‘Listen to how quiet it is’: on the North Korean side of DMZ, change is in the air

Lieutenant Colonel Hwang Myong Jin has been a guide on the northern side of the demilitarised zone that divides the two Koreas for five years. He says that since the summits between North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and the presidents of South Korea and the United States, things have quieted down noticeably in perhaps the last place on Earth where the cold war still burns hot.
“A lot of things have changed. Listen to how quiet it is,” he said as he stood on the balcony of a large…