- Pistorius on the border with North Korea joining UN command
Germany is fundamentally ready, following its accession to the UN Command (UNC) led by the USA, to also provide personnel for monitoring the ceasefire on the Korean Peninsula. The exact contribution and what insights Germany itself wants to draw from this engagement is currently being discussed, said Defense Minister Boris Pistorius during a visit to the buffer zone with North Korea. "We will explore this until the end of the year and then move on to the next phase," the SPD politician said at the military base Camp Bonifas, from where he was directly at the demilitarized demarcation line.
"We were photographed by the North Korean side. We photographed the North Korean side," he said. Soldiers from the other side were about 50 meters away. "For someone who knows the German-German border, many associations come to mind, and at the same time, it is very different because there is this buffer zone, which we do not know from German-German history." The effort for transparency and preventing escalation in the situation is "both oppressive and impressive."
On Friday, Germany became the 18th country to join the UN Command. The UNC has been ensuring since the Korean War of 1950-1953 that the agreed conditions for a ceasefire are maintained. It has the say on the South Korean side of the demilitarized zone with North Korea. The military buffer zone, about 240 kilometers long, was created along the 38th parallel at the end of the Korean War and serves today as the de facto border.
Tensions have been rising on the Korean Peninsula. North Korea has significantly expanded its rocket tests in the past two years and escalated its rhetoric against the USA and South Korea. It has military cooperation with Russia. Leader Kim Jong Un has repeatedly called for strengthened war preparations.
The UN Command, with Germany as its newest member, is responsible for maintaining the ceasefire on the Korean Peninsula, particularly on the South Korean side of the demilitarized zone with North Korea. Despite the ongoing tensions between North Korea and its neighboring countries, Germany is committed to promoting transparency and preventing escalations in the region.
