Guns removed from Korean truce village

The two Koreas were removing the last remaining firearms and guard posts yesterday from a Cold War era truce village where armed soldiers have stared each other down for decades, Seoul's defence ministry said.

The Joint Security Area -- also known as the truce village of Panmunjom -- has historically been both a flashpoint and a key location for diplomacy between the two Koreas ever since their split in 1953.

It is the only spot along the tense, 250-kilometre (155-mile) frontier where soldiers from North Korea and the US-led United Nations Command stand face to face.

By today, all guards will be disarmed, ministry spokeswoman Choi Hyun-soo said, part of a recent diplomatic thaw between the two foes that has gathered pace.

Panmunjom was where the armistice that ended the bitter Korean War was signed.

It was a designated neutral zone until the "axe murder incident" in 1976, when North Korean soldiers attacked a work party trying to chop down a tree inside the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ), leaving two US army officers dead.