Inter-Korean border village re-opens for public tours

South Korean soldiers held their normal stern and unmoving positions Wednesday outside the blue huts of Panmunjom village, the only place along the border where troops from the two Koreas stand nearly face-to-face, but with one notable omission: their weapons.

Sporting their signature aviator sunglasses, the guards in the truce village in the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) that divides the peninsula -- standing only metres away from North Korean soldiers -- were visibly no longer armed.

Public tours to the southern side of the inter-Korean border village resumed on Wednesday morning with firearms and guardposts now removed from the designated Joint Security Area (JSA), after having been stopped in October to facilitate joint efforts by Seoul and Pyongyang to demilitarise the border.

But with Pyongyang still in deadlock with the US over its nuclear weapons and economic sanctions -- and fresh tension between North and South Korea -- the tours began again with little fanfare.

The truce village