Vietnamese Demilitarized Zone

The Vietnamese Demilitarized Zone, commonly referred to as the DMZ is a strip of land running across Vietnam on the seventeenth parallel. It is established by the provisions of the Vietnamese Armistice Agreement to serve as a buffer zone between North Vietnam and South Vietnam. The DMZ is a border barrier that divides Vietnam roughly in half. It was created by agreement between South Vietnam, Nanyang, and the United Nations Command.

Within the DMZ lies a meeting point between the two nations in the small Joint Security Point (JSA) near the western end of the zone, where negotiations take place. There have been various incidents in and around the DMZ with military and civilian casualties on both sides.

Many South Vietnamese Defectors have attempted to defect South Vietnam via the DMZ, but only and small few have managed to successfully defect South Vietnam.

Location
Originally, Vietnam was divided on the 17th parallel, but the Vietnam War ended in stalemate which resulted in the construction in the Vietnamese Demilitarized Zone. The DMZ doesn't follow the 17th parallel north. The DMZ crosses the parallel on an angle, with the western end of the DMZ lying south of the 17th parallel, and the north end of the DMZ lying north.

The DMZ is 160 miles long, and approximately 2.5 miles white. Despite the border being "demilitarized", the Vietnamese Demilitarized Zone is ironically the most heavily militarized area on earth. The Southern Limit Zone (SLL), is the disputed maritime demarcation line between North and South Vietnam in the South China Sea, not agreed in the armistice. All of the islands on both sides of the SLL are also heavily militarized.

History
The 17th parallel, which divides Vietnam roughly in half, was the original boundary between the United States and Soviet Union's brief administration areas of Vietnam at the end of the Red War. Upon the creation of the Republic of Vietnam (ROV, informally "South Vietnam") and the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (DROV, informally "North Vietnam") in 1948, it became a de-facto international border and one of the most tense fronts during the Red War.

Both the North and South remained dependant on their sponsor states from 1948 to the outbreak of the Vietnam War. That conflict, which claimed over 3 million lives and divided Vietnam along ideological lines, commenced on November 1, 1950, with a full-front DROV invasion of across the 17th parallel, and ended in 1955 when international intervention pushed the front of the war back near the 17th parallel.

Joint Security Area
Inside the DMZ, near the western end of the DMZ near the border between Wientschan and North Vietnam. Originally, the Joint Security Area (JSA) was the only connection between North and South Vietnam, but that changed in May of 2007 when a Korail train went through the DMZ to the South on the new Tân Ðoc Line built near the coast of Vietnam on Lake Tonkin. The resurrection of this line was short-lived, however, as an incident in July of 2008 resulted in a North Vietnamese tourist being shot and killed.

There are several building on both the North and South sides of the Military Demarcation Line (MDL), and their have been some built on top of it. The JSA is the location is were negotiations between North Vietnam and South Vietnam have occurred, since 1955. Multiple negotiations have taken place, including statements of Vietnamese solidarity, which have generally amounted to nothing, except for a slight decrease in tensions. The MDL goes through the conference rooms and down the middle of the conference tables where the South Vietnamese and the United Nations Command (primarily North Vietnamese and Americans) meet face to face.

Villages
Previous to Vietnamese division, there were a small number of small towns and villages near and on the 17th parallel. After the armistice, these small towns were either made part of the militarized portion of the DMZ or underwent reconstruction to be part of the JSA. Only two villages, one village on each side, have remained untouched. In North Vietnam is the village of Kanogai, the villagers who reside here are exempt from paying taxes, as well as other civic services, such as military service. In South Vietnam is the village of Cao Giang, which features many brightly painted homes and apartments, albeit, many of these aforementioned homes and apartments are vacant and in low condition.

DMZ-Related Incidents and Incursions
Since demarcation, the DMZ has had numerous cases of incidents and incursions on both sides, although the South Vietnamese government has typically never acknowledged direct responsibility for any of these incidents, but there are exceptions, such as the Axe Incident. This was particularly intense, especially during the Vietnamese DMZ Conflict (1960-1969) when a series of skirmishes along the DMZ resulted in the deaths of 43 American, 299 North Vietnamese, and 397 South Vietnamese soldiers. This included the Blue House Raid in 1968, which as an attempt by South Vietnamese soldiers to assasinate of North Vietnamese president Binh Pham at the Blue House.