CHOE SANG-HUN2026年10月28日周一，韩国金浦的一处观景台，可见看到朝鲜士兵正在修建带刺铁丝网边境围栏。 Kim Hong-Ji/ReutersLast month, three South Korean soldiers were injured in land mine explosions on the western edge of the boundary with North Korea. The blasts were followed by angry exchanges between the two governments, military warning shots and an elevated risk of armed clashes.上个月，在与朝鲜接壤的边界西端，三名韩国士兵因地雷爆炸受伤。爆炸发生后，两国政府之间爆发了激烈交锋，双方军队进行了警告射击，爆发武装冲突的风险随之升高。Fueling these tensions is a deceptively simple question: Where, exactly, does the line dividing the two countries lie?加剧这些紧张局势的是一个看似简单却暗藏玄机的问题：两国之间的分界线究竟在哪里？South Korea says the mines were laid in its territory by North Korea, which rejects the claim and accuses the South of fabricating the episode. This week, North Korea moved artillery pieces out of hiding along its western coastal border and pointed them south, a show of force it has often used during periods of heightened tensions.韩国称，这些地雷是朝鲜在其领土上埋设的。朝鲜拒绝这一说法，并指责韩国捏造了这一事件。本周，朝鲜将其西部沿海边境的火炮从隐蔽处调出并指向南方，这是它在紧张局势加剧时期经常使用的武力展示手段。“If a jackboot or a spark of fire from the Republic of Korea goes even a millimeter beyond the border to violate our territory, our border guard forces will take immediate and powerful counteraction,” North Korea warned earlier this month, using South Korea’s official name.“如果大韩民国的一只军靴或一点火花越过边界哪怕一毫米，侵犯我国领土，我们的边防部队将立即采取强有力的反制行动，”朝鲜本月早些时候警告称，并使用了韩国的官方名称。Historians often describe the Korean border as the final flashpoint of the Cold War. Nearly two million troops stand ready to resume the Korean War, which was halted 73 years ago by a truce. Yet the boundary has never been clearly delineated, let alone with the precision implied by North Korea’s warning about a millimeter.历史学家常把朝鲜半岛边境描述为冷战的最后一个冲突点。近200万军队随时准备重启73年前因停战协定而暂停的朝鲜战争。然而，边界从未被明确划定，更遑论像朝鲜所警告的那样精确到毫米。从金浦望去，一门朝鲜的122毫米自行榴弹炮部署在与韩国接壤的边界附近。When the American-led United Nations Command, North Korea and China signed the 1953 armistice, they established a 2.5-mile-wide buffer known as the Demilitarized Zone, or DMZ. Through its center, they drew the 150-mile-long Military Demarcation Line, or MDL, a temporary divider to keep opposing forces apart as long as the truce lasted. Because the war was never formally resolved with a peace treaty, the MDL was never intended to be an official international border.当美国领导的联合国军司令部、朝鲜和中国签署1953年停战协定时，建立了一个宽四公里的缓冲区，称为非军事区。在非军事区中心划定了约248公里长的军事分界线，这是一条临时分界线，在停战协定持续期间将敌对双方部队隔开。由于战争从未以和平条约正式解决，军事分界线原本就并非作为正式的国际边界而设立。But the MDL was drawn by hand in pencil on a 1:50,000-scale map attached to the armistice agreement. On the ground, that pencil stroke translated into a fuzzy strip about 165 feet wide. To clarify the boundary, the warring parties installed 1,292 yellow temporary markers across hills, valleys and marshes to indicate the MDL’s location. They maintained the markers regularly until 1973, when a bloody clash during a repair operation left dozens of soldiers dead on both sides.但军事分界线是用铅笔手绘在附于停战协定的1:50,000比例地图上的。在实地，这道铅笔线转化为一条大约500米的模糊地带。为澄清边界，交战各方在山丘、山谷和沼泽中安装了1292个黄色临时标记，以指示军事分界线的位置。他们定期维护这些标记，直到1973年，一次维修行动中的血腥冲突导致双方数十名士兵死亡。Yellow Flags黄旗In the decades since, most of those markers have vanished, swallowed by winds, rains, floods and landslides. Today fewer than 200 rusting posts remain, leaving the MDL virtually indistinguishable. Both sides developed their own versions of the line without sharing them. Instead, they spent years accusing each other’s troops of repeated border incursions.此后几十年，大多数标记已经消失，被风雨、洪水和山体滑坡吞没。如今只剩下不到200根锈迹斑斑的柱子，使军事分界线几乎无法辨认。双方各自发展了自己版本的边界线，却不与对方分享。相反，他们多年来一直指责对方军队屡次越界。The depth of this confusion became clear in 2018. During a brief thaw in inter-Korean relations, both militaries agreed to demolish several guard posts within the DMZ to lower tensions. When officers from both sides tried to meet on the boundary to inspect the work, they could not agree on where that boundary actually was. Nor could they share common geolocation coordinates because they used different satellite systems: South Korea used the American-operated GPS, while North Korea relied on the Russian-owned Glonass.这种混乱的严重程度在2018年变得清晰。在朝韩关系短暂缓和期间，两国军方同意拆除非军事区内几个哨所，以缓和紧张局势。当双方军官试图在边界会面检查工作时，他们无法就边界实际位置达成一致。双方也无法共享共同的地理位置坐标，因为他们使用不同的卫星系统：韩国使用美国运营的GPS，朝鲜则依赖俄罗斯拥有的格洛纳斯系统。“So we had to raise yellow flags” at proposed meeting spots, recalled Cho Yong Kun, a former North Korea policy coordinator at South Korea’s Defense Ministry. “There is no MDL inside the DMZ.”“所以我们不得不在提议的会面地点升起黄旗，”韩国国防部前朝鲜政策协调员赵容根（音）回忆说。“非军事区内没有军事分界线。”2018年，位于铁原郡的韩国版军事分界线。The stakes soared after North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong-un, labeled South Korea as his country’s “most hostile enemy state” in 2023, and the following year, ordered his military to fortify the southern border, meaning the version the North had drawn for itself.2023年，朝鲜领导人金正恩将韩国称为朝鲜的“最敌对的敌国”，局势随后骤然升级；次年，他下令军队加固南部边境，即朝鲜自行划定的边境线。North Korean troops moved into the DMZ, constructing new military roads, barbed-wire fences, concrete barriers, guard posts and minefields along the length of its version of the MDL. In several locations, the South Korean military spotted North Korean soldiers planting anti-personnel mines dozens of feet south of what it considered the correct MDL.朝鲜军队进入非军事区，沿着其单方面划定的军事分界线，全线修建新的军事道路、铁丝网围栏、混凝土屏障、哨所和雷区。在几个地点，韩国军方发现朝鲜士兵在其认定正确的军事分界线以南数十米处埋设杀伤人员地雷。“According to our manuals, we broadcast warnings when they approached the MDL and fired warning shots when they crossed it,” said Brig. Gen. Kim Sung Yoon, a chief of intelligence analysis at the South Korean military. “When we did that, we saw them consulting their own map, but they did not appear to believe they had violated the MDL.”“根据我们的手册，当他们接近军事分界线时，我们广播警告；当他们越过时，我们鸣枪示警，”韩国军方情报分析负责人金成允（音）准将说。“当我们采取这些行动时，看到他们正在查阅自己的地图，但他们似乎并不认为自己违反了军事分界线。”North Korea has also deployed increasingly powerful artillery and missile systems, some capable of carrying nuclear warheads, transforming the border into an even more formidable military divide.朝鲜还部署了越来越强大的火炮和导弹系统，其中部分系统能够携带核弹头，将边境变成更加难以逾越的军事分界。‘Firing Positions’“射击阵地”The MDL conundrum had devastating consequences on Sept. 21, when 18 South Korean troops ventured into a lush wilderness inside the DMZ where no South Korean soldier had set foot for decades. They were tasked with clearing a path and sweeping for mines so that United Nations officials could inspect an area where North Korea was suspected of planting mines in the South’s territory. They had just reached the site when two mines exploded. Three soldiers were injured, including a battalion commander who lost his left foot.9月21日，军事分界线难题造成了毁灭性后果。18名韩国士兵冒险进入非军事区内一片茂密的荒野，几十年来没有韩国士兵踏足那里。他们的任务是清理道路并扫雷，以便联合国官员能够检查朝鲜涉嫌在韩国领土埋设地雷的地区。他们刚到达现场，两枚地雷就爆炸了。三名士兵受伤，其中一名营长左脚被炸断。South Korea accused the North of planting the mines on its side of the border and demanded an apology. Its military warned that the North must clear the explosives or the South would remove them itself and “take firm punitive action” if the North interfered.韩国指责朝鲜在韩国一侧边界埋设地雷，并要求道歉。其军方警告，朝鲜必须清除爆炸物，否则韩国将自己清除，如果朝鲜干涉，将“采取坚决惩罚行动”。Pyongyang dismissed the claims as a “farce” and warned the South that its “new firepower units have taken their firing positions.”平壤将这些说法斥为“闹剧”，并警告韩国，“新的火力部队已进入发射阵地”。North Korea’s aggressive engineering inside the DMZ appears aimed at hardening a temporary truce line into a permanent, official border, according to Hong Min, an analyst at the Seoul-based Korea Institute for National Unification.首尔韩国统一研究院分析师洪敏（音）说，朝鲜在非军事区内的激进工程似乎旨在将临时停战线固化为永久、正式的边界。朝鲜国家媒体发布的一张照片显示，金与正等朝鲜官员正在朝鲜某未公开地点的边境附近视察军事阵地。That analysis aligns with Mr. Kim’s new doctrine of total isolation from South Korea. By no longer treating the South as a partner for eventual reunification, but as an enemy state to be shunned, contained and defeated — with nuclear weapons, if necessary — Mr. Kim can more easily justify expanding his nuclear arsenal and shielding his citizens from South Korea’s cultural influence.这一分析符合金正恩与韩国彻底隔绝韩国的新方针。通过不再将韩国视为最终统一的伙伴，而是视为应被回避、遏制和击败的敌国——必要时使用核武器——金正恩可以更容易地为扩大核武库、让公民免受韩国文化影响而辩护。North Korea has ignored an offer for dialogue. Instead, it has vowed to push forward with its border fortifications, threatening to resume psychological warfare with loudspeakers if South Korea continued to harass North Korean troops working along the border with warning broadcasts.朝鲜无视对话提议。相反，它誓言推进边境加固，威胁如果韩国继续用警告广播骚扰在边境工作的朝鲜军队，将重启扩音器心理战。The North’s goal is to make the border “eternally impregnable” against “the most despicable and disgusting enemy in the world,” Kim Yo-jong, the North Korean leader’s sister and regime spokeswoman, said last week.朝鲜领导人金正恩的妹妹、政权发言人金与正上周说，朝鲜的目标是，面对“世界上最卑鄙、最令人厌恶的敌人”时，让边境变得“永远坚不可摧”。Choe Sang-Hun是时报驻首尔首席记者，报道韩国和朝鲜新闻。翻译：晋其角点击查看本文英文版。