How the Korean DMZ Works

Writing by Sam Denby and Tristan Purdy
Editing by Alexander Williard
Animation led by Max Moser
Sound by Graham Haerther
Thumbnail by Simon Buckmaster

[knpark]

5:29 Fun fact: Tourists and visitors who enter those blue conference halls are free to cross the halfway point indoors, just like how the video shows. When this happens, assuming that visitors entered the room from the south, The door on the north end of the hall will be locked and South Korean military police will stand guard in front of the said door from indoors (In the video you can see this in action: one MP is standing at the far side of the wall facing towards the crowd). At this state the whole demarcation line inside this one building is functionally shifted northwards up to the north wall. Therefore this single hall's "northern" half acts as South Korea's de facto salient to the north on the demarcation line, until the visitors leave the room, South Korean MP escorts return to their posts, and the north door is unlocked. If visitors were coming from the north, the reverse will happen, and the same hall becomes North Korea's de facto salient to the south. This is sometimes used in Korean TV shows or Youtube videos for a "I am technically in North Korea" scene.

[freyjathehealer]

9:23 I was not ready for “Dream Making Zone”

[akirachisaka]

I do remember as a kid, I was really confused why the “Demilitarized Zone” is like one of the most militarized place possible on earth lol

[GenkiGanbare]

The elderly family reuniting was heart-wrenching. Every militarized land border around the world is separating a family.

[that_one_doggo]

"worlds most heavily fortified wildlife sanctuary" lmao

[wyomingptt]

You left out the best part of the tree incident, where the US sent like a battalion of soldiers and helicopters to escort the tree cutters, and suddenly NK wasn't so worried about it lol.

[cyberherbalist]

Around 1977 I served in the US Army infantry at Ft. Lewis, WA, and in my unit was a soldier who had served on the DMZ. He was an "Imjin Scout, " who served in the 2nd Battalion 9th infantry regiment. His unit regularly patrolled the South Korean side of the DMZ, and as we were all waiting to talk to someone at our battalion headquarters he told me and another soldier about an experience he had had on patrol. They discovered a 12-man NKA patrol within the South Korea zone, upon reporting this via radio, they were instructed to ambush the North Korean soldiers. Accordingly, they set up and executed the ambush, killing all 12 of them. The bodies were recovered and later delivered back to the North Korean Army at wherever they did this kind of thing. He told us that it didn't happen often that they discovered NK troops on the "wrong" side, but it happened occasionally. Apparently these instances were not precisely secret, but weren't publicized. Scary stuff.

[mully]

Looking forward to Jet Lag: Hide and Seek in the DMZ

[allyip]

You left out the fact that in the tree-axe incident, both US soldiers were armed with pistols but they refrained from using their firearms for self defense because of the Rule of Engagement at the time (which has been changed since). These soldiers stayed obedient to the rules till the very end.
They deserve our respect.

[rupertparko]

As someone who served on U-do island as a ROK Navy sailor in 2019, I can say that maritime tensions may seem like to make only a fraction of all conflicts if you look at the official reports. But that is simply not the case. At least on the land you have fences and mine fields that keep the two Koreas separated. On the sea, however, there are no physical lines. The NLL only exists on the maps. Therefore, the NLL is much more vulnerable to provocations. And like the video pointed out, the two Koreas are trying to enforce two different "lines" on the sea, unlike on the land. In fact, there are numerous incidents that occur along/across the NLL ranging from fishing boats that lost power drifting across the NLL to warning shots being fired by warships for whatever reason. On top of that, many people choose the sea as their way to get across to the other Korea. Add to this Chinese fishing boats that have "figured out" the NLL and fish right on the line to avoid eviction from either side and all the false alarms, you can say that it is NEVER a slow day over there. There are so many "close-calls" that happen almost on daily basis along the NLL that remain unreported to the rest of the world.

[이엔]

My Friends are on duty at DMZ... cold weather, random land mines, wild animals, mosquitos make their life hard

[piganagun]

11:28, guy busting some moves on the top right of the ship

[MrMuel]

14:40 Small correction: Korea was America's fifth deadliest war. Also "deadliest by total casualties" doesn't really make sense, since casualties include wounded. Korea could jump to fourth place if we're only talking at the time of its conclusion - Vietnam would later surpass it. You could also say America's fourth deadliest foreign war, thus excluding the US Civil War. Otherwise, apart from Vietnam and the Civil War, both World Wars cost more American lives than Korea.

[funkygab]

I'm fan of Wendover and Real Engineering. I have nebula subscription. Some videos in nebula don't contain closed captions. It will be better for me to have cc on videos.

[joshmarshall]

Both North and South Patrols frequent into the other's side of the DMZ, it isn't uncommon to find small North Korean flags tied to Southern fences, and likewise "we" tie both South Korean and United States flags to their Northern fences. Now, I don't know if the North Korean patrol members count coup in a way, but we definently kept track of where and how many times we sucessfully entered and exited without getting found out (extra "points" if you had done it in the same spot twice or more, since security would be on the look out in those locations). Why you may ask? Bragging rights, in hind sight, it was pretty dumb, but hey, I made it.

[spudgun]

You missed the chance to talk about Operation Paul Bunyan, a massive show of force after the DMZ axe murder.

[ddc]

This video forget to mention that the DMZ is also the most heavily mined area in the world. So while it may not have much out there as visible barriers, it's by no means a simple stroll to cross it. As there still are occasional detonations from animals that happen.

[benamp]

I live on the east coast and have been to the edge of the DMZ in Goseong. It's got beautiful beaches and there's no change in landscape from one nation to another. You look through the telescopes and think "oh, that's north korea?" and that's the sad thing. Korea geographically, culturally, historically, ethnically is one country. It's politicians and world powers who continue to keep it apart. I always hope for a united Korea ❤🇰🇷🇰🇵

[nekomakhea]

"How the Korean DMZ works"
Entering it triggers the Point of No Return warning for Earth's final quest line, and nobody knows if there's a New Game+

[hugofriberg]

In the border checkpoint town of 파주 (Paju) a destroyed train is stationed with something that looks like a thousand bulletholes. The north koreans however claims not a single bullet has been fired on the train