January 3, 2022 - A breach in the DMZ

[yum]

A South Korean soldier walked along a military fence near the Demilitarized Zone in September. Kim Hong-Ji/Reuters

A breach in the DMZ

The South Korean military said on Sunday that an unidentified person had crossed the Demilitarized Zone into North Korea.

- footage : (특정한 사건을 담은) 장면[화면]

Footage of the person climbing a tall barbed-wire fence — the southernmost of multiple fences in the 2.5-mile-wide buffer zone separating the Koreas — was captured ​by South Korean cameras at 6:40 p.m. on Saturday. Sensors on the fence set off an alarm, the military said.

- buffer zone : 완충지대

But this latest security lapse at one of the world’s most heavily armed borders went unnoticed until 9:20 p.m. There was no immediate response from North Korea.

Details: Defections across the DMZ are rare and dangerous, and crosses from South to North are even rarer. The DMZ is bristling with fences, sensors, minefields, ​sentry posts and armed patrols​, and nearly two million troops are ready for battle on both sides​.

- minefield : 지뢰[기뢰] 매설[부설] 지역, 지뢰밭, 지뢰밭(보이지 않는 위험들이 도사린 곳)

Background: The two Koreas have technically been at war for decades — the Korean War halted in 1953 with a truce, not a peace treaty. Some 33,800 North Koreans have defected to the South since famine struck the​ North in the 1990s.

Separately: Kim Jong-un has begun his second decade as North Korea’s leader with a vow to alleviate the country’s chronic food shortages, a problem that he inherited from his father 10 years ago.