British Army commander in Korea DMZ 'feared war would be declared twice'

The British Army general responsible for helping to maintain the peace in the demilitarised zone between North and South Korea has revealed how he believed war would break out on two occasions.

Lieutenant General Andrew Harrison, the Deputy Commander of United Nations Command, said: "So twice during my year and a half, I have genuinely thought 'wow we are going to war'."

The US-led UNC operates to secure a lasting peace on the Korean peninsula by enforcing the 1953 Armistice Agreement which was designed to ensure the complete cessation of hostilities.

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Lt Gen Harrison said: "I think that’s really difficult to visualise or understand from the UK because we have so little understanding of what's happening in Korea.

"We have so little understanding of the huge tension that exists between the North and the South and we consistently refer to 70 years of peace since the armistice, but actually over 700 servicemen and women have died since the end of the war.

"IEDs planted by the North are still exploding on regular occasions, so if one perceives that this is a peaceful scenario, for some of the time it is, but you are always on that knife edge where one incident could lead to another that could rapidly escalate to major conflict."

According to US officials, Russia is turning to North Korea to replenish the arms supplies that have been run down by the conflict in Ukraine.

Tensions rose earlier this year after North Korea fired an intercontinental ballistic missile towards Japan, a day after Pyongyang warned the US about its alleged use of spy planes.

"Every week something happens, it might be a forest fire where we have to get helicopters in to put the fire out, it could be one of the millions of unexploded ordnance or IEDs that are up there initiating and causing casualties, it could be a potential breach, it could be a defector," Lt Gen Harrison explained.

"I never know quite what I’m going to be dealing with in the morning when the phone goes or in the middle of the night when the phone goes.

"And you never know what is going to be a simple, tactical problem to solve, and what is something that is going to be of strategic importance that could explode, either literally or in the media context, into a regional, national or global issue."

The level of tension on the Korean peninsula has remained high since 2017 when North Korea began a series of nuclear and missile tests. The country has also been testing ballistic missiles frequently since 2019.