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10-30-2010, 02:11 PM
North Korea fires at DMZ on same day as Sharp visit
By Ashley Rowland
Published: October 29, 2010
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BLOODY RIDGE, South Korea — North Korean troops reportedly fired two rounds toward South Korea on Friday, on the same day U.S. Forces Korea commander Gen. Walter Sharp was visiting another section of the Demilitarized Zone.
The shots were fired at a South Korean guard post 73 miles northeast of Seoul, and South Korean troops immediately returned fire, according to an Associated Press report. No injuries were reported, and it was unclear whether the North Korean shots were an accident or were fired intentionally, the AP said. There are no reports of what time the incident took place.
Sharp was visiting a mountainous area Friday afternoon that was the site of some of the bloodiest fighting of the Korean War. He stopped first at a South Korean military observatory at Gachil peak, located above the Punchbowl battle site, an extinct volcanic crater now farmed with cabbage and ginseng. He then flew to nearby Bloody Ridge, the site of one of the fiercest battles of the war.
U.S. Forces Korea spokesman David Oten said the shots were fired “nowhere near where anything could have been related” to Sharp’s visit.
During his three-hour visit, Sharp received briefings about the battles at both sites. At Bloody Ridge, Sharp left the open-air observation deck after the briefing and spoke with reporters from a more sheltered location on the ground because of concerns that he would be vulnerable to a North Korean attack. There was no unusual activity during the visit.
It was Sharp’s first visit to the area where his father had fought during the war. Sharp called the visit “emotional,” and was able to pinpoint ridges where his father, then-Lt. Earl Sharp, was stationed during 1952 and 1953. The general said his father talked little about the war except to describe the cold weather.
Sharp, 57, was born in the United States about six months after his father deployed.
Sharp told reporters that the area was safe, and called on North Korea to end provocations, denuclearize, and apologize for sinking a South Korean warship in March. South Korea has accused North Korea of torpedoing the Cheonan, which the North has steadfastly denied.
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Despite Friday’s incident, previously arranged reunions of hundreds of families separated by the Korean War will go ahead Saturday in the North as scheduled, South Korean Unification Ministry spokesman Chun Hae-sung told The Associated Press.
And earlier this week, officials from North Korea and the United Nations Command met for 90 minutes to discuss an agenda for general-level officer talks about the sinking of the South Korean warship Cheonan, according to the U.N. Command. South Korea has accused North Korea of torpedoing the ship, which North Korea has steadfastly denied. Forty-six sailors died in the incident.
A U.N. Command press release said North Korea declined to hold the talks and “continued to refuse to accept the procedures laid out in the Armistice Agreement for conducting a joint investigation.”
The meeting was the seventh in a series of planning sessions. No further meetings have been scheduled.
rowlanda@pstripes.osd.mil
http://www.stripes.com/news/north-korea-fires-at-dmz-on-same-day-as-sharp-visit-1.123523
By Ashley Rowland
Published: October 29, 2010
Image_13476664.jpg
View Gallery (4 images)
k
BLOODY RIDGE, South Korea — North Korean troops reportedly fired two rounds toward South Korea on Friday, on the same day U.S. Forces Korea commander Gen. Walter Sharp was visiting another section of the Demilitarized Zone.
The shots were fired at a South Korean guard post 73 miles northeast of Seoul, and South Korean troops immediately returned fire, according to an Associated Press report. No injuries were reported, and it was unclear whether the North Korean shots were an accident or were fired intentionally, the AP said. There are no reports of what time the incident took place.
Sharp was visiting a mountainous area Friday afternoon that was the site of some of the bloodiest fighting of the Korean War. He stopped first at a South Korean military observatory at Gachil peak, located above the Punchbowl battle site, an extinct volcanic crater now farmed with cabbage and ginseng. He then flew to nearby Bloody Ridge, the site of one of the fiercest battles of the war.
U.S. Forces Korea spokesman David Oten said the shots were fired “nowhere near where anything could have been related” to Sharp’s visit.
During his three-hour visit, Sharp received briefings about the battles at both sites. At Bloody Ridge, Sharp left the open-air observation deck after the briefing and spoke with reporters from a more sheltered location on the ground because of concerns that he would be vulnerable to a North Korean attack. There was no unusual activity during the visit.
It was Sharp’s first visit to the area where his father had fought during the war. Sharp called the visit “emotional,” and was able to pinpoint ridges where his father, then-Lt. Earl Sharp, was stationed during 1952 and 1953. The general said his father talked little about the war except to describe the cold weather.
Sharp, 57, was born in the United States about six months after his father deployed.
Sharp told reporters that the area was safe, and called on North Korea to end provocations, denuclearize, and apologize for sinking a South Korean warship in March. South Korea has accused North Korea of torpedoing the Cheonan, which the North has steadfastly denied.
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Despite Friday’s incident, previously arranged reunions of hundreds of families separated by the Korean War will go ahead Saturday in the North as scheduled, South Korean Unification Ministry spokesman Chun Hae-sung told The Associated Press.
And earlier this week, officials from North Korea and the United Nations Command met for 90 minutes to discuss an agenda for general-level officer talks about the sinking of the South Korean warship Cheonan, according to the U.N. Command. South Korea has accused North Korea of torpedoing the ship, which North Korea has steadfastly denied. Forty-six sailors died in the incident.
A U.N. Command press release said North Korea declined to hold the talks and “continued to refuse to accept the procedures laid out in the Armistice Agreement for conducting a joint investigation.”
The meeting was the seventh in a series of planning sessions. No further meetings have been scheduled.
rowlanda@pstripes.osd.mil
http://www.stripes.com/news/north-korea-fires-at-dmz-on-same-day-as-sharp-visit-1.123523