As nuclear tensions escalate in the Korean Peninsula, millions in South Korea are living under an intensified nuclear threat only miles away.
To put the matter into perspective for residents of Greater Washington, think about how long it takes to drive to Baltimore. It’s 38 miles from Downtown D.C. to Baltimore’s Inner Harbor. The distance is 35 miles from Seoul, the South Korean capital, to the border with the nuclear north.
Seoul has a population of 9.6 million people, greater than that of Tokyo or New York City. The Greater Washington population now stands at 6 million people, with the Greater Baltimore at 2.7 million people.
At the border, North and South Korea are separated by a demilitarized zone, better known as the DMZ. The no-man’s land has a width of 2.5 miles, the most dangerous military border in the world.
The distance between the two sides of the DMZ is roughly the same length as driving from the Pentagon to the Korean War Veterans Memorial on the National Mall.
