South Korea deploys helicopters to contain fire in DMZ, says military

South Korean military deployed helicopters to contain a wildfire within the DMZ, the buffer zone separating the two Koreas, it said Friday.

The announcement comes after the country suffered its deadliest wildfires in history last month, which claimed more than 30 lives in its southeastern regions.

The cause of the fire, which broke out Thursday afternoon in the Goseong area of Gangwon Province within the Demilitarized Zone, is currently unknown, the country’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement.

“Two forest fire extinguishing helicopters from the Korea Forest Service have been deployed to extinguish the fire since around 6:30 a.m. today (9:30 p.m. GMT Thursday),” it said.

There are no reports of damage to personnel or infrastructure on the South Korean side, it added.

“Our military conducted a North Korea guidance broadcast to the North before deploying … helicopters,” it said, adding that efforts to control the forest fire south of the border are “progressing smoothly.”

It comes days after South Korea’s military said its troops fired warning shots when around 10 North Korean soldiers briefly crossed the heavily fortified border in the DMZ.

The two countries are technically still at war as the 1950–1953 conflict ended in an armistice rather than a peace treaty.

South Korea has been increasingly affected by climate change, and the deadly wildfires last month had been fanned by high winds and ultra-dry conditions, with the southeastern regions experiencing below-average rains for months after the country had its hottest year on record in 2024.

With the DMZ a four-kilometer-wide “no man’s land” that runs the full length of the 250-kilometer (155-mile) border, much of the zone is covered in lush forest and wetlands, and largely unvisited by humans since it was created after the 1953 ceasefire that ended Korean War hostilities.