Peacekeepers at the Demilitarized Zone dividing the Koreas say their job is getting more complex amid evolving threats.
Panmunjom, South Korea – With a collection of Swiss army knives, a chopping block surrounded by firewood and a cowbell hanging outside the front door, Major General Ivo Burgener’s home would not feel out of place in the Swiss Alps.
But despite the peaceful atmosphere, this is no ordinary house.
As a delegate to the Neutral Nations Supervisory Commission (NNSC), Burgener lives in one of the most heavily militarised regions of the world, just metres from the North Korean border.
Established at the end of the Korean War in 1953, the NNSC was tasked with monitoring adherence to the armistice agreement signed by China, North Korea and the United States to bring a halt to the fighting until a permanent peace treaty could be signed.
But that treaty never came. To this day, South and North Korea remain technically at war. And living deep inside the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) that splits the Korean Peninsula, NNSC delegates continue to monitor the uneasy truce that has lasted to this day.
More than 70 years on, they find themselves facing a new set of challenges. With evolving technology and modern weapons posing new threats, and relations across the increasingly militarised border at a low, delegates describe their work as more vital than ever.
“The more armistice violations there are, the more important it is to have a neutral and independent institution,” Burgener told Al Jazeera. “It demonstrates that the NNSC is all the more important.”
Just outside the DMZ, NNSC Secretary Major Luca Meli, also a Swissman, removes his beret as he enters a hut in Camp Greaves. Formerly a US military base, the complex now hosts an exhibition outlining the commission’s history.
The NNSC was originally composed of delegates from four nations.
Switzerland and Sweden were selected to monitor armistice adherence by the United Nations Command, a multi-state military organisation formed to support South Korea during the war.
North Korea and the Chinese People’s Volunteers, who had supported Pyongyang, chose Poland and Czechoslovakia.
But following the breakup of Czechoslovakia and with Poland shifting closer to the West, things changed. By 1995, neither Polish, Czech nor Slovakian delegates were welcome in North Korea.
“The north doesn’t recognise the NNSC any more,” Meli told Al Jazeera.
Although Poland sends a delegation to South Korea twice a year, only Switzerland and Sweden have maintained a constant presence in the DMZ.
Thanks to this presence, the NNSC’s access in the South has grown in recent years, Burgener said.
From guard posts to live fire military exercises, “there’s nothing we can’t observe”, he said.
But with the commission frozen out by Pyongyang, monitoring North Korea’s armistice adherence is more difficult.
This is especially worrying when tensions across the peninsula are high.
In recent weeks, North Korea has sent more than 2,000 balloons filled with dirt and rubbish towards their southern neighbour.
And with both sides moving away from the 2018 Comprehensive Military Agreement (CMA), aimed at making the DMZ safer, delegates report increasing militarisation on both sides of the border.
Back at the Swiss camp, with a view of North Korea visible through the window, the sound of an explosion interrupts Al Jazeera’s interview with Burgener.
With North Korean soldiers actively laying minefields and engaging in construction work, delegates now report hearing detonations like this coming from the northern side on an almost daily basis.
Just last month, Seoul also reported that North Korean troops had accidentally strayed across the de facto border on three occasions, prompting warning shots from South Korea.
While NNSC delegates maintain that the situation on the border is relatively stable, with increasing soldiers, construction activities and weapons on both sides of the demarcation line, the risk of an accidental escalation has increased, Burgener said.
“The biggest risk is that a misunderstanding, an unwanted shot, a warning shot that accidentally injures someone, could lead to an escalation,” he said.
But with the commission banned from Pyongyang, channels of communication that could otherwise prevent escalation remain limited.
“We wish there were two NNSC nations in the North that we could enter dialogue with,” Burgener added, referring to the previous presence of Czech and Polish soldiers on the North Korean side of the border.
“Dialogue is missing, that leads to more uncertainty, and that increases the risks.”
Pulling out a small blue and white bound copy of the armistice from his military fatigues, Burgener explained that in the decades since it was signed, the threats across the border have also evolved.
“This was written during a time of conventional warfare,” he said. “Today, we have entirely different challenges, with ballistic missiles, nuclear threats, cyberspace.”
After decades of research and investment, as well as numerous cyber-operations aimed at stealing cryptocurrency and nuclear arms intelligence, Pyongyang is believed to possess some 50 nuclear warheads, according to an estimate by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI).
While nuclear weapons raise the stakes of a potential escalation, the advent of cyberspace has simultaneously made monitoring these escalations more difficult.
“In the armistice, nothing is written about cyber-operations. But now in 2024, cyberspace and cyber-operations are really important,” Meli said.
In 2023, Microsoft’s Digital Defense Report listed South Korea as the most targeted nation in the Asia Pacific for cyberattacks by Russia, China, Iran and North Korea.
While South Korea is on the receiving end of near-daily cyberattacks, the nature of the attacks makes it difficult to monitor and ascertain responsibility, according to Kim Youngjun, a professor at the Korea National Defense University.
“It is a difficult issue, to find who is the hacker behind the cyberattacks,” Kim told Al Jazeera.
That makes enforcing a 70-year armistice signed before these advances in technology increasingly complicated.
“I’m convinced that at some point, we’ll have a case where we have to ask ourselves whether this is a first step to a war,” Burgener said.
“A cyber-related incident that leads to injuries or death, where you ask: Where did this come from, who is responsible?’ And is it a first step towards a conflict.
“Then the question will be… is the NNSC also ready to inspect and conduct an investigation?” he added.
Although delegates stick by the “letter of the armistice”, as the nature of threats across the border has changed, so have their roles.
Some 65km (40 miles) south of Seoul, Lieutenant Colonel Livio Räber strikes a lonely figure as he makes his way through Camp Humphreys.
Home to most of the 28,000-odd US troops based in South Korea, it is the largest US military base located overseas. With the Swiss flag and NNSC insignia emblazoned on his uniform, Räber stands out from the American soldiers surrounding him.
While the NNSC was initially tasked with ensuring that neither side was increasing militarisation, as the operations officer of the NNSC, Räber now oversees military drills and provides impartial assessments to soldiers stationed in South Korea.
With several armistice violations occurring in recent weeks, his daily life is now also increasingly interrupted by “special investigations” into these incidents. Standing at the camp’s entrance, Räber explained that he carries a “go bag” with him at all times, in case he is called into the DMZ at short notice.
In addition to working in the field, Räber is closely involved in educating soldiers about the armistice.
“Every day I’m out in the DMZ, my biggest goal is education,” Räber told Al Jazeera.
With Korean guards facing off across a growingly militarised border, snap decisions about how to engage with soldiers on the other side can have significant consequences.
Back at the Swiss camp, Burgener explained that education can help soldiers avoid unnecessary escalation.
“They have to consider whether something is proportionate behaviour – is it de-escalatory, is it self-defence or not?” Burgener said.
While delegates stress that soldiers from both sides of the DMZ largely stick to the armistice agreement, they know that the situation could change in seconds.
“The DMZ in Korea is one of the most militarised de-militarised zones in the world,” Räber said.
“Only a spark is needed to create a big fire.”
With diplomatic relations between the Koreas at a low, and tensions running high, monitoring that uneasy peace is especially crucial now, Räber said.
“Our presence here, and our work, is more important than ever,” he said.
