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

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

SHOTLIST:

1. Medium of tourists inside the unification observatory tower

2. Close-up of miniature map of Demilitarized Zone (DMZ)

3. Close-up sign on map reading in Korean, English, and Chinese, "North Korea"

4. Medium of DMZ map

5. Wide of tourists standing around map

6. SOUNDBITE (Korean) vox pop, Kim Byeong-seok, Office worker:

"I feel so anxious, but nothing is clear about how it will turn out. Still, I feel so worried, and my children as well."

7. SOUNDBITE (Korean) vox pop, Kim Tae-hyeon, Office worker:

"I hope (both North and South Korea) don't provoke each other and will take peaceful steps toward unification."

8. Close-up tourist looking through binoculars

9. Medium of tourist using binoculars

10. Close-up of tourist using binoculars

11. Close-up of North Korean checkpoint from observatory

12. Wide of North Korean checkpoint

13. Close-up of North Korean checkpoint

STORYLINE:

Tourists visiting the South Korean side of the border with North Korea on Saturday expressed their concern over heightened tension in the Korean peninsula, a day after North Korea warned foreign diplomats in Pyongyang that it couldn't guarantee the safety of embassies in the event of a conflict and suggested they may want to evacuate their staff.

Kim Tae-hyeon, an office worker, said he hoped North and South Korea "don't provoke each other and will take peaceful steps toward unification".

More South Koreans began to leave North Korea and the factory park where they work on Saturday, four days after Pyongyang closed the border to people and goods.

Twenty-one South Koreans returned from the Kaesong industrial park on Saturday morning, and about 100 of the roughly 600 still there were expected to return home by the day's end, the Unification Ministry in Seoul said.

The industrial park is the last remnant of North-South cooperation. Pyongyang's blocking of traffic there is among many provocative moves it has made recently in anger over UN sanctions for its February 12 nuclear test and current US-South Korean military drills.

North Korea suggested earlier this week that diplomats in Pyongyang leave for their own safety.

North Korea said last week it had entered a "state of war" with South Korea, but officials in Seoul say they have seen no preparations for a full-scale attack, while the chance of a localised conflict remains.

Earlier Pyongyang threatened a nuclear attack on the United States.

North Korea has not forced South Korean workers to leave Kaesong, but some of the South Korean companies working there are running out of raw materials because goods are being blocked at the border.

SHOTLIST

AP TELEVISION

1. Wide of people attending the 68th Anniversary of the National Liberation Day of the Republic of Korea held at Sejong Art Centre

2. Medium pan of South Korean President Park Geun-hye entering the ceremony

3. Wide of people standing for the national anthem

4. Medium of South Korean President Park Geun-hye standing with her hand across her chest

5. Wide of Park giving a speech commemorating the 68th National Liberation Day

6. SOUNDBITE (Korean) Park Geun-hye, South Korean President:

"Taking this agreement (agreement for the 7th Inter-Korean working level talks currently underway in Pyongyang) as an opportunity, I hope to remedy inappropriate practices of the South and North Korean relationship, and to begin a new win-win relationship between North and South Korea."

7. Wide of Park at podium as audience applauds

8. SOUNDBITE(Korean) Park Geun-hye, South Korean President:

"From now on, through building inter-Korean trust, I expect to establish peace in the Korean peninsula and to prosper together (with North Korea)."

9. Wide of people clapping

10. Wide of Park giving speech

11. SOUNDBITE (Korean) Park Geun-hye, South Korean President:

"Around this Chuseok (South Korean Thanksgiving Day in September), I ask North Korea to open its heart to allow a reunion of separated families."

12. Wide of Park giving speech

13. SOUNDBITE (Korean) Park Geun-hye, South Korean President:

"Also, I suggest North Korea could make a world peace park in the DMZ (de-militarised zone), which has a legacy of division and confrontation."

14. Wide of people clapping

15. Wide pan of Park giving a speech and people sitting

16. SOUNDBITE (Korean) Park Geun-hye, South Korean President:

"Japan should face this issue. Especially I expect the Japanese government to take sincere measures to cure people who are still living with the pain and sorrow that stemmed from the past history."

17. Wide of choir singing commemorating the 68th National Liberation Day

18. Various of people cheering

STORYLINE

The South Korean president Park Geun-hye proposed on Thursday that the two Koreas hold a reunion next month for families still separated 60 years after the Korean War.

"Around this Chuseok (Korean Thanksgiving Day - celebrated on the 18-20th of September)," Park said. "I ask North Korea to open its heart to allow a reunion of separated families."

Family reunions were one of the major inter-Korean cooperation projects that occurred during a detente between a landmark summit of the two Koreas' leaders in 2000 and the return of tensions in 2010. About 22,000 Koreans were able to meet with loved ones in that time.

Park made her proposal on the day that two Koreas mark 1945 independence from Japanese colonisation. A proposal made in July to discuss resuming the reunions fizzled.

The proposal came a day after the rivals moved toward reopening a jointly run factory park closed since April.

Reacting to the latest round of talks between the two states, Park said she hoped to change the mistakes of the past and build closer ties.

In a speech televised nationwide, she said the agreement to reopen the jointly run Kaesong factory park would start a new inter-Korean relationship that is marked by co-existence.

"I hope to remedy inappropriate practices of the South and North Korean relationship, and to begin a new win-win relationship between North and South Korea," Park said.

The negotiators agreed both countries would actively make efforts to resume Kaesong operations, though it was not conclusive and no timetable was

given.

The industrial complex in North Korea's third-largest city, Kaesong, had been the last symbol of cooperation from the 2000-2010 detente until Pyongyang halted operations during a torrent of threats earlier this year that included vows of nuclear strikes on Washington and Seoul.

Park also asked North Korea to jointly build a peace park in the demilitarised zone in the border.

The 1950-1953 war ended with a truce and no peace treaty was signed.

She also commented on the strained relationship between South Korea and Japan caused by the visit of senior Japanese politicians to the Yakasuni shrine to the war dead in Tokyo on Thursday morning, the 68th anniversary of Japan's surrender in World War Two.

"I expect the Japanese government to take sincere measures to cure people who are still living with the pain and sorrow that stemmed from the past history."

The shrine has been a major obstacle in Japan's attempts to mend ties with countries it occupied during the war, especially China and South Korea, who say it pays tribute to war criminals.

Though Japan has issued several apologies for its wartime actions, the anniversary evokes bitter memories across Asia.

SHOTLIST:

1. Mid of people counting seconds till turning on the 'Christmas tree' lights on Aegibong peak

2. Mid of a Christmas tower shaped as a tree lighting up

3. Close of an electric board on the tower reading (Korean): "Peace in the whole world"

4. Tilt-up of the tree

5. Close of the tree

6. Mid of the tree

7. Close of an electric board on the tower reading (Korean): "Peace in the whole world"

8. SOUNDBITE (Korean) Lim Cheon-yong, President of North Korea Freedom Coalition:

"I believe that by coming to South Korea and participating in this kind of event, we the North Korean defectors will make the message of peace and anti-war, aimed at North Korea, stronger."

9. SOUNDBITE (Korean) Yang Won-joon, Vice-chairman of The Forum of Korea Future:

"We held this lighting event to deliver Christianity's message, 'peace in the whole world' to the North Korean people."

10. Pan of South Korean territory and North Phyongan Province located in North Korea

11. Wide of North Korean territory with houses visible

12. Wide of North Korean territory with men walking along path

13. Wide of North Korean territory with houses visible

14. Wide of North Korean territory with coastline visible

15. Various of the tree

STORYLINE

A representative of North Korean defectors, South Korean civil groups and local churches lit a Christmas tower on Saturday near the Demilitarised Zone (DMZ), which acts as the border with North Korea.

The event has been banned since 2010 by the South Korean government, due to concerns it could escalate tensions between the two countries.

However, the Defence Ministry granted permission for the tower, on a mountain peak known as Aegibong in Gimpo, South Korea, to be lit this year.

According to local media, a Defence Ministry's official said the government gave permission to light the Christmas tower, which has the message 'peace in the whole world' at its top, to guarantee the religious freedom of soldiers deployed near the North Korean border.

"We held this lighting event to deliver Christianity's message, 'peace in the whole world' to the North Korean people," said Vice-chairman of The Forum of Korea Future Yang Won-joon.

Meanwhile, local residents near the peak have strongly condemned the illumination of the Christmas tower, which is large enough to be seen by North Koreans, saying it is a threat to their safety.

The lighting became even more controversial after it was revealed that North Korean defectors' groups were part of the event.

"I believe that by coming to South Korea and participating in this kind of event, we the North Korean defectors will make the message of peace and anti-war, aimed at North Korea, stronger," said President of North Korea Freedom Coalition Lim Cheon-yong, who had crossed the border to be at the lighting.

Tensions between South Korea and North Korea have been strained of late after North Korea launched a long range rocket to put the country's first satellite in orbit on December 12.

The launched was condemned internationally as it was widely seen as an illicit test of ballistic missile technology.

SHOTLIST(including transcript):-

AP Entertainment

Seoul, 28 September 2012

1. Wide of South Korean Director Kim Ki-duk at press conference

2. Close up of Kim Ki-duk

3. Medium of Kim Ki-duk

4. SOUNDBITE (Korean) Kim Ki-duk, director:

"I have said clearly that I wanted to make a 'Border Documentary,' not an 'Environmental Documentary,' if they open everything inside DMZ (De-militarized Zone between South and North Korea), Joint Security Area (JSA) and if North Korea opens some parts of North Korea (to me). If that happens North Korea has something to give up, we have something to give up and JSA has something to give up (stating all three of them have something to compromise in order to make this project happen)."

5. Close up of a journalist

6. Medium of Kim Ki-duk

7. SOUNDBITE (Korean) Kim Ki-duk, director:

"Viewers from numerous countries such as United States, South America have waited my movie persistently, and watched it from art theaters. Thanks to that I did not lose my will and I was able to make 'Pieta,' and 'Pieta' achieve the result of winning the award (Golden Lion Award at Venice Movie Festival). I think that part is what I should keep being grateful of."

8. Medium of the press

9. Close up of Kim Ki-duk

10. SOUNDBITE (Korean) Kim Ki-duk, director:

"Since I do not have much interest in things such as revenue, I think my duty is to create movies like 'Pieta' or other previous movies, to create the world I would like to live in, which can open a possibility that enables the world becoming the one I would like to live in."

11. Medium of Kim Ki-duk

12. Medium of the press

13. Wide of the press conference hall

KIM KI-DUK TALKS 'PIETA' IN SEOUL

South Korean movie director, Kim Ki-duk, who won the Golden Lion Award at this year's Venice Movie Festival with his latest movie "Pieta," held a press conference on Friday (28 SEPT 2012) to talk about the film and his future plans.

During the event, which lasted approximately an hour and a half, he expressed his hopes of making a documentary film on the border area between South and North Korea and the Inter-Korean relationship.

"I have said clearly that I wanted to make a 'Border Documentary,' not an 'Environmental Documentary,' if they open everything inside DMZ (De-militarized Zone between South and North Korea), Joint Security Area (JSA) and if North Korea opens some parts of North Korea (to me)," said Kim.

The director added that in order to make this happen, all three sides, South and North Korea and JSA, have to agree.

Kim has also revealed the inspiration behind his award-winning movie "Pieta" was his loyal fan base in various countries.

"Viewers from numerous countries such as United States, South America have waited my movie persistently, and watched it from art theaters. Thanks to that I did not lose my will and I was able to make 'Pieta,' and 'Pieta' achieve the result of winning the award (Golden Lion Award at Venice Movie Festival). I think that part is what I should keep being grateful of."

Although Kim is a renowned director, he has not produced movies that can be considered audience friendly, indulging in a focus on the dark side of society. During the press conference, Kim expressed his strong will to withstand the harsh reality within the movie industry, which only recognizes commercially successful movies.

"Since I do not have much interest in things such as revenue, I think my duty is to create movies like 'Pieta' or other previous movies, to create the world I would like to live in, which can open a possibility that enables the world becoming the one I would like to live in," said Kim.

The 51-year-old director was born in Boghwa, North Gyeongsang Province of South Korea, and moved to Seoul with his parents when he was nine. His family was economically deprived, so Kim had to go to an unauthorized agriculture training school. He never studied film at school.

Kim told media that he worked as a laborer at factories in Seoul's industrial areas until he joined the Marines when he was 20. Kim decided he wanted a career in the film industry after he was inspired watching the Hollywood movie "The Silence of the Lambs" and the French film "Les Amants du Pont-Neuf."

He wrote screenplays and ended up making his debut as a director with a low-budget movie "Crocodile" in 1996.

"Pieta" is Kim's 18th film.

He also won prizes at Venice and Berlin in 2004 for his films "3-Iron" and "Samaritan Girl."

South Korean President Moon Jae-in said on Wednesday he will push for the recovery of soldiers' remains in the Demilitarised Zone (DMZ) if the inter-Korean relations improve.

Moon made the remark in his speech at the commemoration at Daejun National Cemetery, marking the 63rd Memorial Day.

Hundreds of people, including families of those who lost their lives during the 1950-53 Korean War, attended the ceremony.

Daejun - 6 June 2018

1. Memorial Day commemoration ceremony at Daejun National Cemetery

2. South Korean President Moon Jae-in (centre with white gloves) and officials pledging allegiance to national flag

3. South Korean flag

4. Moon and First Lady Kim Jung-sook walking

5. Pan of stage

6. SOUNDBITE (Korean) Moon Jae-in, South Korean President:

"If inter-Korean relations improve, I will prioritise the work of discovering the remains buried in the Demilitarised Zone. We will be able to discover remains of foreign war heroes, including American soldiers."

6. Wide of stage

7. Various of performance; aerobatic display, singing

8. Wide of stage

9. Moon shaking hands before leaving

10. Wide of stage

South Korean President Moon Jae-in departed his office in Seoul on Friday, heading towards the Demilitarized Zone for historic talks with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

Kim Jong Un will be in uncharted territory when the third-generation autocrat crosses into the southern half of the DMZ separating the rival Koreas.

Seoul - 27 April 2018

1. Motorcade of South Korean President Moon Jae-in drive past

South and North Korea reached an agreement to ease tensions in the Korean Peninsula in the early hours of Tuesday, after three-day long talks.

The talks which began on Saturday evening ended around midnight on Tuesday with agreements in six areas, including the North expressing regret over the injury of two South Korean soldiers and the South agreeing to cease the propaganda loud speaker broadcast along the military demarcation line.

Both sides also agreed to hold reunions between separated families at Korean Thanksgiving and to hold talks as soon as possible to improve strained relations between the two countries.

The decision to hold these latest talks came hours ahead of a Saturday deadline set by North Korea for the South to dismantle the propaganda loudspeakers.

North Korea had declared that its front-line troops were in full war readiness and prepared to go to battle if Seoul did not back down.

South and North Korea reached an agreement to ease tensions in the Korean Peninsula in the early hours of Tuesday, after three-day long talks.

The talks which began on Saturday evening ended around midnight on Tuesday with agreements in six areas, including the North expressing regret over the injury of two South Korean soldiers and the South agreeing to cease the propaganda loud speaker broadcast along the military demarcation line.

Both sides also agreed to hold reunions between separated families at Korean Thanksgiving and to hold talks as soon as possible to improve strained relations between the two countries.

The decision to hold these latest talks came hours ahead of a Saturday deadline set by North Korea for the South to dismantle the propaganda loudspeakers.

North Korea had declared that its front-line troops were in full war readiness and prepared to go to battle if Seoul did not back down.

Seoul - 25 August 2015

1. South Korean Presidential National Security Advisor, Kim Kwan-jin, entering briefing room

2. SOUNDBITE (Korean) Kim Kwan-jin, South Korean Presidential National Security Advisor:

"(Secondly) the North (North Korea) expressed regret over two South Korean soldiers being injured due to a land mine explosion, which took place on the South Korean side of the DMZ (Demilitarised Zone). Thirdly, the South (Korea) will cease propaganda loud speaker broadcast along the MDL (Military Demarcation Line) as of noon of August 25, unless there is an abnormal situation taking place. Fourth, the North will lift its quasi-state of war."

3. Wide of the briefing

4. SOUNDBITE (Korean) Kim Kwan-jin, South Korean Presidential National Security Advisor:

"The South and North will move forward with the separated families reunion on the occasion of Korean Thanksgiving and hold (the reunion) regularly. (The South and North) agreed to hold Red Cross working-level talks (for the reunion) in early September."

5. Wide of briefing

6. SOUNDBITE (Korean) Kim Kwan-jin, South Korean Presidential National Security Advisor:

"The South and North will hold a governmental meeting in Seoul or Pyongyang as soon as possible in order to improve South and North relations, and continue talks and negotiations in several areas."

7. Journalist at briefing

8. Kim leaving briefing room

SHOTLIST

1. Wide pan of Panmunjom where South Korea and North Korea directly face each other at the Joint Security Area (JSA)

2. Mid of North Korean soldier

3. Mid of South Korean military police standing on South Korean side of Panmunjom

4. Mid of North Korean soldier standing by the North Korean military post

5. Close of North Korean soldier

6. Mid then zoom out of South Korean soldier and North Korean side behind with North Korean soldier standing

7. Close of North Korean soldier

8. Mid of North Korean soldier looking towards South Korean side

9. Wide of Panmunjom

10. Close of North Korean flagpole located on the North Korean side

11. Wide of North Korean town, seen from South Korea

12. Medium of foreigner visitors looking through telescopes at the observatory in South Korea

13. Close of visitors and North Korean side of border behind

14. SOUNDBITE: (English) Gileon Graun, tourist, soldier from St. Louis in USA:

"They have so many beautiful natural resources, a beautiful country, beautiful people, and I know that their hearts are generally good. I just pray to God every day that something better happens for them."

15. SOUNDBITE: (Korean) Park Jin-young, tourist, company employee from South Korea:

"They say North Korea is suffering from food shortages, but we should not be helping North Korea if it continues to provoke us. Everything depends on North Korea''s actions."

16. Mid of North Korean town''s tower

17. Wide of North Korean town

18. Wide of South Korean town and North Korean town

19. Mid of Kaesong Industrial District

20. Wide pan from Kaesong Industrial District to North Korean town

STORYLINE

Tourists were given rare access to the border between the two Koreas, known as the Joint Security Area (JSA), on Wednesday.

South and North Korean soldiers were seen guarding their respective sides of the Demilitarised Zone (DMZ) at the truce village of Panmunjom, on a tour sponsored by United States Forces Korea for foreign tourists and visitors.

The border area was quiet on Wednesday morning, even though tension remains high between the two countries after North Korea unilaterally kicked out South Korean workers staying at its Diamond Mountain resort and confiscated South Korean enterprises'' properties remaining in the area.

One American soldier visiting Panmunjom said "I just pray to God every day that something better happens for them."

But a visiting South Korean worker said that his country "should not be helping North Korea if it continues to provoke us. Everything depends on North Korea''s actions."

North Korea expelled all remaining South Korean workers last week from a stalled joint tourism resort in the North, putting what was once a symbol of inter-Korean cooperation in danger of collapse.

The two Koreas had launched joint tours at the scenic Diamond Mountain in 1998 as part of reconciliation efforts.

But the tours, which were a rare legitimate source of hard currency for the impoverished North, were suspended in 2008 after a North Korean guard fatally shot a South Korean tourist.

North Korea has called for the tours'' resumption, but South Korea demands that Pyongyang apologise for the death and allows a joint investigation.

North Korea responded by vowing to open the resort to international investors.

This week, the country ordered all South Koreans to leave the resort within 72 hours and announced it would scrap all South Korean assets there.

The two Koreas are still technically at war because their conflict in the 1950s ended with an armistice, not a peace treaty.

SHOTLIST

1. Wide of North Korean side at Demilitarised Zone (DMZ) with meeting huts straddling Military Demarcation Line (MDL) separating North and South Korea

2. Mid of North Korean People Army (KPA) soldiers standing in front of MDL

3. Close of North Korean soldiers

4. Wide of Chinese tour group walking out of one of the meeting huts straddling the MDL

5. Interior of meeting huts, with North Korean officer talking to visitors

6. North Korean KPA Lieutenant Choe Song Il talking to visitors

7. SOUNDBITE (Korean) Lieutenant Choe Song Il, (North) Korean People's Army:

"The firing in the West Sea has created tension for our soldiers. So we soldiers hope that the tense situation between the DPRK and the US, and North and South, will be relieved as soon as possible, in a peaceful way."

8. Wide of Panmunjom Pavilion on North Korean side of MDL

9. Mid of Panmunjom Pavilion with North Korean soldier standing outside it

10. Close of North Korean soldier standing outside Panmunjom Pavilion

11. Wide of North Korean guard post overlooking MDL

12. Mid of North Korean soldier outside guard post

13. Wide of North Korean soldiers standing in front of MDL, looking towards North

14. Close of North Korean soldiers

15. SOUNDBITE (Korean) Lieutenant Choe Song Il, (North) Korean People's Army:

"I know that there were casualties on the South side in the West Sea incident. I hope that such military conflict between North and South should never happen again."

16. Pan of North Korean soldiers marching past huts straddling MDL

17. North Korean soldiers standing outside meeting hut which straddles MDL

18. Wide of meeting huts

STORYLINE:

A North Korean military officer stationed at the Demilitarised zone separating the two Koreas has called for an easing of tension on the Korean peninsula.

In an exclusive interview, Lieutenant Choe Song Il talked about what he referred to as the "West Sea incident", when on Tuesday last week North Korean rockets killed four South Koreans on a tiny South Korean island close to the North Korean mainland.

Choe told the APTN that the incident and the US-South Korea military exercises which followed it have caused "tension" for the North Korean troops along the Demilitarised Zone.

Choe hoped that a "peaceful way" could be found between North Korea, the US, and South Korea, to relieve the current tension.

Choe referred to North Korea by its official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, or DPRK.

When asked if he regretted the deaths caused in South Korea by North Korean rocket fire last week, Choe adopted a conciliatory tone, commenting only that he was aware of the casualties, and hoped that such military conflict between North and South Korea would never happen again.

On Wednesday the situation at Panmunjom, the meeting place which straddles the dividing line between the two Koreas, was eerily quiet.

There was no sight of soldiers, officials, or visitors on the South Korean side.

On the North Korean side, a group of Chinese visitors toured the facilities, while they were in the most sensitive area around the Military Demarcation Line, a handful of North Korean soldiers came out to stand guard.

Shortly after the Chinese group moved away, most of the North Korean soldiers left the area too.

Panmunjom is half way into the four kilometre wide Demilitarised Zone which runs across the Korean peninsula.

The Military Demarcation Line runs through the middle of the Demilitarised Zone.

The Demilitarised Zone is approximately 170 kilometres from the North Korean capital Pyongyang, and approximately 70 kilometres from the South Korean capital Seoul.