Re: Turncoats

[James Dennis <jrdennis@earthlink.net>]

>How did these G.I.s defect?
>Did they walk across the DMZ?
>How did they avoid the landmines in the DMZ?
>
>John
>
The Military Demarkation Line consists of a bunch of yellow signs with 
English and Korean on one side (south) and th Chinese and Korean on the 
other (north).   They are generally overgrown by brush and were rusted 
over (but in August/Sept 1-31 Inf put new ones up in what was then the 
American sector, about 1.4 miles of MDL near Panmunjon).

The South and North Barrier Fences are where "fortifications" can 
supposedly be built, but in reality both sides have platoon size guard 
posts in the DMZ.  Both sides are restricted from having crew served or 
"automatic" weapons in the DMZ.  The AKs and M-16 have been allowed even 
though they are automatic.  Individual infantry weapons have changed over 
the years.  

The Minefields in the DMZ when I was the 3d Bde S-2 ('84) were generally 
laid in 1952 (older than I).   The minefields south of the South Barrier 
Fence could have been any age.  In many cases the mines were being eroded 
out of the ground (and you could see anti-tank and anti-personnel mines 
laying on their sides in some gulleys. ).  Minefields in the Korean War 
were generally poorly marked.  There is a book on Combat Support/Service 
Support in the Korean War and in the Engineer section discusses that 1.5 
million mines were laid by the UN and about 50 or so thousand were 
accurately marked and recorded.  The minefields in the DMZ were overgrown 
with 25+ year old trees, brush, grass and they had a white tape (dirty) 
laying on concertina wire (partially flattened).   One of the days were 
were looking at the mine boundary we had a deer skip through the 
minefield (no result) and you could see paths (animal and human) going 
through them.   But if you used your binoculars, sometimes, you could 
still see three little prongs sticking up from the dirt in that tangle of 
brush.   

To cut down on the brush, the South Koreans would set the brush on fire 
and it would burn merrily along in the DMZ.   The North Koreans have in 
many cases moved rice paddies and other farm plots in to the DMZ and they 
are worked by the DMZ Police or very reliable NK citizens.  

The North Koreans have put in some obstacles but they are more for 
alerting them that someone has tried to enter.  This could be mines, but 
more often it was "sand barriers" where the NKs could more easily detect 
foot prints in the carefully raked sand.   They used to mystify engineers 
who were thinking of actually stopping something as opposed to showing 
someone came through.  (North Korean OPFOR manuals weren't that well 
written at times).   

As I recall on White's defection it took the NKs about 6 hours to find 
him (he left at night).   It was dark (an understatement) and White 
wandered all over the place before he actually crossed and possibly 
recrossed the MDL, before he was detained.