The Korean Demilitarized Zone

The most heavily fortified frontier on Earth is, by name, a demilitarized zone. The Korean DMZ is a band of land about 4 kilometers wide that runs coast to coast across the peninsula, separating North Korea from South Korea along the line where the fighting stopped in 1953. No peace treaty was ever signed, so technically the war never ended. Rows of fences, minefields, and guard posts line both edges, and hundreds of thousands of troops are stationed nearby. Yet inside the strip, where people have rarely set foot for seven decades, forests and wetlands have returned, sheltering cranes, bears, and other rare wildlife. It is at once a scar, a wildlife refuge, and a tourist attraction.

The zone stretches about 250 kilometers from the Han River estuary on the Yellow Sea to the East Sea coast, with the Military Demarcation Line running down its center. Each side keeps its forces at least 2 kilometers back from that line, at least on paper. Near the western end lies the Joint Security Area at Panmunjom, about 50 kilometers north of Seoul, where blue negotiation huts straddle the line and soldiers of both sides face each other across a concrete curb. Two villages remain inside the zone, Daeseong-dong in the South and Kijong-dong in the North. The South has found four infiltration tunnels dug under the line from the North. Observatories and DMZ tours on the southern side draw large numbers of visitors.

The armistice of 27 July 1953, signed by the UN Command, North Korea, and China, fixed the line and created the zone. Moments of contact have come and gone since, including the 2018 summits and a military agreement that set up buffer and no-fly zones, which North Korea abandoned in 2023 and South Korea fully suspended in 2024. Since 2024 North Korea, calling the South a separate hostile state, has cleared land, laid mines, and built walls and barriers along its side, which Seoul and the UN Command say violates the armistice. South Korea's government under Lee Jae-myung halted its propaganda loudspeakers in June 2025 and removed them that August. In 2026 Seoul has sought talks to clarify the line and restore the 2018 agreement.

• The UN Buffer Zone in Cyprus (Green Line)
  The UN-patrolled strip that has divided Cyprus and its capital, Nicosia, since 1974 another ceasefire buffer zone
• North Korea
  The world's most isolated state on the northern half of the Korean peninsula border of
• South Korea
  A technological powerhouse and cultural exporter on the southern peninsula border of
• Eastern Asia
  China, Japan, the Koreas, Mongolia — a quarter of humanity located in
• Seoul
  South Korea's capital and the Han River megacity near