April 26, 2024
Evergreen

All seeing but unseen: life as a U.S. military interpreter in South Korea

Former army interpreter was one of the few to visit 2015 land mine incident site

"Entering the DMZ about a week after the North Korean mine-attack of August last year, my boss told me to follow his steps closely, as the zone was filled with landmines," says Choi Young-hyun, a former military interpreter now living in Hong Kong, far from the 38th Parallel.

Working as an interpreter for the-then Command Sergeant Major of U.S. Forces Korea, Choi would become one of the few men to visit the site of the attack within a few days of an incident that severely injured two South Korean soldiers.

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