Korea’s Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) 비무장지대 – Once a battlefield, now a natural habitat

The end of the Korean War in 1953 did not bring peace – only an armistice that endures to this day. The border between the north and south of the peninsula takes the form of a four-kilometre-wide demilitarised zone, a no man’s land stretching over 248 kilometres. The bloody Korean War shifted the original demarcation line along the 38th parallel dramatically: the current border crosses it only once, approximately 40 kilometres north of Seoul. The acoustic journey leads from Gloster Hill Memorial Park, where British UN veterans once fought, through Cheorwon to the north-easternmost tip of South Korea. For all the tragedy of its history, the border region holds considerable ecological potential – when, one day, the mined no man’s land becomes Korea’s own “Green Belt”.