How North and South Korea Nearly Went To War Over a Poplar Tree

A strange incident with a sad outcome

(By Originally uploaded by DoubleBlue (Transferred by Grondemar) — Originally uploaded on en.wikipedia, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=17966654)

In August of 1976, a United Nations observer noticed something vexing while looking over the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) along the border separating North and South Korea. There was a tree that was sitting in the middle of an important sight line between the UN checkpoint and a nearby observation tower. Such an obstruction could cause problems, and so it was ordered to be trimmed. It was a mundane task, but nothing in the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) is simple, and things rarely go as expected.

A mixed group of Korean and American men entered the Joint Security Area, the overlapping zone where North and South Koreans can enter freely, with the purpose of simply trimming the tree. The date was August 18, 1976, and the squad was led by two American officers tasked with overseeing the work. Weapons are forbidden in the Joint Security Area (JSA), so the men only carried simple mattocks and hand axes, which they were going to use to clear the sight lines.

The men approached the large poplar tree and began to hack away at its obstructing branches. Then, a group of fifteen North Korean soldiers appeared and began watching the ordeal. Sources say that they watched quietly for fifteen minutes, as was their right, before telling the group…