North and South Korea enters each other’s territory

North and South Korean officials inspected work to ease tension on their militarized border on Wednesday, checking on the demolition of bunkers and probing for secret tunnels, despite scant progress on persuading the North to give up nuclear arms.

Moon said the removal of the border guard posts and Wednesday’s two-way verification exercise marked a “new milestone” in the 65-year division of the peninsula.

“It’s something we couldn’t even imagine in the past that the South and the North build trails in the Demilitarized Zone where they confronted each other, and pull out the guard posts and transparently verify it,” Moon told aides after watching a broadcast of the inspection.

Soldiers from North and South Korea crossed into each other's territory peacefully for the first time, Seoul said, as they began checking the dismantlement of guard posts in the Demilitarized Zone.

The North invaded the South in 1950, triggering the Korean War, and Seoul went on to change hands four times as Pyongyang's Chinese-backed forces and the US-led UN troops supporting the South fought their way up and down the peninsula and back again.

Live video footage showed soldiers equipped with telescopes and other equipment gathered at the Military Demarcation Line then crossing the border together to visit the demolished posts on both sides.

The soldiers checked that all firearms, personnel and lookout posts were removed, and tunnels and other facilities destroyed, the South’s defense ministry said.

The atmosphere was “cordial” and soldiers chatted and shared cigarettes, Moon’s spokesman said.

Moon is hoping to host Kim in Seoul for their fourth summit, perhaps as early as this month, but North Korea has been aloof amid stalled nuclear talks with the United States.

North and South Korea are technically still at war because the 1950-53 Korean War ended in a truce, not a peace treaty.

Kim and Trump vowed in their June talks in Singapore to work toward denuclearization, but they have made little progress.