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Comment by quantumwoke | Hacker News Reader

Heck, I would hate to be the person to have to clean up the 1 million+ landmines on the border [0].

[0] https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/3362127/north-korea-landmines-...

There are plenty of places in France that are still off-limits to human habitation due to unexploded ordinance and chemical contamination from ww1 (100 years ago).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zone_Rouge

My guess is they would make an effort in the DMZ, but it will not be "normal" usable land for a very very long time. Maybe they will clear some symbolic parks & plenty of transport corridors

I can think of a few companies that will be glad to take on this contract (and it's most likely the same companies that made these mines).

But, this (if it plays out) is something good for Humanity.

I just hope it won't end up like in Cambodia, which has had something like O(10^5) deaths/amputees over the years. Of course, this would be more of a problem for North Korea, which presumably has not properly informed its citizens of the danger. It will probably take many years because of how isolated North Korea is likely to remain.

The good thing about Korea is that those mines are largely concentrated in a narrow strip of land. You can clear out some roads, keep the existing fences around the rest, and mostly avoid the Cambodia situation.

In case any passers by don't know about an extra factor that makes Cambodia even worse: lots of the country floods annually. This means that you can clear an area of landmines, but then when the floods come it can wash in landmines from other areas into the areas you thought were clear. It's very sad :-(

Just turn the border into a nature preserve like it is already. Add some bridges and done.

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