A dense fog shrouds Panmunjom

At dawn of Nov. 24, 1996, Kim Jong Il arrived at Panmunjom, which lies on the Military Demarcation Line dividing the Korean peninsula into north and south.

It was remarkable that Kim Jong Il would go there, considering that a military stand-off between the DPRK and the United Sates had continued since the end of the Korean war in 1953 and that the provocations along the Military Demarcation Line.

As he and his entourage approached Panmunjom, a dense fog began to settle on the area.

The enemy always has its guns leveled at Panmunjom, yet while inspecting the area, he was at times no farther than 20-30 meters away from an enemy post. He stayed there for a long time, and all the while the dense fog held, enveloping him.

As he was leaving Panmunjom at the end of his inspection, the fog cleared all of a sudden.

The U.S. and south Korean military authorities, when they later learned of his inspection, were struck dumb. A former Korean Armistice Commission Secretary of the UN Forces said to the delegates of the Korean People’s Army:

“On the morning of November 27, when the news that your Supreme Commander had inspected Panmunjom was broadcast, my commander (commander of the U.S. 8th Army) called me and reprimanded me, asking why I was ignorant of the fact even though I was in Panmunjom at the time. I said it was impossible to detect anything because of the dense fog. He could not say anything more. It seems your Supreme Commander used magic to summon the fog. It is very mysterious.”