ROK installs bullet-proof windows in ‘Freedom Village’

According to the AFP (via Straits Times):

South Korea has installed bullet-proof windows at an observatory in a border village to guard tourists against possible gunfire from North Korea, officials said on Thursday.

Three bullet-proof windows were fitted at the observatory pavilion at Daeseongdong village, inside the Demilitarised Zone (DMZ) which bisects the peninsula.

Daeseongdong, inhabited by about 200 people, is just half a mile from North Korean guardposts inside the zone. The pavilion was built in 1980 to give tourists a better view of the world’s last Cold War frontier.

Tensions have been high since Seoul accused Pyongyang of torpedoing one of its warships in March with the loss of 46 lives.

North and South Korean troops exchanged fire briefly last Friday across their land border, without apparent casualties.

‘The installation was made at the request of villagers who have felt uneasy at growing tensions,’ Kim Young-Sea, an official in nearby Paju city, told AFP. ‘They have been living within the range of North Korean gunfire. Since March, civilian visitors have not been allowed into the village due to security concerns.’ The bullet-proof windows are aimed at restarting the visits.

Here is a satellite image of “Freedom Village”.

Read the full sotry here:
Bulletproof windows at border
AFP via Straits Times
11/4/2010

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