The curator of the Korean Demilitarised Zone's (DMZ) museum on Monday said he hopes North and South Korea will reunite peacefully one day.

Noh Yeonsoo spoke as the Koreas are embracing a rare, Olympics-inspired reconciliation mood, after a year of heightened animosities over North Korea's advancing nuclear and missile programmes.

The countries agreed to form a single women's hockey team and have their athletes to parade together in the opening ceremony on February 9th.

The North also plans to send a 230-member cheering group and a 140-person art troupe to the South during the games.

The DMZ is a strip of land running across the Korean Peninsula, created during the Cold War.

It was established by the provisions of the Korean Armistice Agreement, signed in 1953 at the end of the Korean War, to serve as a buffer zone between the recently-created Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea) and the Republic of Korea (South Korea).

It roughly divides the Korean peninsula in half, is 250 kilometres (160 miles) long, and about 4 kilometres (2.5 miles) wide.

Armed forces and civilians are prohibited to enter the DMZ.

The zone stretches 2 km (1.2 miles) each way south and north from a ceasefire line but beyond that strip the border is one of the most heavily militarised in the world.

The Goseong Unification Observatory is located next to the Civilian Control Line, which designates an additional buffer zone to the DMZ within a distance of 5 to 20km (3 to 12 miles) from the Southern Limit Line of the DMZ.

Its purpose is to limit and control the entrance of civilians into the area in order to protect and maintain the security of military facilities and operations near the DMZ.

For 40 years, the DMZ has been strictly off-limits, leading to a formation of an unplanned nature reserve.  

This has become one of the most well-preserved areas of temperate habitat in the world.

Goseong – 5 February 2018

1. Goseong Unification Observatory

2. Drummer playing outside the observatory

3. Viewing theatre inside the observatory

4. Tour guide pointing to key areas of the Demilitarised Zone (DMZ) on large photo banner and Civilian Control Line visible from the observatory

5. Viewing telescopes pointing out towards North Korea

6. Pan from viewing telescopes on outdoor balcony to East Sea coastline stretching from South to North Korea

7. Barbed wire fences of the Civilian Control Line protecting the now-disused Donghae Bukbu Rail Line and road connecting the two countries

8. Beach, DMZ and the Geumgangsan Mountain range in the distance

9. East Sea seen behind a viewing telescope

10. Pan across line of viewing telescopes

11. Barbed wire security fences and military watch posts in the Civilian Control Line

12. Donghae Bukbu Rail Line and road overlooked by a military watchtower

13. Statue of Buddha in a peace park next to the observatory

14. Pan from the peace park to DMZ area

15. Tourists taking photographs on a viewing point overlooking the DMZ area

16. Tracking shot along viewing point then looking out to the DMZ area

17. Pan from observatory tower to wide of coastline

18. DMZ Museum exterior

19. Tilt down to mock-up of DMZ security fencing inside the museum

20. Zoom in to DMZ warning sign inside the museum

21. Various of artefacts inside the museum including military helmets and bullets used during the Korean War

22. Various of a room made up of photographs of the victims of the Korean war

23. Pull out from DMZ Museum curator Noh Yeonsoo talking to a tour group

24. SOUNDBITE: (Korean) Noh Yeonsoo, DMZ Museum curator:

(++answering question on whether the unified Korean team at the Winter Olympics could lead to a lasting peace between North and South Korea++)

++ROUGH TRANSLATION++

"I hope we can one day make a peaceful reunification and through these Winter Olympics we can create a good mood between North and South Korea."

25. Tree covered with peace messages written by the museum visitors

26. Visitor attaches peace message to tree

27. Written messages hanging off the tree

28. Noh Yeonsoo doing TV interview in front of peace messages

29. SOUNDBITE: (Korean) Noh Yeonsoo, DMZ Museum curator:

(++answering question on whether locals are afraid of the nuclear threat coming from North Korea++)

++ROUGH TRANSLATION++

"I'm not afraid of anything because I look at North Korea every day from here, every morning. So, I would like the country to unify so I can go there by foot or by train, because we would be one country. I would like to go there and get along with the North Korean people."

30. Statue of a soldier inside the museum

31. Tilt down onto a shell from a North Korean missile in a display cabinet

32. Mock-up in museum of abandoned buildings in Cheonwon, a North Korean town destroyed during the Korean war and left abandoned by the subsequent dividing of the country

33. Pan of a display showing how the DMZ has now become a nature reserve

34. SOUNDBITE: (Korean) Noh Yeonsoo, DMZ Museum curator:

(++answering question on whether Olympic athletes and spectators should come to the museum to get a better perspective on the divide between North and South Korea++)

++ROUGH TRANSLATION++

"I welcome the athletes to come here and learn about the history. I don't want to lie and tell them that North Korea isn't terrifying, in fact they are terrified. And there is still a dangerous atmosphere between North and South Korea. But I want to explain to them the reality of what is happening now in South Korea and tell them the facts. But I don't want to make the relationship get worse (between the two countries)."

35. Disused lights and speakers used (mainly until 2004) to broadcast propaganda, including K-Pop, towards North Korea across the DMZ

36. Pan from "DMZ Museum" flags to "PyeongChang 2018" flags with the disused lighting rig and loud speakers in the background

RESTRICTION SUMMARY: AP CLIENTS ONLY

SHOTLIST:

AP TELEVISION - AP CLIENTS ONLY

North Hwanghae Province, on road near the DMZ - 29 January 2016

1. Korean People's Army Colonel Jon Nam Su sitting in front passenger seat of car on way to outpost overlooking DMZ (Korean Demilitarised Zone)

2. Various from car showing countryside within five kilometres (three miles) of the DMZ

3. Colonel Jon getting out of car

4. Colonel Jon at outpost overlooking DMZ, pan to DMZ

5. Long shot of South Korean outpost on opposite side of DMZ UPSOUND South Korean music playing from loudspeakers

6. Pan of DMZ UPSOUND South Korean music playing from loudspeakers

7. Long shot of another South Korean outpost on the edge of the DMZ UPSOUND South Korean music playing from loudspeakers

8. SOUNDBITE (Korean) Colonel Jon Nam Su, Korean People's Army:

"We are not doing that. We are dealing with reunifying our country according to the principles agreed in our past agreements with the South, but the puppets in the South do what the US wants, and they are saying extremely unreasonable things."

Panmunjom - 28 January 2016

9. Wide shot overlooking Military Demarcation Line, showing meeting huts, inside DMZ

10. Meeting huts straddling Military Demarcation Line

11. North Korean soldiers guarding entrance to meeting hut

12. Close of Korean People's Army Lieutenant Colonel Nam Dong Chol, pan to huts straddling demarcation line

13. Close of Lieutenant Colonel Nam's feet climbing steps up to main building on North Korean side of demarcation line

14. Lieutenant Colonel Nam talking, overlooking demarcation line

15. SOUNDBITE (Korean) Lieutenant Colonel Nam Dong Chol, Korean People's Army:

"To solve the problem on the Korean Peninsula, we have to replace the Armistice Agreement, which is now just a scrap of paper, with a peace treaty concluded between us and the United States. A peace treaty, in itself, would show that both sides trust each other, believe in each other, and respect each other. So, concluding a peace treaty would mean solving the Korean Peninsula problem in a peaceful way."

16. Wide pan overlooking Military Demarcation Line dividing North and South Korea

STORYLINE:

North Korea is not blasting propaganda at South Korea, military officials from the North say.

But on a strictly controlled visit to the demilitarised zone separating North and South, music from loudspeakers in the South could be heard in the North.

It's part of the fallout from North Korea's latest nuclear test, on 6 January this year.

A North Korean military officer sat in the front seat as escort on the drive to an outpost perched on the northern edge of the DMZ.

The narrow, bumpy road passed barren winter fields and small communities just a few kilometres (miles) away from the dividing line which runs along the 38th parallel separating North and South Korea.

The demilitarised zone is four kilometres (2.5 miles) wide, with the Military Demarcation Line running through the centre, and two kilometres (1.2 miles) of territory on each side of it.

Here on the Northern edge of the DMZ, the sound of South Korean music and commentary coming from loudspeakers in the South could be heard.

It is a strange feeling to stand in North Korea and hear South Korean music and South Korean-accented speech.

Even though the sound is muffled by the distance it is travelling, it is such a change to the constant soundtrack to public life in the North, where people are not allowed to listen to or watch music and entertainment from the South.

South Korea restarted its loudspeaker broadcasts across the DMZ after North Korea's recent nuclear test.

Last year, similar broadcasts from the South prompted North Korea to threaten to launch military strikes unless they stopped.

This time, there has not yet been any expression of outrage from North Korea.

But North Korean military officials denied reports from South Korea that the North has started up its own loudspeaker broadcasts in response to the South's.

At the traditional meeting point in the DMZ, Panmunjom, everything was quiet on Thursday this week.

Only a couple of North Korean soldiers stood on guard outside one of the meeting huts that straddle the demarcation line at the centre of the DMZ.

Talking about the latest situation since this month's nuclear test, North Korean army Lieutenant Colonel Nam Dong Chol emphasised that his country was not afraid of new sanctions from the UN, and its aim was a peace treaty with the United States, to replace the armistice which ended the Korean War in 1953.

But the current standoff between North Korea and most of the world after its fourth nuclear test does not seem to bring any closer a peace treaty to settle the conflict and division of the Korean Peninsula.

===========================================================

Clients are reminded:

(i) to check the terms of their licence agreements for use of content outside news programming and that further advice and assistance can be obtained from the AP Archive on: Tel +44 (0) 20 7482 7482 Email: info@aparchive.com

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An international group of women peace activists left Pyongyang on Saturday on their way to a rare crossing of the Demilitarised Zone (DMZ) separating North and South Korea.

The march was organised in support of reunification and peace between the two Korean states and was approved by both.

North and South Korea have technically been in a state of war since the 1950-53 Korean War ended in an armistice, not a peace treaty.

Their border along the DMZ is one of the most heavily fortified in the world and it is highly unusual for crossings to be allowed.

Thousands of Pyongyang citizens were mobilised to line the road leading out of the North Korean capital, but only international participants are permitted to enter the DMZ.

A large monument to a past North Korean proposal for Korean reunification stands over the road that runs out of Pyongyang to Kaesong, the border town on the edge of the DMZ.

The thirty-strong international women's group will spend Saturday night in Kaesong, before crossing the DMZ into South Korea on Sunday.

Pyongyang - 23 May 2015

1. Various of international women's group marching out of Pyongyang past the Monument to Three Charters for Reunification

Pyongyang - 22 May 2015

2. SOUNDBITE (English) Gloria Steinem, feminist activist and writer:

"I think that we've accomplished, you know, we've paid for our tickets, we came here, we had no idea whether we were actually going to be able to cross the DMZ or not, and you know, here we are doing it tomorrow, with the consent of two opposed governments. I think that's quite remarkable in itself. Also, the North and South Korean women can't walk across the DMZ legally. We from other countries can, so I feel we're walking on their behalf."

Pyongyang - 23 May 2015

3. Various of march

Pyongyang - 22 May 2015

4. SOUNDBITE (English) Gloria Steinem, feminist activist and writer:

"The example of the isolation of the Soviet Union, other examples of isolation haven't worked very well in my experience. Isolating North Korea clearly hasn't worked. I just think we need to go ahead with, first, do no harm, we have done no harm, and it might turn out to be a good thing."

Pyongyang - 23 May 2015

5. Various of march

6. SOUNDBITE (English) Christine Ahn, organiser of Women's March across DMZ:

"What a wonderful thing to be able to walk with North Korean women, on the road to Kaesong, towards the DMZ, where we will cross the DMZ, we're walking for Korean women, north and south."

7. Various of march

A group of women planning to walk across the De-Militarized Zone (DMZ) between North and South Korea say they are trying to do something different to end the division between the two sides.

The members of Women Cross DMZ were speaking on Tuesday in the Chinese capital Beijing, ahead of their planned trip to North Korea on Friday.

A group of 30 women from around the world are planning to walk across the 2-mile (3.2km) wide Korean Peninsula's heavily-mined DMZ from north to south on May 24 in a symbolic act of peace.

The planned action has gained permission from both North Korea and South Korea.

The DMZ is the world's most fortified border, with the two Koreas still technically at war. The walk would mark the 70th anniversary of the division of the Korean peninsula.

The walkers would include two Nobel Peace laureates and prominent US feminist Gloria Steinem, and North Korean women represntatives will join the group from Pyongyang to the DMZ, an organiser said.

Beijing - 19 May 2015

1. Women Cross DMZ (demilitarised zone between North and South Korea) members singing song at press conference ahead of trip to North Korea. ++UPSOUND (English) "We are walking for a peaceful world"

2. Cameras (singing continues)

3. SOUNDBITE (English) Christine Ahn, Coordinator of Women Cross DMZ :

"Let's give women a chance to try to do something different. We've certainly allowed our leaders for 62 years to try to end this conflict, have we seen much progress? Well, there has been a little bit here and there but� I believe that we are basically by crossing the DMZ, breaking through this mental state that this is a permanent division. By crossing it, I think we can say that there is another possibility. Let's re-imagine a different kind of future for Korea that is not militarised."

4. Reporter asking question to members

5. SOUNDBITE (English) Gloria Steinem, US feminist who joined the trip:

"We are trying to do with ourselves, with our bodies what we hope the other people will be able to do, which is to walk across a boundary. As for whether or not we are going to be used, we can only decide about our own actions and we have been very carefully to be even-handed in everyone of our actions and to consult with everyone in our actions."

6. Pan from media to members presenting logo of Women Cross DMZ

T/I: 10:02:42

Nobel Peace Prize winner Jody Williams and Stephen Goose, a member of the 1997 Nobel Prize winning International Campaign to Ban Landmines, on Wednesday (4/2) toured the demilitarized Zone (DMZ) on the South-North Korean border, part of their continuing campaign to organise a comprehensive treaty to ban landmines.

Jody Williams also went to the nearby village of Kumpari where she gave an artificial leg to a landmine victim.

SHOWS:

DEMILITARIZED ZONE, SOUTH KOREA 04/02

VS Nobel Peace Prize winner Jody Williams touring demilitarized zone (DMZ);

SOT Williams: "I am standing right here, I'm not going any further and I'm not getting on my knees -- No, I will stand like this."

Cutaway;

SOT Williams: "So anti-personnel land mines are not a deterrent that are stopping an invasion, any more than when President Bush took out tactical nukes. Those are a deterrent, now did the North invade immediately -- No. Now take out anti-personnel land mines, the North is not going to invade. It defies the imagination that one would believe that."

More of William touring DMZ;

Williams being briefed shown by South Korean officer at Dora observation post;

Williams looking over the DMZ to the North Korean side with fixed binoculars;

KUMPARI VILLAGE, CLOSE TO DMZ

Williams at Kumpari village,

close to the DMZ where she is to donate an artificial leg to a villager who was one of the victims of the landmines;

SOT Williams: "You probably know that when we started this campaign five years ago it was started because of people like you. I believe if we work together we will achieve on the humanitarian side what we achieved on the treaty side and we will clear the mines from the world and we will provide assistance to victims who have had to live in mine fields."

Williams presenting a villager with a new artificial leg,

Williams and other applauding as he puts on the leg.

2.45

SHOTLIST

DMZ, April 2008

1. North Korean soldiers checking the South Korean side with binoculars

2. Close up, tilt down of South Korean

3. Wide of the DMZ

4. Zoom in to South Korean soldiers on watch

5. US, South Korea, United Nations flag

6. Wide of North Korea from the DMZ

7. Various South Korean soldiers with fire arms

8. SOUNDBITE: (Korean) Choi Sung-wook, Joint Security Area (JSA) soldier:

"All JSA soldiers at this compound should have at least 1st degree. We have exams every 3 months to upgrade our degree in taekwondo. We must give a 100 percent and train very hard to achieve the degree we are aiming for. Instructors and soldiers at this compound work as one and work very hard."

9. Various of soldiers in the gym practicing taekwondo

10. Soldiers sparring

Daebul University, Near the DMZ border, South Korea, April 2008

11. SOUNDBITE (Korean) Kim Sang-geon, coach at the high school taekwondo club at Daebul University:

"This school is unique in a way that taekwondo is a required course for the entire student body. For the ones that want intensive training, they will join the special class for higher levels of taekwondo training."

12. Highschool students practising moves

13. Student taking flying leap in the air on tiles

14. Student back-flipping and kicking tile

15. Students dancing and doing taekwondo moves

STORYLINE

At the Demilitarised Zone separating the two Koreas, South Korean soldiers are not just armed with machine guns.

Along with being one of the world's longest-simmering hotspots, this is taekwondo country.

As land mines pepper the forests on either side of the demarcation line, machine guns are hidden in the shadows: take all the weapons away, and these soldiers are still heavily armed.

There has been something of a detente at the DMZ in recent years.

No longer does the North blast propaganda at the South, and the South has stopped blasting rock music back. Psy-ops leaflets no longer waft in the wind, and the contingent of US Army soldiers deployed to supervise the peace at the UN-run JSA has shrunk from hundreds to fewer than 40.

But to the South Koreans, that is no excuse for complacency.

In Patriot's Hall, a small carpeted training room on this border outpost, Choi Sung-wook and his fellow soldiers put away the shiny black helmets and aviator sunglasses they wear for guard duty and don their other uniforms, the white ones, and face off.

Choi said all soldiers assigned to the JSA unit must test for black belt if they don't already have one by the time they get here.

Training is done on duty and off, with many soldiers putting in several hours a day.

They have hard exams every 3 months to bring up their degree. "We must give a 100 percent and train very hard to achieve the degree we are aiming for. Instructors and soldiers at this compound work as one and work very hard."

Their motto: "Let's Be Patriots in Front of Them All."

Taekwondo is more than just a way to train troops, however.

North and South, it is the pride of Korea.

Not far from the DMZ, Kim Sang-geon coaches the high school taekwondo club at Daebul University.

The school, on a hill surrounded by rice paddies and budding urban sprawl, is about a 15-minute ride from the border.

As the afternoon sun begins to set, shrieks pierce the air. There is cracking, and the sound of feet stomping in unison.

For a small group of visiting dignitaries, about 50 students go through a 30-minute routine in the gymnasium.

As pop music echoes throughout the gym, they do back flips and howl and slice through boards and roofing tiles like they were hot butter.

Kim, a member of the South Korean national team long before it was part of the Olympics, has trained his students well.

After their demonstration, they sit absolutely still until told to relax. Then they laugh and cheer and hold up baseball bats that they have just turned into timber with their bare feet.

The 53-year-old Kim has seen the sport of taekwondo evolve and blossom much more than the never-ending rivalry and bickering between the two Koreas.

Still, though his town is just a mortar round away from the world's most unpredictable communist dynasty, he tries not to be pessimistic.

The school near the DMZ is very particular about their school curriculum.

"This school is unique in a way that taekwondo is a required course for the entire student body," coach Kim said.

"For the ones that want intensive training, they will join the special class for higher levels of taekwondo training."

Taekwondo is their national pride and at times, it is used to train soldiers at the frontline at the borders with North Korea. On the other hand, younger generations enjoy Taekwondo with a modern twist by adding a little dance music.

Some go to the Olympics, while others guard the frontline, but their spirits towards their national sport remain the same.

T/I 10:27:11

South Korea warned North Korea on Saturday not to make any further

incursions into the demilitarized zone (DMZ) that divides the two

countries. The statement came after seven North Korean soldiers

briefly crossed into the south of the country yesterday (17-5).

SHOWS:

DMZ + SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA, RECENT+18/5

DMZ, RECENT:

Military tower in South Korea, with Korean and UN flags

GVs demilitarized zone.

Zoom to North Korean side of DMZ showing anti-US slogans.

Soldiers patrolling DMZ.

SEOUL, 18/5

Interior Ministry of National Defence, WS press conference.

SOT military spokesman Yoon Chang Roh, saying in Korean: "N Korea

has violated the agreement of cease-fire made in 1953. Since last

April, North Korea has often violated the law. If they violate the

agreement again in a very unreasonable manner then S Korea will

take decisive measures in cooperation with the US army. At the

same time South Korea will do its utmost to establish peace in the

peninsula by developing four-way talks"

Cutaway press.

DMZ, RECENT

American and South Korean soldiers.

VS Panmunjom truce village.

3.14

South and North Korean troops have begun removing some of the landmines planted at their heavily fortified border, in the first implementation of recent agreements aimed at easing their decades-long military standoff.

The Koreas remain split along the 248-kilometre (155-mile)-long Demilitarised Zone (DMZ) that was originally created as a buffer zone at the end of the 1950-53 Korean War.

About two million mines are believed to be scattered in and near the DMZ, which is also guarded by hundreds of thousands of combat troops, barbed wire fences and tank traps.

This week, South Korean army engineers with demining equipment were deployed to the frontline area in Cheorwon County and to the Joint Security Area at the border village of Panmunjom, to remove mines on the southern part of the sites.

Another frontline area being demined is called "Arrow Head Hill", a strategic hilltop where some of the fiercest battles occurred and where the Koreas plan their first joint searches for soldiers killed during the conflict.

Seoul officials believe there are remains of about 300 South Korean and United Nations forces, along with an unspecified number of Chinese and North Korean remains.

The agreement to clear mines, the first such effort since the early 2000s, was among a package of tension-easing deals struck by the Koreas' defence chiefs on the sidelines of a leaders' summit last month in Pyongyang.

Aiming to reduce conventional military threats, they also agreed to remove 11 front-line guard posts by December and set up buffer zones along their land and sea boundaries and a no-fly zone above the border to prevent accidental clashes.

Cheorwon County - 2 October 2018

1. Various of South Korean soldiers using detectors to find land mines in the Demilitarised Zone (DMZ)

2. Pan of DMZ near border

3. Wide of North Korean guard post seen across the border

4. Wide of fences along border

5. Tilt-down of soldiers searching for land mines

6. Display boards explaining demining works and plans for constructing roads in area where the military will work on recovering the remains of soldiers who died in the Korean War

7. Close-up of display board

8. SOUNDBITE (Korean) Name undisclosed, South Korean military unit commander:

"There is no record of planned mines buried in this area, either by our military or enemies in the past. However, there was a fierce battle (during the Korean War) in this area, so we believe that there could be unrecorded land mines buried in this area or many unexploded bombs scattered across the area."

9. Soldiers

10. Close-up of sign reading (English/Korean) "Southern Boundary of DMZ. Do Not Enter."

11. Soldiers opening gate

12. Military vehicles passing through gate

13. Interior of military vehicle as it moves

14. Close-up of barbed wire, pull-focus reveal of North Korean side through the border fence

15. Soldiers looking for land mines

16. Close tilt-up from gun to soldier standing guard

17. Wide of border and fence

RESTRICTION SUMMARY: AP CLIENTS ONLY

SHOTLIST:

++CLIENTS PLEASE NOTE: THIS EDIT FEATURES SHOTS THAT WERE IN THE FIRST DMZ PENCE EDIT, BUT IN IMPROVED QUALITY++

US POOL - AP CLIENTS ONLY

Panmunjom - 17 April 2017

1. Various of US Vice President Mike Pence visiting Demilitarised Zone dividing North and South Korea, being shown points of interest by military officials

STORYLINE:

US President Mike Pence on Monday visited the Demilitarised Zone (DMZ) dividing North and South Korea.

Pence made an unannounced visit to the Demilitarized Zone at the start of his 10-day trip to Asia in a US show of force that allowed the vice president to gaze at North Korean soldiers from afar and stare directly across a border marked by razor wire.

During the visit Pence told reporters that President Donald Trump was hopeful that China would use its "extraordinary levers" to pressure the North to abandon its weapons.

He added that the "era of strategic patience is over" with North Korea, expressing frustration at the unwillingness of the regime to move towards ridding itself of nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles.

The vice president visited a military base near the DMZ, Camp Bonifas, for a briefing with military leaders and to meet with American troops stationed there.

The joint US-South Korean military camp is just outside the 2.5-mile-wide (4-kilometre-wide) DMZ.

===========================================================

Clients are reminded:

(i) to check the terms of their licence agreements for use of content outside news programming and that further advice and assistance can be obtained from the AP Archive on: Tel +44 (0) 20 7482 7482 Email: info@aparchive.com

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T/I: 10:06:17

South Korea on Friday (5/4) accused North Korea of "violating" the law, following the statement by the North that it would "give up its duty" of jointly controlling the four kilometre-wide demilitarised zone (DMZ) that separates it from South Korea. The accusation was made by Major General Park Yong-ok, the head of policy planning for South Korea's Defence Ministry. South Korea meanwhile upgraded the vigilance status of its armed forces. South Korean President Kim Young-sam visited the DMZ on Thursday and told his troops near the border that North Korea's "provocations" would "only lead to their collapse."

SHOWS:

DEMILITARIZED ZONE/SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA, 4-5/4:

DEMILITARIZED ZONE, 4/4:

Vs of DMZ area

SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA, 5/4:

Major General Park Young-Ok making announcement at presser: "...

North Korea has violated the law... yesterday North Korea

announced that they will remove all identifying marks and number

plates from their vehicles in the dmz..."

Cutaway journalists

Cutaway military at presser

DEMILITARIZED ZONE, 4/4:

Pull out from North Korean side of DMZ to South Korean soldiers

Soldiers speaks into microphone

Vs South Korean troops at Panmunjon

Cu rifle with barbed wire

Soldiers in jeeps

Soldiers checking fences

President Kim Young-Sam visits DMZ base, receiving briefing

President greeted by soldiers

President observing north of DMZ through binoculaurs

Kim addressing soldiers at barracks, tells them "you should never forget that peace only be enjoyed by those who have a will and prowess"

SEOUL, 4/4:

Meeting at night of defense minister Lee Yang Ho, foreign minister Gong Ro Myung, deputy prime minister and unification minister Kwon O Kie, agency for national security planning director Kwon Young Hae and chief presidential secretary Kim Kwang Il

3.43

US President Mike Pence on Monday visited the Demilitarised Zone (DMZ) dividing North and South Korea.

Pence made an unannounced visit to the Demilitarized Zone at the start of his 10-day trip to Asia in a US show of force that allowed the vice president to gaze at North Korean soldiers from afar and stare directly across a border marked by razor wire.

During the visit Pence told reporters that President Donald Trump was hopeful that China would use its "extraordinary levers" to pressure the North to abandon its weapons.

He added that the "era of strategic patience is over" with North Korea, expressing frustration at the unwillingness of the regime to move towards ridding itself of nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles.

The vice president visited a military base near the DMZ, Camp Bonifas, for a briefing with military leaders and to meet with American troops stationed there.

The joint US-South Korean military camp is just outside the 2.5-mile-wide (4-kilometre-wide) DMZ.

US POOL

Panmunjom - 17 April 2017

1. Various of US Vice President Mike Pence visiting Demilitarised Zone dividing North and South Korea, being shown points of interest by military officials

US Vice President Joe Biden on Saturday visited the Demilitarised Zone (DMZ) separating South Korea from the North, a visit that was likely to cast attention on global concerns about North Korea's nuclear programme.

Biden met with soldiers at the US military's Camp Bonifas near the South-North border, in Paju, and went to Observation Post Ouellette, one of 77 guard posts that line the South Korean side of the border.

He then stopped further down the road at Freedom House, an administrative building in the southern sector of Panmunjom, which lies inside the 2.5-mile-wide Demilitarised Zone that separates the two Koreas.

The visit, which took place on the last day of a long-planned trip to South Korea, came just hours after North Korea freed Merrill Newman, an elderly US veteran of the Korean War after a weekslong detention.

Biden welcomed the release and called Newman shortly after the 85-year-old landed in Beijing from North Korea, where he had been detained for more than a month.

North Korean authorities had pulled Newman off a plane while he was touring the country six decades after the war.

Biden said he had "played no direct role" in securing Newman's release and offered no thoughts on why the North decided to release him.

The North's official Korean Central News Agency said Pyongyang made the decision because the Newman had apologised for his alleged crimes during the Korean War and because of his age and medical condition.

Biden told the released American that the US must also work to secure the release of Kenneth Bae, another US citizen in Pyongyang's custody, Biden's office said.

Tension remains on the Korean Peninsula, though Pyongyang's angry rhetoric against the US and South Korea has toned down compared with its torrent of springtime threats to launch nuclear strikes and restart nuclear bomb fuel production.

AP TELEVISION

1. Zoom in to US Vice President Joe Biden walking away from military helicopter after landing in the Demilitarised Zone (DMZ) and being greeted by US soldiers

2. Wide of Biden stepping into guard post at Observation Post Ouellette, the closest OP to the North Korea's guard post located within DMZ

3. Close of Biden

4. Mid of Biden being briefed by US solider

5. Close of Biden

6. Various of Biden looking towards North Korea through binoculars

7. Wide of North Korean soldiers guarding Panmunjom, located on North Korean side of the Demarcation Line separating South and North Korea, within the Joint Security Area (JSA), looking towards the South Korean side through binoculars

8. Wide of Panmunjom

9. Wide of North Korean soldier guarding Panmunjom

10. Wide of Biden being briefed by US soldier on balcony of Freedom House, on the South Korean side of the Demarcation Line

11. Various of North Korean soldiers moving down steps to get a better look of the South Korean side during Biden's visit

12. Various of Biden shaking hands with US and South Korean soldiers at Freedom House

SHOTLIST

Demilitarised Zone between North and South Korea

1. Wide pan of North Korean side of Demilitarised Zone (DMZ) shot from South Korean side of border, barbed wire fence in foreground

2. Close-up of barbed wire fence, shift focus to show North Korean side of DMZ through fence

3. Wide of trees and South Korean military office building with South Korean flag outside

4. Close-up of South Korean flag

5. Pull-out from mountain on North Korean side of DMZ to wide of landscape with barbed wire fence in foreground

6. South Korean soldier and reporters walking along fence line

7. Reporters walking along fence line

8. Wide of landscape

9. Wide of landscape shot through fence

10. Low-angle view of South Korean military office building

11. Wide pan of landscape

Seoul, South Korea

12. Various of newspaper; headline reads: (English) "N. Korea halts nuclear reactor disablement."

13. Close-up of newspaper headline reading: (Korean) "US say North has to keep the promise of denuclearisation process."

14. Close-up of newspapers

15. Wide pan of briefing room in South Korean Unification Ministry

16. Close-up of computer screen

17. SOUNDBITE: (Korean) Kim Ho-nyeon, South Koreans Unification Ministry Spokesperson:

"Our government will look over the situation and pursue the policy of mutual benefit and common prosperity for further developing the North-South relationship."

18. Cutaway to reporter

19. Wide of briefing room

STORYLINE:

South Korea said on Wednesday it will continue its policy to further develop relations with North Korea, a day after the North announced it has stopped disabling its nuclear reactor and will consider restoring the plutonium-producing facility.

The North's announcement marks the emergence of the biggest hurdle yet to the communist nation's denuclearisation process under a landmark deal last year.

It is also expected to escalate tension in the nuclear talks involving China, Japan, the two Koreas, the US and Russia.

The South's Unification Ministry said on Wednesday the government would "look over the situation" but would continue to strive towards "further developing the North-South relationship."

Relations between the two Korea's have warmed in recent years but the two countries still remain technically at war as the 1950-53 Korean War ended in a truce, not a peace treaty.

Just two months ago, North Korea blew up the cooling tower at its main nuclear reactor, a dramatic act meant to show the world it was committed to abandoning its atomic weapons ambitions.

That, coupled with a long-delayed account of its nuclear activities, fostered optimism and led last month to the first meeting between the foreign ministers of North Korea and the United States in four years.

But optimism faded on Tuesday with the announcement from the communist nation that it had stopped disabling its Yongbyon nuclear complex on August 14 and would consider restoring the plutonium-producing facility.

North Korea squarely blamed the United States for its decision, claiming Washington failed to keep its end of the deal.

Removing North Korea from the list of state sponsors of terrorism was one of the key concessions the US offered in exchange for North Korea shutting down and disabling the reactor.

The two sides have since been negotiating how to verify the nuclear declaration.

Washington has been adamant that it will remove the North from the terror list only after the country agrees to a verification plan.

Sudden turnabouts by North Korea are not unusual.

The United States, along with the other nations involved in the six-party nuclear disarmament talks, have been working for five years to achieve North Korea's denuclearisation.

Though that process has been characterised by many obstacles, most notably North Korea's underground detonation of a nuclear device in October 2006, Tuesday's announcement marks the most serious recent challenge.

The White House said the US was sticking to its position.

South Korean and US officials have said that eight of the 11 disablement measures have been finished and that when the entire process is completed, it would take at least a year for the North to restart the facilities.

SHOTLIST :

1. Wide shot barbwire along the DMZ border.

2. Soldier patrolling the border

3. Close up barbwire

4. Mid DMZ

5. Tracking shot inside South Korean base

6. Wide DMZ

7. Close-up birds

9. Close-up pheasant

8. Close-up a wild boar in bush

10. Sign reading "Wild boar"

11.SOUNDBITE (Korean): Lee Jeo-ho. Sergeant, S.Korean Soldier based at DMZ.

"It's easy to wild cats and boars around here. Sometimes I see badgers, weasels and elk. But with the mine fields, I also see some animals with broken legs and other wounds."

12. Various of waterfall

13. Close-up tree frog

14. Set up shot ecologist observing looking through binoculars

15. SOUNDBITE(Korean): Chung Ok-sik, Seoul National University graduate student researching birds in DMZ

"In Korea, places where the natural habitat is retained are decreasing. Various species live here so far, so it's an important place "

16. Various South Korean soldiers on a military truck

17. Military truck leaving the base

18. SOUNDBITE: (Korean) Chung Ok-sik, Seoul National University graduate student researching birds in DMZ

"If the two Koreas are ever reunited, if this place becomes developed, there is no plan ready to preserve the habitat. The demands for development of this area is already high and we have to consider the people who have rights to the property here,"

19. Various of wild boars

20. Close up a pheasant behind the sign attached on barbwire reading " landmine".

SUGGESTED LEAD IN:

Within earshot of a truck load of South Korean troops, a family of wild boars approach a military base looking for an afternoon snack.

Just down the road, a pheasant strolls into a forest dotted with mines.

Off-limits to most humans for more than 50 years and home to some 2 million soldiers, the Demilitarised Zone separating the two Koreas that forms the world's most heavily fortified border, has become an unlikely haven for wildlife.

STORYLINE :

Once dotted with farms and villages, the 240-kilometre (150-mile) long, 4-kilometre (2.5-mile) wide demarcation zone and the adjacent civilian controlled zones to the south underwent a radical makeover after the Korean War ended in 1953.

Civilians are mostly banned and scenes of tranquil village life have given way to a virtual no-mans land dotted with mines, sandbagged bunkers and guard posts.

The Civilian Controlled Zone or CCZ is surrounded by a barbed wire fence while the DMZ is marked by 4-metre-high (13-ft.-high) wall crawling with soldiers.

The soldiers from the 21st Infantry Division which routinely patrols the zone, enjoy a bit of wildlife watching, whilst performing their duties.

Scientists say the zone, encompassing soaring mountains, rolling lowlands and coastal wetlands, is one of the most biologically rich regions on the Korean Peninsula.

It serves as the wintering grounds for at least two endangered species _ the white-naped and red-crowned cranes _ among hundreds of other bird species.

Fifty mammals live here, including the rare Asiatic black bear, Amur leopard and, some believe, the Siberian Tiger.

More than 1,000 different plant species thrive.

For years, conservationists have demanded the DMZ and the CCZ be proclaimed a nature reserve.

They have recently stepped up those calls amid increased development around the DMZ and the possibly that two countries may reconcile.

Conservationists worry about two scenarios.

Peace, they fear, could bring increased development, a revival of farming and expansion of nearby communities into the DMZ.

And if North Korea's economy collapses, it could bring a flood of refugees into the zone.

Chung Ok-sik, a Seoul University graduate student researching birds in the area, says while development need not be stopped altogether, a balance must be struck to preserve wildlife habitats.

The conflict ended in a cease-fire, not a peace treaty and North and South Korea remain technically at war.

But as discussions continue into how best to protect the area, Seoul has launched a strategy of engaging the impoverished North, hoping increased tourism and economic cooperation will reduce economic gap and prepare for the day when the two countries will unite as one.

Rail and road links are being reconnected through the DMZ to North Korea and tourists are regular visitors to the heavily guarded border area.

The government has built special bridges and tunnels under the roadways in the DMZ to help protect wildlife, but insists economic development will be a top priority for the region once peace takes hold.

The civilian zone near Yanggu, about 75 kilometres (47 miles) northeast of Seoul, is marked by the armed checkpoint and surrounded by barbed wire fence.

Inside, the military presence is intertwined with nature.

Looking out over rolling hills that give way to rugged mountains blanketed with pine trees and Mongolian oaks, ecologists say the landscape harks back to a simpler time before much of South Korea was covered with skyscrapers, golf courses and strip malls.

Keyword-animals birds

SHOTLIST:

1. Wide shot, road from bus approaching North Korean buffer zone to Demilitarised Zone (DMZ)

2. Concrete entry gate to buffer zone DMZ

3. Bus passing through gate

4. North Korean guides and tourists stepping out of bus

5. North Koreans guide and tourist passing by North Korean army personnel

6. Pan from bus to holding building

7. North Korean soldier watching

8. Wide pan Chinese tourists queueing up to enter by foot into buffer zone DMZ and reboard bus

9. Tourists entering through gate into buffer zone

10. North Korean soldier guarding gate

11. Shot over barbed wire of mirador into buffer zone

12. Tourist and journalists reboarding bus

13. Mid shot from bus through barbed wire of North Korean houses on edge of buffer zone

14. Zoom into barbed wire on cultivated field in buffer zone

15. North Korean guide explaining to tourist in bus

16. Shot through window on cultivated fields in North Korean buffer zone

17. Cutaway, shadow of North Korean soldier in bus

18. Shot through window of bus on middle buffer zone barbed wire and walled defence

19. Pan from monument at Panmunjon site bearing carved in stone the signature of North Korea's founding leader Kim il Sung (NB: a copy of its signature on reunification document signed July 7, 1994, the day before he died)

20. Wide shot of North Korean army major talking front of monument

21. Tilt down from face of Major Kim Kwang Il to his hands

22. Wide pan from crowd of tourist to Joint Security Area (JSA), building sitting on exact demarcation line between North and South, big building at back is south side.

23. Medium shot tourist entering central building

24. Medium shot South Korean soldiers looking through binoculars at demarcation line a few metres away from North Korean soldiers

25. Close and pan from South Korean soldier with binocular to one with radio

26. Wide shot one of the building built by the South Korean

27. Medium shot of two North Korean soldiers standing on demarcation line (NB: concrete line on the ground)

28. Close up of face of the two North Koreans soldiers

29. Pan inside central building from reporters to table where talks between both side take place

30. Medium shot two North Koreans soldiers guarding door to South side

31. Wide shot talks table

32. Wide shot empty North Korean chairs

33. Wide shot empty South Korean chairs

34. Close up microphone stands without microphone on table

35. Wide shot big building on South Korean side

36. Wide pan on Panmun house big building facing on North Korean side

37. Tilt down from balcony of Panmun house to wide shot of JSA

38. Mid shot, of change of guards on North Korean side

39. Pan on landscape on South Korea side

40. Zoom in on small village on North Korea side

41. SOUNDBITE: (Korean) Major Kim Kwang Il, Korean People's Army, DPRK:

"South Korean military should stop standing in the way of people from the same nation, instead they should turn their guns to the US military, they should fight to push the US army to withdraw from the South and contribute to the reunification of our nation."

42. Cutaway, reporters

43. SOUNDBITE: (Korean) Major Kim Kwang Il, Korean People Army, DPRK:

"It is the US which are preventing the reunification, they are trying to divide us more. There are some South Korean officials who do not want reunification, some of them are even cooperating with some other foreign countries outside the US." (ie Japan)

44. Various, border

STORYLINE:

Panmunjon is one of the world's most heavily defended border lines - the dividing point between North and South Korea.

It is seen by many as one of the birth places of the Cold War and remains a flash point for hostility with thousands of heavily armed forces facing each other on both sides.

The armistice between South and North Korea was signed here July 27, 1953 and meetings between North and South Korea take place here.

In the past few people visited the North side of this demarcation line, but now Panmunjon has become a major tourist destination listed as a must see location by all North Korean travel agencies.

Foreign reporters were recently given a rare opportunity to visit Panmunjon.

Tension is high on both side as opposing armies watch each other, eye to eye. Yet every day buses loaded with tourists, most of them Chinese and Japanese, are brought here and told of US imperialism.

Panmunjon in Korean means board framed shop a name from the past when travellers from Pyongyang could do some shopping.

The demarcation line that divides the Korean peninsula goes through this building. The line itself is a sliver of concrete which stretches along the ground. It's 40 centimetres wide and seven centimetres high and runs through the middle of this building.

The DML, or demarcation line, is 246 kilometres long, straddles 122 villagers, eight counties and severs 24 roads.

A buffer zone of two kilometres extends along each side of the DML.

This area (with the sky blue building) is called the Joint Security Area.

After the bus arrives, tourists must walk a short distance and reboard their vehicles which convey them - through farming countryside on the North Korean side - to the front lines.

One village here is said to house 200 families just a short distance from the DML.

This monument on the North Korean side bears the carved signature of the country's founding leader President Kim Il Sung, a reproduction of his script on the document for reunification which he signed one day before his death July 8, 1994.

South Korean Defence Minister Song Young-moo said on Monday "it is a violation for North Korea to shoot someone who is trying to defect".

He was speaking on a visit to the Joint Security Area (JSA) of the Korean Demilitarised Zone.

Song said Pyongyang violated the armistice agreement - signed between North and South Korea in 1953 - with the recent shooting of a North Korean soldier who defected to the South over the Military Demarcation Line (MDL) two weeks ago.

Four North Korean soldiers fired about 40 rounds at the soldier and hit him five times. It was the first shooting at the jointly controlled area of the heavily fortified border in more than 30 years, according to the South's military.

Panmunjom - 27 November 2017

1. South Korean Defence minister Song Young-moo (wearing non-military uniform) walking alongside US and Korean soldiers in Joint Security Area (JSA) of the Korea Demilitarised Zone (DMZ)

2. Various of Song, soldiers, government officials and reporters touring DMZ

3. Close of Song and soldiers

4. Two North Korean military officials looking on, one holding binoculars

5. Song, soldiers and government officials

6. Two North Korean military officials, one looking through binoculars, seen in distance past heads of South Korean officials

7. Song, soldiers, government officials and reporters in DMZ

8. Close of US soldier pointing at tree

9. Three North Korean military officials walking

10. North Korean soldier looking through binoculars

11. Wide of Song, soldiers, and government officials

12. Close of Song nodding

13. SOUNDBITE (Korean) Song Young-moo, South Korean Defence Minister:

"It is a violation for North Korea to shoot someone who is trying to defect to South (Korea). It is a violation for North Korea to cross the Military Demarcation Line (MDL). It is a violation for North Korean to possess automatic rifles. I am here today to remind North Korea of those matters through the media."

14. Three North Korean military officials walking away

15. Wide of Song, soldiers, government officials and reporters

16. Tilt down on JSA

17. Various of bullet holes in wall

18. Various of JSA grounds

19. Three North Korean military officials

20. Wide of JSA site

21. Sign reading (Korean) "Panmungak

22. Pan of buildings at JSA

SHOTLIST:

1. Wide shot of the graduation ceremony

2. Students in Korean traditional costumes dancing

3. Shot of attendants

4. Various shots of graduating students receiving graduation certificates

5. UN military officials applauding at the graduation ceremony

6. South Korean and US soldiers at the ceremony

7. Close up of South Korean military official speaking

8. Zoom out a student graduating receiving the citation and prize, applause

11. SOUNDBITE (Korean) Yoon Ok-ki, superintendent of Education, Gyungki province:

"It is special and meaningful for us to have a Taesung Freedom Village Elementary school graduation ceremony because it reminds us of the suffering of the separated families in South and North Korea. And this events reflects and implies the fact that we are living in the divided nation."

12. Wide shot of students

13. UN soldier giving commemorative gifts to students

14. SOUNDBITE (Korean) Yoo Kyung-sun, mother of student:

"We don''t worry (about the possibility of a North Korean attack) because we are protected by military."

15. US soldiers walking

16. Wide shot of Taesung Freedom Village

17. North Korean flag as viewed from the South Korean side

18. Wide shot of North Korean village

STORYLINE

A school in South Korea hosted a graduation ceremony for its sixth graders on Friday inside the four-kilometre (two-and-a-half mile) parameter of the Demilitarised Zone, known as the DMZ.

Taesungdong Elementary school in Taesing Freedom Village is located a mere 400 metres (yards) on the southern side of the Military Demarcation Line between North and South Korea.

Although celebrations inside the school looked no different than most others around the world, outside evidence of the most heavily fortified border in the world could be seen. Farmers tend their rice fields and livestock alongside the demarcation line, and soldiers in jeeps are a constant sight.

The Southerners erected a huge South Korean flag on their side, and the North responded with an even larger flag on their side. The DMZ is edged with minefields and barbed wire and residents live under an 2300 local time curfew.

Among the officials attending the ceremony were South Korean soldiers and members of the UN Command that patrol the Demilitarised Zone.

During the congratulatory address, a senior official of the province''s education department said the graduation ceremony reminded people of the suffering caused by the separation of the two Koreas.

Officials believe its northern counterpart, Kijongdong, is empty since there are few signs anyone is living or working there.

There are benefits for the 226 people living here.

Exempt from paying South Korean taxes local have much larger farming plots than are available on the rest of the peninsula. They are among the richest people in the country, with an average family income of 82-thousand US dollars.

That wealth is reflected in the facilities at the school, which first started giving classes in 1954, soon after the Korean War.

In one second-floor room, for instance, a television taller than many of the children stood at the head of the class. At the centre of the room are two seats for the only students in that grade. Since they are so few, the students are apparently doted upon.

Kim Hyun-yoo and his classmate, Yoo Tae-kyoo received flowers and stack of gifts and honours from visiting dignitaries. They will continue living in the town, but will commute to a middle school south of the DMZ at nearby Munsan.

The South Korean government held a tour Friday of a recently opened trail in the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) between the North and South.

The government opened trails to the public in multiple areas inside the DMZ in late April, marking first the anniversary of the inter-Korean summit between President Moon Jae-in and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

Access to the route, know as the Peace Trail, had been restricted to the public for decades.

During the hike along the coast, tourists can see North Korea's scenic Mount Kumgang.

Nam Yun-ho was moved while walking the Peace Trail. He was hopeful that inter-Korean relations will improve and that travel between the North and South will one day be possible.

Dozens of South Korean citizens participated in Friday's tour.

Goseong – 14 June 2019

1. Wide of DMZ Peace Trail

2. Various of tourists walking along the trail

3. Various of barbed wire fence

4. SOUNDBITE (Korean) Nam Yun-ho, tourist:

"Although it is a short distance, I feel touched as I walk along the trail. The inter-Korean relations were getting better but now they are stalled again. I hope that the relations become reinvigorated so that we get to travel between the two countries freely."

5. Signboard showing a map of the peace trail course

6. Various of map

7. Soldier opening gate

8. Various of tourists

9. Wooden sign that reads (Korean): "DMZ Peace Trail"

10. Various of guide speaking to tourists

11. Various of trail

12. Various of mine warning sign

13. Tourist taking photo next to a stone that reads (Korean): "Northernmost End of Truce Line"

14. Close of sign that reads (Korean): "Pyongyang, 230km"

15. Various of soldiers

16. Wide pan of North Korean side over border

17. Various of North Korean post

18. Various of trail

Two South Korean soldiers were injured on Tuesday in an explosion in the demilitarised zone (DMZ) located between two Koreas, a South Korean Defence Ministry spokesman told a news conference in Seoul.

The soldiers were on a search operation when the blast occurred and were sent to a military hospital with leg injuries.

The cause of the explosion was being investigated, although most probably it was a land mine, Kim Min-seok said.

AP TELEVISION

Seoul - 4 August 2015

1. South Korean Defence Ministry spokesman Kim Min-seok arriving for briefing to give comments on explosion at Demilitarised Zone (DMZ)

2. SOUNDBITE (Korean) Kim Min-seok, South Korean Defence Ministry spokesman:

"First of all, we are sincerely sorry about the accident occurred during the (search) operation (at the DMZ), and we hope for a rapid recovery of the injured soldiers. Although it seems that the incident was a land mine explosion, we quickly took immediate actions and it has been reported that the injuries are not life-threatening."

3. Journalists at briefing

4. Close of Kim

5. Wide of briefing

Making a dramatic statement in Korean relations, feminist and journalist Gloria Steinem and other prominent women on Wednesday announced plans for a rare walk across the demilitarised zone (DMZ) between North and South Korea to call for reunification.

The DMZ is the world's most fortified border, with the two countries still technically at war.

Hundreds of thousands of soldiers face off across the heavily mined zone.

Organisers of the effort called WomenCrossDMZ.org on Wednesday said they hope for 30 women, including two Nobel Peace laureates, to cross from North Korea to South Korea on May 24th, which is International Women's Day for Disarmament.

The walk also marks the 70th anniversary of the division of the Korean Peninsula.

The women say they are still seeking approval from both countries and the United Nations.

The women said they will also soon launch an online petition calling on UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, a South Korean, as well as President Barack Obama and the leaders of North and South Korea to take the necessary actions to finally end the Korean War with a peace treaty.

The women would like to cross at the village of Panmunjom, which straddles the border and is the place where troops from North and South come closest, just a few yards (meters) from each other.

Christine Ahn, co-coordinator of this march and head of the group Women Demilitarise the Zone, told reporters that they received a letter last year from North Korea's UN mission

"We received a letter of intent last year from Pyongyang supporting our event however with a very stern caveat - if the conditions are ripe," said Ahn.

AP TELEVISION

New York - 11 March 2015

1. Women's Walk for Peace in Korea news conference

2. SOUNDBITE (English) Christine Ahn, co-coordinator of march and Head of Women Demilitarise the Zone:

"So why are we walking? We're walking to invite all concerned to imagine a new chapter in Korean history, marked by dialogue, understanding, and ultimately forgiveness."

3. Women's Walk for Peace in Korea news conference

4. SOUNDBITE (English) Christine Ahn, co-coordinator of march and head of Women Demilitarise the Zone:

"We received a letter of intent last year from Pyongyang supporting our event. However with a very stern caveat - if the conditions are ripe."

5. Women's Walk for Peace in Korea news conference

6. SOUNDBITE (English) Gloria Steinem, feminist, journalist and women's right activist:

"It's hard to imagine any more physical symbol of the insanity of dividing human beings than this zone and therefore, to me, to walk across it has huge, huge, huge importance."

7. Women's Walk for Peace in Korea news conference