management

Feb. 6 (Asia Today) — South Korea’s Defense Ministry said Thursday it is consulting with the United Nations Command on ways to manage the Demilitarized Zone more effectively.

A ministry official told reporters that discussions on improving and streamlining DMZ management have been under way at the working level since early this year, following the inauguration of Defense Minister Ahn Kyu-baek.

Media reports earlier indicated that the ministry has proposed a revised jurisdictional arrangement within the southern section of the DMZ. Under the proposal, areas north of the existing fence would remain under the UN Command’s authority, while areas south of the fence would be managed by the South Korean military.

The DMZ extends 2 kilometers south of the Military Demarcation Line, forming the southern DMZ zone. Although the fence was originally intended to follow the Southern Limit Line marking that boundary, it was installed slightly farther north to facilitate surveillance and guard operations against North Korea.

As a result, the area south of the fence accounts for about 30% of the southern DMZ zone, according to the ministry.

The Defense Ministry is expected to raise the issue of DMZ management formally with the U.S. side, which holds command authority over the UN Command, later this year. Officials said Seoul has also proposed addressing the issue through bilateral defense consultative frameworks, including the Korea-U.S. Integrated Defense Dialogue and the Security Consultative Meeting.

The ministry emphasized that discussions with the UN Command remain at an early, working-level stage. “We will provide further explanations as talks progress,” the official said.

— Reported by Asia Today; translated by UPI

© Asia Today. Unauthorized reproduction or redistribution prohibited.

Original Korean report: https://www.asiatoday.co.kr/kn/view.php?key=20260206010002476

The defense ministry has proposed to the United States that South Korea’s military jointly manage parts of the southern half of the heavily fortified Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) separating the two Koreas, a source said Thursday.

The proposal came as the South Korean government aims to secure control of civilian access to the 250-kilometer-long, 4-km-wide stretch of the DMZ. Currently, the U.S.-led U.N. Command (UNC) administers the military buffer zone as the south-side enforcer of the armistice that ended the 1950-53 Korean War.

Amid the UNC’s outright objection to Seoul’s move, the defense ministry proposed a measure under which South Korea’s military oversees entry to parts of areas located south of the barbed-wire fence within the DMZ.

The South’s fence technically runs alongside the southern boundary of the DMZ, or the Southern Limit Line (SLL), located 2 km south of the Military Demarcation Line, the inter-Korean border.

But parts of the fence were installed north of the SLL to overcome geographic limitations for surveillance operations. The size of the area is known to account for roughly 30 percent of the southern half of the DMZ.

In addition to making the request to the UNC, the ministry also seeks to include the issue as an agenda item in bilateral defense talks, such as the Korea-U.S. Integrated Defense Dialogue and the Security Consultative Meeting, the source said.

The issue of DMZ access control has come into the spotlight since Unification Minister Chung Dong-young voiced his support for pending bills seeking to grant the South Korean government control of nonmilitary access to the DMZ.

Chung has also vowed to restore three sectors of the DMZ Peace Trail, which are situated within the DMZ, as part of the Lee Jae Myung government’s push to restore inter-Korean trust.

The UNC has voiced strong opposition against the pending bills, saying they are “completely at odds” with the armistice agreement.

“If the legislation passes, a rational, logical, legal interpretation is that the ROK government has removed itself from the armistice and is no longer bound by it,” a UNC official told reporters last month, referring to South Korea by the acronym of its formal name, the Republic of Korea.

In a rare statement issued in December, the UNC also stressed that it has been the “successful administrator” of the DMZ since 1953 to ensure that “military and civilian movements within the DMZ and other activities uphold the terms and the spirit of the armistice in the interest of stability.”

Copyright (c) Yonhap News Agency prohibits its content from being redistributed or reprinted without consent, and forbids the content from being learned and used by artificial intelligence systems.

As the Writers Guild of America West prepares to negotiate a new contract with major studios, its staff union has authorized a strike of its own.

The labor group’s staff union (WGSU), which includes attorneys, research analysts and other positions, claims that “management has dismissed [its] staff’s needs and engaged in bad faith surface bargaining with no intent to reach a fair contract.” According to the union’s social media post, 82% of its members voted to authorize a strike.

The union wrote that 100 members participated in the vote, “demonstrating our unity and commitment to winning a fair contract. If management won’t bargain in good faith with us at the table, we will see them on the picket line.”

With a strike authorization vote, a strike is not guaranteed, but it gives union leaders the power to call one if needed.

WGSU claims it has been negotiating with the union since last September. The pending contract, according to a flier from the union, deals with issues such as AI protections, pay raises and “basic protections” like grievance procedures.

WGA has denied these claims, arguing that the union has offered “comprehensive proposals with numerous union protections and improvements to compensation and benefits.”

“Public claims suggesting otherwise are inaccurate, and allegations of unfair labor practices are without merit. WGAW respects the staff’s right to engage in collective activity, and hopes to reach a first contract agreement with the staff union soon,” wrote a union spokesperson in a statement.

In response to the strike authorization, WGA West also released a four-page comparison of the proposals and counterproposals on Thursday. The document shows management has offered a minimum annual salary of $55,000 and the staff union is asking for a minimum of $59,737.

The Writers Guild made headlines in 2023 for the second-longest strike in the union’s history. At the time, film and TV writers were boycotting major studios and fighting for fair compensation. WGA West staffers also played a key role in the strike, as they too joined the picketing lines.

A contract was settled after a 148-day work stoppage, but it’s set to expire on May 1. The strike authorization vote comes as the WGA’s east and west coast groups get ready to once again sit down with major movie studios and streaming companies. Negotiations between the guild and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers are expected to begin March 16.