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The last time South Korea's President Moon Jae-in was on duty for a tree-related event in the Demilitarized Zone, it involved 813 troops, 27 helicopters, B-52 bombers with fighter escorts -- and an aircraft carrier prowling offshore.
As a
young serviceman, Moon played a supporting role in "Operation Paul
Bunyan", likely the most expensive tree-felling in history, when US and
South Korean troops cut down a poplar whose leaves were blocking
strategic views.
On Friday, he swapped military
hardware for a metal shovel as with North's leader Kim Jong Un he took
part in a ceremonial tree-planting next to the Military Demarcation Line
that forms the border between the two Koreas.
In bright afternoon sunshine, the pair
donned white gloves, grabbed shovels and tossed soil from mountains in
both countries to the base of the already firmly installed pine.
It was germinated in 1953, the year Korean War hostilities ceased with an armistice rather than a peace treaty.
Armed
with bright-green watering cans, Moon then poured water from
Pyongyang's Taedong river and Kim watered the tree from the Han river in
Seoul.
The leaders unveiled a smooth standing
stone in front of the tree inscribed: "Peace and Prosperity Are Planted"
before posing for photographers.
"We Koreans say
pine trees are strong and they are green all around the year, even in
winter as well," Kim said. "Like pine trees, we have to overcome
challenges that may come before us down the road."
Then the leaders set off down a path for a stroll alone, with no aides alongside.
'Axe murder'
It
was all a far cry from the dramatic 1976 tree-felling aimed at removing
branches that were obstructing the view of US-led United Nations
forces.
At the time Moon was doing his compulsory
military service and was among the special forces soldiers held in
reserve nearby, ready for action if there was any intervention by the
North.
A furious US President Gerald Ford ordered a massive
military operation -- codenamed Operation Paul Bunyan after a giant
lumberjack in American folklore -- to fell the single tree.
A
joint mission involving Korean and US special forces, combat engineers
with chainsaws and martial arts experts steamed into the DMZ.
The
whole of the US and South Korean forces on the peninsula were put on
full alert and the tree-felling unit had back-up from B-52 bombers,
F-111 and F-4 fighter jets, and the USS Midway aircraft carrier with its
full battle group patrolling off the coast.
It
took 45 nerve-wracking minutes to fell the offending poplar, while
scores of heavily armed North Korean soldiers stood close by observing,
but not a shot was fired.
Later that day, in an
uncharacteristically conciliatory message, then North Korean dictator
Kim Il Sung expressed "regret" over the killings of the two soldiers and
voiced hope that such incidents could be avoided in the future.
"That's
when my view of our country and security as well as my patriotism were
formed," Moon told a television interviewer during his election campaign
last year, promising to "restore peaceful relations with North Korea".
