Qualla: Joint Security Area https://qualla.com/joint-security-area en-us © 2026 Bendyline Mon, 20 Jul 2026 10:21:39 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/w/y/d/p/joint-security-area-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: Joint Security Area https://qualla.com/joint-security-area Joint Security Area: Introduction https://qualla.com/joint-security-area/ Photo credit AndrewvdBK (talk), CC BY 3.0. Step across a concrete curb at Panmunjom and you are in another country. No passport control, no customs hall, no border fence -- just a low slab of concrete running between a row of blue conference buildings where, for decades, soldiers from the world's most hostile standoff stared at each other from arm's length. The Joint Security Area is the only place along the 250-kilometer Korean Demilitarized Zone where North and South Korean forces stood face-to-face without any buffer. Since 2018, even that proximity has softened: the JSA's landmines have been removed, its weapons withdrawn, and its guard posts dismantled. What remains is 35 unarmed security personnel and a collection of buildings where some of the Cold War's tensest negotiations took place.

Read more: Joint Security Area on Qualla

Image: AndrewvdBK (talk) | CC BY 3.0

]]> Sat, 14 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/w/y/d/p/joint-security-area-wp/wydp-joint-security-area-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Joint Security Area: The Geometry of Distrust https://qualla.com/joint-security-area/ Photo credit Clay Gilliland, CC BY-SA 2.0. The JSA occupies roughly 800 meters of the DMZ on both sides of the Military Demarcation Line. Its layout is deceptively simple: a row of sky-blue conference buildings straddling the border, flanked by larger structures on each side. The blue buildings belong to the United Nation...

Read more: Joint Security Area on Qualla

Image: Clay Gilliland | CC BY-SA 2.0

]]> Sat, 14 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/w/y/d/p/joint-security-area-wp/wydp-joint-security-area-the-geometry-of-distrust.mp3 0:06 2 full Joint Security Area: Flashpoints and Near-Misses https://qualla.com/joint-security-area/ Photo credit Gilad Rom, CC BY 2.5. The JSA's history reads like a catalog of crises that could have reignited the Korean War. In August 1976, North Korean soldiers killed two American officers, Captain Arthur Bonifas and First Lieutenant Mark Barrett, with axes during a dispute over pruning a poplar tree -- an inc...

Read more: Joint Security Area on Qualla

Image: Gilad Rom | CC BY 2.5

]]> Sat, 14 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/w/y/d/p/joint-security-area-wp/wydp-joint-security-area-flashpoints-and-near-misses.mp3 0:06 3 full Joint Security Area: Summits in the Space Between https://qualla.com/joint-security-area/ Photo credit The White House from Washington, DC, Public domain. The same ground where soldiers were killed has also hosted the Korean peninsula's most hopeful moments. On April 27, 2018, South Korean President Moon Jae-in and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un met at the JSA for the first inter-Korean summit held on the southern side of the dema...

Read more: Joint Security Area on Qualla

Image: The White House from Washington, DC | Public domain

]]> Sat, 14 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/w/y/d/p/joint-security-area-wp/wydp-joint-security-area-summits-in-the-space-between.mp3 0:06 4 full Joint Security Area: Disarming the Last Shared Space https://qualla.com/joint-security-area/ Photo credit Andrew Currie from Toronto, Canada, CC BY 2.0. Following the 2018 summit, North and South Korean officials agreed to transform the JSA. By October 25, 2018, all landmines within the area had been cleared, all weapons and guard posts removed. The JSA was reduced to 35 unarmed security guards -- a remarkable change for a place ...

Read more: Joint Security Area on Qualla

Image: Andrew Currie from Toronto, Canada | CC BY 2.0

]]> Sat, 14 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/w/y/d/p/joint-security-area-wp/wydp-joint-security-area-disarming-the-last-shared-space.mp3 0:06 5 full