
A DMZ 'gardening job' that almost sparked a war - headalgorithm
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-49394758
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Jefenry
I found a picture of that tree while going through my father's slides of his
time in the Army. This was a few years before the axe incident.

[https://imgur.com/YRXYQ](https://imgur.com/YRXYQ)

Edit: Actually, it was over a decade before. He was there in the early 60's.
Here's some more pictures of that time:
[https://imgur.com/a/5mgrp](https://imgur.com/a/5mgrp)

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jedimastert
The wikipedia article for the "Korean axe murder incident"[0] is a pretty good
read (and a fairly small article)

[0]:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Korean_axe_murder_incident](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Korean_axe_murder_incident)

~~~
Someone1234
It is very strange that the article doesn't establish if "mutual consent" was
needed to trim shrubs or not. Seems like a core element to contextualize the
whole event.

I did a little digging but even I cannot figure it out. The JSA was created
via the Military Armistice Commission under the The Korean War Armistice
Agreement. But I cannot find the documentation that actually establishes the
JSA itself.

PS - It is NOT this: [https://peacemaker.un.org/koreadprk-
militaryarmistice53](https://peacemaker.un.org/koreadprk-militaryarmistice53)
that's just the Korean War Armistice which doesn't define the JSA.

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wongarsu
I don't think "army cuts down tree to provide sight line and protect own
troops at border crossing" can be described as "gardening job".

~~~
piptastic
According to the Wikipedia entry, in the initial incident they were just
trimming the tree, not cutting it down.

~~~
fragmede
Trimming the tree in one of the world's most fraught DMZ, is still going to
affect sight lines, so framing it as an "innocent gardening job" elides the
truth.

~~~
eridius
Not trimming the tree also affects sight lines, because trees are living
things that grow.

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hangonhn
"Several US soldiers remember they and the South Korean special forces who
accompanied them had sneaked heavy weapons into the area under sandbags on the
floor of their trucks. Some South Koreans even strapped claymore mines to
their chests and held the detonators in their hands, goading the North Koreans
to attack."

The part about the claymore is so insane and just bad ass.

~~~
refurb
It's not common knowledge, but several other countries sent troops to fight in
the Vietnam War - it wasn't just the US, but included Australia, New Zealand,
Philippines and South Korea.

From what I've read, the reputation of the SK troops was something else - they
elicited real fear in the VC and NVA troops. The claymores don't really
surprise me.

~~~
dba7dba
South Korea rotated over 320,000 ground combat troops through Vietnam over 11+
year period, maintaining 2 Army Divisions and 1 Marine Brigade, to help US and
South Vietnam.

edit: 320,000 is not a typo. Well over a quarter of a million S. Korean troops
served 1 year tour of duty in Vietnam.

It means after end of WW2, S. Korea sent more combat troops abroad to help US
in a semi-active/active armed conflict than any other allies such as UK,
Australia, France etc. Kinda mind boggling.

I recommend vietvet.co.kr for anyone interested in reading about
stories/battles/personal-recollection related to South Korean troops. The site
has Korean and English versions. The English version is not a direct mirror of
the Korean version but largely same stories.

You have to keep in mind the South Korean troops in Vietnam in 1960s - 1970
were very likely old enough to remember the Korean war, the war started by the
communists of North Korea. Or they at least had immediate family members who
experienced it and passed on the stories.

So there was a personal hatred of anything related to communists.

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openasocket
Fun fact: the current South Korean president, Moon Jae-in, participated in
Operation Paul Bunyan

~~~
vilhelm_s
What did he do?

~~~
jedimastert
Accroding to wikipedia, he was in South Korean Special Forces at the time.
Here's what the wikipedia article about the south korean special forces
involvement in the Korean axe murder incident

> In addition, a 64-man task force of the South Korean Special Forces
> accompanied them, armed with clubs and trained in taekwondo, supposedly
> without firearms. However, once they parked their trucks near the Bridge of
> No Return, they started throwing out the sandbags that lined the truck
> bottoms, and handing out M16 rifles and M79 grenade launchers that had been
> concealed below.[3] Several of the commandos also had M18 Claymore mines
> strapped to their chests with the firing mechanism in their hands, and were
> shouting at the North Koreans to cross the bridge.[12][13]

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gao8a
I recommend the DMZ tour as one of the touristy things to do in SK. Depending
on your guide, you’ll hear about all the ridiculous times NK has broken the
armistice agreement. Also blasting KPop lol

~~~
dcolkitt
Second this. I've been nearly a hundred countries, and the DMZ was one of the
most interesting sites I've seen anywhere. It's pretty different than most
sites a tourist can see, because it's an active militarized zone where history
is still unfolding.

Definitely recommend researching the best tour companies online, because it
makes a big difference.

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lukewrites
There's a pretty interesting account of this in the book The Long Grey Line,
which is about the careers of the West Point class of '66\. One of the men
killed in this incident was a member of that class.

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godelmachine
Having been on HackerNews for many years now and having got accustomed to
strange headlines for Comp Sci stories, I was actually hoping this was about
the Demilitarized Zone (Networking concept).

~~~
salawat
You aren't alone. I was thinking somebody went about pruning some server
instances, and legal departments getting up in arms over SLA'sor something.

Alas...

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henpa
_> North Korea objected, claiming any landscaping work required permission
from both parties._

 _" NAH, LETS INTERVENE AND DO IT OUR WAY RIGHT NOW!!!!!"_

~~~
nwallin
Reminds me of the Immovable Ladder.

[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Status_Quo_(Jerusalem_and_Be...](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Status_Quo_\(Jerusalem_and_Bethlehem\)#Immovable_ladder)

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jkimmel
The book "Pacific" by Simon Winchester has an educational description of this
event, contextualized in the broader story of how the DMZ came to be.

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Apocryphon
I wonder if they gave out medals or mission patches as part of this operation

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vondur
If this happened today, there would be war.

~~~
proaralyst
What makes you say that? Tensions are pretty low at the moment.

~~~
vondur
Well, with the current President and the unprovoked murder of two US service
people, I doubt we’d see such restraint. Carter is much different than most
other US Presidents.

~~~
opo
This was 1976. Gerald Ford was president.

~~~
vondur
Oops, you are correct, Carter started the next year. I'm a bit too young to
remember Ford, I do remember seeing Chevy Chase make fun of him once I got
older.

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dev_dull
> _Two US officers were bludgeoned to death with axes and clubs._

It’s really amazing to me what North Korea “gets away with”. It reminds of
that kid we all knew in school who gets into trouble so much that they simply
stop punishing him in any material way.

~~~
sandworm101
There is another side to the "bludgeoned to death with axes and clubs". They
took those implements from the american team. So the _unarmed_ North Koreans
disarmed several of the Americans, turning those weapons around to kill two
officers. That is a massive humiliation, particularly for the types of people
selected for DMZ duty at that time. That humiliation was a factor in the
american response, but equally it was a point of pride for the North Koreans.

Leaders on both side saw this back-and-forth, realized the emotions involved,
and pulled back. That makes the incident a learning experience that,
ironically, increased faith and probably defused tensions in the long term.
Similar dustups would occur throughout the cold war and continue to this day.

~~~
dba7dba
Kim Il Sung, ruler of N. Korea at the time, formally apologized and sent
letter saying so. Only time he did so in fact.

All because of the show of force. There was a MASSIVE show of force because of
the killing.

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magashna
This is such a bizarre dick measuring contest. Funny in retrospect, but I'd
hate for a war to start over a pruning gone awry.

~~~
crazygringo
Not at all. The line of sight is described as being required for legitimate
military purposes.

And in international relations, it's generally _very_ much a case of give-an-
inch-and-they'll-take-a-mile. Seemingly disproportionate importance must be
given to the tiniest things, because the enemy will be constantly testing you
looking for weakness.

In a case like this, if the US and South Korea aren't hyper-vigilant about
every single thing, it's an indication that political or popular support may
be waning, and an indication to North Korea that it might be possible to
reinvade and take over the entire peninsula.

If you don't believe this, it's a big part of what allowed Germany to take
over Europe in WWII -- that vigilance wasn't taken seriously. Germany pushed
what was "acceptable" more and more until it was too late.

It's not about the tree -- it's about fundamental legitimacy being upheld.

~~~
Stunting
It’s not about ::this relatively insignificant thing that can be logically
addressed without violence:: —- it’s about ::a set of assumed moral values and
forced respect to their integrity::: is how dumb wars get started and paper
work sends a nations childrens off to die.

It was a stupid dick measuring contest that got two people killed and almost
much more.

