"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.