recent background of the Korean peninsula After 40 years of colonial Japanese rule that saw natural resources pillaged, an economy stripped, infrastructure and development stagnate and the Korean identity shaken, liberation of the Korean Peninsula by the Americans and the Soviets in 1945 was initially celebrated. However, the strategic geopolitical location of the Korean peninsula was too tempting for either party to abandon. To maintain a presence in central Asia and to prevent Soviet progress into Southeast Asia, the US military fortified, leading to the cold-war standoff of the Korean War. The Korean War, 25 June 1950 to 27 July 1953, ceased when both sides, the North assisted by the Chinese People’s Army and the South assisted by the United Nations, signed an armistice that formalised the division of the peninsula along the 38th parallel, originally drawn by the USSR and the USA to facilitate the surrender of Japanese troops in Korea at the end of WWII. 1 Upon solidifying the border, referred to as the Military Demarcation Line, each side each took a two kilometre step back, leaving a neutral uninhabited frontier, four kilometres wide and 241 kilometres long – the Demilitarised Zone. ‘The DMZ’, lacking any specificity, is universally understood to refer to the exceptional border condition between North and South Korea. Both sides have military enlistment requirements for their citizens. In the south, men must do 18 months of military duty between high school and the age of 30. In the north, men must serve for seven years (recently reduced from ten) and women for four years. 2 Extensive requirements put in place by North Korea’s ‘military-first’ policy ensure an exorbitant number of troops at hand. In 2011 the Korean People’s army had 1.1 million soldiers. 3 Of these, almost one million soldiers are stationed at the northern limits of the DMZ. With the 600,000 South Korean and 17,000 US troops at its southern limit, 4 the DMZ is the most heavily fortified border in the world. 5 Despite fortification, the extremes on each side and in 1993 being called the scariest place on earth by Bill Clinton, the DMZ offers North and South Korea one of the only ecologically-restored areas on the peninsula. In addition to the four-kilometre strip enclosed by the DMZ that has been under severely restricted access for the past 60 years, the south has added a Civilian Control Area to the DMZ border. The CCA extends
five to twenty kilometres from the southern limit of the DMZ, designating a 7,678 square kilometre trans-boundary region. 6 Until recently the CCA has had limited access to civilians: passenger vehicles need special permits to drive in this area and even when these are obtained most cannot park for extended periods of time, and other than farmers or military agents no one lives within it. River, wetland, forest, grassland, estuary, sand dune and reservoir conditions are all present between the western and eastern coastlines; numerous plant and animal species proliferate, some no longer found anywhere else on the peninsula. Because of the wide sample of ecological conditions within the DMZ, South Korea has applied for UNESCO world heritage site status; while the criteria is arguably met, status has not yet been granted, putting the DMZ and CCA in danger of being developed for industrial and urban purposes. For the past three decades, the integrity of Korea’s ecosystems and landscapes has been systematically compromised. Because food security is an essential part of its national spirit and South Korea has 100 percent self-sufficiency in rice production but only 20 percent arable land, the farming industry has demolished many lowland habitat and wetland ecologies for agriculture. 7 The DMZ’s green corridor belongs to neither side. Although well- defined and controlled by the Military Armistice Commission, the ongoing war, the northern regime’s struggle for survival, and the south’s economic and social commitment to reunification make tis naturally reclaimed land a turbulent zone. With infinite pressures on this frontier in the foreseeable future it also makes for the perfect context for an architectural intervention. 1 Ahn, Ilsup. ‘Deconstructing the DMZ: Derrida, Levina and the Phenomenology of Peace’. Cooperation and Conflict . Sage, 2010 2 DMZ Tours 2012. Guided Tour at Panmunjon . 3 Cronin, Patrick. ‘The Dangers of Korean Unification’. The Diplomat 2011. 4 Wagner, Eric. ‘The DMZ’s Thriving Resident: The Crane’. The Smithsonian Magazine , April 2011. 5 Harvey, Fiona. ‘Wildlife Haven in the Korean DMZ Under Threat’ The Guardian , 2012. 6 Cho, Dong-Gil and Kwi-Gon Kim. ‘Status and Ecological Resource Value of the Republic of Korea’s De-Militarized Zone’. International Consortium of Landscape and Ecological Engineering , 2005 7 Harvey, Fiona. ‘Wildlife Haven in the Korean DMZ Under Threat’
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Mike Taylor
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