Rising tensions in recent weeks over belligerent rhetoric from North Korea’s leaders has been underlined as a fire broke out in the demilitarised zone over the weekend.
The world’s most heavily-armed DMZ, with 2 million soldiers stationed on either side, is an area where fire breaks out relatively frequently as much of the area is bush and forest. The weekend’s blaze paid little attention to political tensions as pictures showed it crossing South Korea’s barbed-wire fences marking their side of the border.
The fire affected an area estimated to be around 13km in radius with around 80 firefighters assisted by forest service helicopters to contain it within the DMZ. It reached as close as 100m to South Korean guard posts, according to reports.
Both sides are known to blame the other for starting fires, accused of trying to (literally) inflame tensions between the two nations and use a blaze as cover for increased military actions.
With tensions at an all-time high on the Korean peninsula, a blaze such as this could cause unnecessary problems. But both sides are happy as long as the blaze stays within the DMZ. However, this also potentially raises safety fears as the area is littered with hundreds of thousands of landmines following the Korean War and the ceasefire in 1953.
A spokesperson for the South Korean military was quoted as saying:
The fire broke out in the Demilitarized Zone but has been largely contained by now. There have been no casualties or damage to our facilities, but we have firefighters on standby as winds are strong on the eastern coast and residual fires are still a danger.
The blaze is believed to be largely under control now.
We talk extensively in the IFSEC Global Fire channel about the effectiveness (or lack thereof) of fire safety in developing nations.
North Korea is one of the very poorest, but fire safety is likely to be the very least of citizens worries. The region of South-East Asia as a whole accounts for around 53 percent of global fire deaths in the latest study by the World Health Organisation released in 2003.
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