S. Korea in talks with U.N. Command over resumption of Panmunjom tour

▲ In this file photo, buses used for a tour program for the truce village of Panmunjom on the inter-Korean border are parked at a facility in Paju, just north of Seoul, on Sept. 10, 2023, as the tourist program was halted in mid-July following a U.S. soldier's border crossing into North Korea. (Yonhap)

truce village-tour program

S. Korea in talks with U.N. Command over resumption of Panmunjom tour

SEOUL, Nov. 7 (Yonhap) -- South Korea's unification ministry said Tuesday it is in talks with the United Nations Command (UNC) over the resumption of a tour program for the truce village of Panmunjom on the inter-Korean border.

The tour program for ordinary people has been suspended since mid-July after U.S. Army private Travis King crossed the border into North Korea during a tour to the Joint Security Area in the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) separating the two Koreas.

North Korea expelled King in late September after detaining him for the "illegal" border crossing, but the tour program has still been halted.

"We are in talks with the UNC over the resumption, but the schedule for reopening has not been made known," a ministry official told reporters on condition of anonymity.

The UNC oversees activities in the DMZ as an enforcer of the armistice that halted the 1950-53 Korean War.

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