Hello you're listening to the Witness Podcast with me Rachel Gilman.

I'm taking you back to 1976 and a military incident that took place in the

DMZ, a stretch of land that separates communist North Korea and US-backed South Korea.

I've been speaking to a US Army veteran who remembers how trimming a tree resulted in the killing

of two American soldiers.

It was a real cultural shock when I got to Korea.

I got off the plane.

The smell was different from anything I'd ever smelled before.

And from where I was, my base was, you could see all this and

you could see into the DMZ and you also at night you could hear music playing.

The North Koreans always played music.

And what did it sound like?

Kind of eerie.

It's really eerie. Jugin Bickley was a 23 year old U.S. infantry soldier when he arrived in South Korea

on his first overseas assignment.

To help protect South Korea against attack by the North America has 30,000 troops here.

Tension is still very high.

Tension was probably highest around the DMZ, the demilitarized zone which stretches for 250

kilometers across the Korean peninsula. A no man's land, it was established in

1953 at the end of the Korean War to provide a barrier between the North and the South.

Clashes and incurgents between the two sides were common. The only part of the zone where soldiers from both sides actually came face to face

was the joint security area in the Western section of the zone.

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