The following teaser is from an AP story posted at mainichi.jp:
PAJU, South Korea (AP) — Just south of the Demilitarized Zone, hundreds of identical wooden grave markers poke out of the grass on a hill surrounded by rice paddies and trees, North Korea’s dark mountains visible in the distance. Some are rotting; some have been knocked to the dirt; most have no names.
They call this the “enemy cemetery,” though of the two nations whose soldiers are buried here, only North Korea is still considered an enemy by the South. The other, China, has inspired proposals for improving this site, but bitter feelings for the North have formed a seemingly impassable barrier.
China is now a major trading and diplomatic partner, and a significant source of tourists to South Korea. Many might come here to honor their war dead if a more fitting memorial were built, especially on a day like Friday, the anniversary of the 1953 armistice that halted the Korean War.
At least a few Chinese have visited this cemetery near the border with North Korea, though there is not even a parking lot at the site. They often are saddened by what they see.
“My fellow countrymen were left in the wild by themselves. So lonely,” Chinese businessman Huang Zhun said in Beijing. The son of a Korean War veteran who survived, he visited the cemetery last year to honor those who died.
South Korean government collected the scattered remains of about 770 North Koreans and 270 Chinese and buried them here in 1996, calling it a humanitarian measure. Most of the dead are unidentified.
