Take that Kim Jong!

[aelf]

Are you being deliberately obtuse? Of course they're armed when they're guarding the border. But they had an agreement with the NKPA to enter the zone to trim the tree. Naturally they did not carry weapons in so as not to provoke a fight. Yet they were attacked anyway.

No, it's not exactly my fault that you didn't specify in your pet example that they went unarmed as part of an agreement.

 

[timtofly]

That is not exactly what transpired. The incident happened in the Joint Security Area which is where the negotiations between both sides occur. Both sides were allowed only 5 armed officers and 30 armed enlisted soldiers at any time in that zone. This meant the two officers and enlisted personnel who were to trim the tree were not armed.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Axe_murder_incident

The trimming of the tree was decided upon and agreed to by both sides because it partially hid one UN observation post from the other. OTOH Operation Paul Bunyan, which occurred as a result, was a secret operation using overwhelming firepower in case there was a similar incident. Instead of merely trimming the tree, they chopped it down with chainsaws.

If they had chain saws, then they were armed.

 

[Formaldehyde]

That was the second group, which also had full air support as well as being heavily armed.

The first group also had axes to trim the tree. That is what those two officers were ostensibly murdered with.

But in this context, "armed" obviously means with firearms. See the Wiki article for more details.

 

[kochman]

If it wasn't for the US, Korea would not have been split in half in the first place.

You are right, they would be a unified mess lead by N Korea which would have crushed the S without our help, instead of having a South capable of now defending itself on its own.
I really wish we'd just get out of there and let the locals handle it though.