmunjom inside the Demilitarized
Zone (DMZ) from 10 a.m. through 1:15 p.m., it said. South and North Korea agreed to turn the JSA into a
weapon-free zone in a military agreement signed by their defense chiefs during the Pyongyang summit
in September between President Moon Jae-in and the North’s leader Kim Jong-un.
The UNC has jurisdiction over the JSA, where South and North Korean forces stand face-to-face. “We held
working-level consultations over measures to be taken for [JSA] disarmament, such as withdrawing
firearms and guard posts, reducing guard personnel and readjusting monitoring equipment,” the ministry
said in a press release. “[We] have decided to proceed with plans for disarmament measures and mutual
verification procedures through the trilateral consultation body,” it added. The JSA was established just
after the 1950-53 Korean War, which ended with a truce, not a peace treaty. It has also served as a venue
for talks between the two sides, including the first Moon-Kim summit in April. On Oct. 1, the two sides
started a 20-day operation to remove landmines in the JSA.
The South and the North plan to withdraw four and five guard posts, respectively, from the JSA. Each side
will station a patrol of 35 soldiers there, including five officers, with no firearms. Korean people and foreign
tourists will be allowed to cross the military demarcation line from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. At Tuesday’s talks,
South Korea was represented by Army Col. Cho Yong-geun, and his North Korean counterpart was
Army Col. Om Chang-nam. The UNC’s delegation was headed by U.S. Army Col. Burke Hamilton, the
Military Armistice Committee secretary.