The Canadian soldier in charge of maintaining the armistice between the two warring Koreas spends some days yelling through megaphones at North Korea, other days scrambling to stop Chinese fishing boats, and other days still responding to artillery rounds fired into the south.
âThereâs not another unit like this,â Rob Watt, commander of the UN Command Military Armistice Commission, told CTVâs Joy Malbon in in the Demilitarized Zone. âEvery day is different.â
Wattâs latest challenge is preparing to escort U.S. Vice-President Mike Pence as he visits South Korea for Pyeongchang 2018 during a time of heightened tensions between the U.S. and the North Korea over Kim Jong Unâs escalating nuclear weapons program.
Pence plans to bring the father of deceased North Korean captive Otto Warmbier as his guest to the opening ceremonies on Friday. Pence told reporters Wednesday that he will use his trip to âremind the world that North Korea is the most tyrannical and oppressive regime on the planet."
Asked whether heâs worried something will happen at the border, Watt says ânot so much.â While he says the nuclear tests have been âvery important,â they donât appear to translate into different behaviour at the border, he adds.
âI was much more concerned just after I got here when we had the landmine incident and had artillery rounds being fired across the DMZ,â Watt said. âThatâs where weâre very emphatically trying to bring the North Koreans to the table.â
âPlease donât shoot them downâ
Watt says there was a time when the UN command would sit across from the North Koreans at an actual table to solve problems, and they had âquite a number of successful talks.â
âMake no mistake,â he says. âEven when we sit down with them, theyâre often working off a really stilted script. They donât negotiate in the normal sense.â
But, he adds, the two sides now communicate through megaphones to convey such simple things as: âWe need to fly helicopters in to do some firefighting -- please donât shoot them down.â
Watt says heâd like to talk to the north about the âopening of the transport corridors or resolving some of the long-standing issues we've had with military patrols.â
More defectors this year
The job, which Watt calls âfascinating,â also gives him unique insight into how the north is changing. For example, most North Koreans who flee typically do so by crossing into China, but Watt says there have been âmore defectors willing to risk the DMZ this year.â
âComing across the DMZ, youâre risking being shot at by North Korean guards. Youâre risking landmines. It is the riskiest place,â he says. âThe fact that in the past year weâve seen more people willing to take that risk is an indication that something has changed there.â
Watt says he hopes for re-unification of the two Koreas, as difficult as that would be considering they have been at war since 1953, and considering the wide economic gap. South Koreaâs GPD per capita was US$39,400 in 2015, compared to US$1,700 per person in the north.
Still, Watt says the Swedish and Swiss members of the UN command like to toast to the âday when theyâre not required anymore ... I think the same goes for us.â
With an interview by CTVâs Joy Malbon in South Korea
This is the checkpoint - the only road into the DMZ - about a dozen buses carrying the taekwondo demonstration team from the North to the South for the Olympics.
â Joy Malbon (@JoyCTV)
The most dangerous border on earth. The DMZ separating North and South Korea.
â Joy Malbon (@JoyCTV)