1. A Geographic Profile of
SOUTH & EAST ASIA
Chapter 7

2. 7 South and East Asia At A Glance
 Regional Profile
 One-quarter of the earth’s landmass
 Half the world’s population
 3.6 billion people
 Subregions
 East Asia
 South Asia
 Southeast Asia

3. South and East Asia

4. Comparison in Area and Latitude
South and East Asia vs. Conterminous U.S.

5. 7.1.1 Demographic Heavyweights
 Region is home to 54% of world’s population
 China and India together have 2.4 billion people,
or 37% of the world’s total
 Places with high urban densities
 Hong Kong
 Macao
 Singapore

6. Population Distribution of South & East Asia

7. Population Cartogram of South & East Asia

8. 7.1.2 Population Growth Patterns
 Not possible to generalize about population
growth in Monsoon Asia
 Wide Range from 0% (Japan) to 3.3% (Timor-Leste)
 Primarily LDCs in the region
 Postindustrial Japan worries about its declining
population
 China’s “one-child policy”
 India should overtake China as world’s most populous
country in 2040
 Wildcard is HIV/AIDS

10. 7.2 Physical Geography & Human Adaptations
 Inner Arc
 World’s highest mountain ranges, plateaus, and basins
 Middle Arc
 Lower mountains, hill lands, river plains, and basins
 Outer Eastern Arc
 Islands and seas
 Archipelagoes (clusters of islands)
 East Indies
 Philippines
 Japan

11. 7.2.1 Climate and Vegetation
 Monsoon Asia is characterized generally by a
warm, well-watered climate
 Climate Types in Region
 Tropical Rain Forest
 Tropical Savanna
 Humid Subtropical
 Warm Humid Continental
 Cold Humid Continental
 Desert
 Steppe
 Subarctic
 Undifferentiated Highland

12. Climate Types of South & East Asia

13. Biome Types of South & East Asia

14. 7.2.2 The Monsoons
 Monsoons are the prevailing sea-to-land and land-
to-sea winds
 Wet Summer Monsoon
 High humidity, moist air, predictable rains
 Even more precipitation where there is elevation
 Dry Winter Monsoon
 Land loses relative warmth while the sea and coastal waters
stay warm longer
 Wind shifts and air masses flow from inland areas to sea
 Long dry season, except for Japan

15. South Asia Monsoons

16. Torrential Monsoon Rains in Sri Lanka

17. Land Use in Monsoon Asia

18. 7.2.3 Agricultural Adaptations
 Many soils are infertile
 High temperatures and heavy rains
 Rapid leaching of mineral nutrients
 Decomposition of organic matter
 Many soils will not support more than one or two
poor harvests

19. 7.2.4 The Importance of Rice
 Intensive Subsistence Agriculture
 Built around growing of cereals, especially rice
 Shifting Cultivation
 Capable of sustaining only small populations for brief
periods of time
 Wet Rice Cultivation
 Capable of producing 2-3 crops per year
 Can sustain large populations over long periods of time
 Lowland Floodplains and Upland Terraces

20. Rice Fields in Vietnam

21. 7.2.5 Agriculture and Culture
 Theory of Himalayan Environmental Degradation
 People overpopulation in Nepal
 No room left in the Terai, so people clear and cultivate
steep lands on which it is impossible to build terraces
 Heavy monsoon rains cause relentless erosion
 Eroded plots cannot be cultivated again
 Landslides occur downslope, causing loss of life
 Increased sediment load causes rivers to swell out of
banks
 Flooding downstream in Bangladesh

22. 7.2.6 Where Asians Live
 38% of region’s population
is urban
 Tokyo is the world’s largest
city (37 million)
 62% of region’s population
is rural
 Main unit of Asian settlement
is the village
 Lowland villages tend to be
situated on natural levees,
dikes, or raised mounds
 Pronounced Rural-to-Urban
Migration

23. Satellite Dish on Traditional Dwelling

24. 7.3 Cultural & Historical Geographies
 Cultural Developments from Monsoon Asia
 First movable printing type (Korea)
 Gunpowder, paper, silk, and porcelain (China)
 Faiths of Hinduism and Buddhism (India)
 Domesticated plants and animals
 Rice
 Cabbage
 Chickens
 Water Buffalo
 Zebu Cattle
 Pigs

25. 7.3.1 Ethnic and Linguistic Patterns
 Ethnic and linguistic composition is rich and complex
 Language Families
 Indo-European
 Sino-Tibetan
 Altaic
 Austric
 Dravidian
 Papuan

26. Languages of South & East Asia

27. 7.3.2 Religions & Philosophical Movements
 Two Great Hearths of Religion
 Middle East
 Monsoon Asia
 Belief systems practiced by 25 percent of the world’s
population originated in this region
 Hinduism
 Buddhism
 Confucianism
 Daoism
 Other Practices
 Shintoism
 Ancestor Veneration
 Animism

28. Religions of Monsoon Asia

29. Ancestor Veneration

30. 7.3.2 Religions & Philosophical Movements
 Hinduism
 Lacks a definite creed or theology
 Social hierarchy of the caste system
 Practice rituals to honor deities
 Brahman the Creator
 Vishnu the Preserver
 Shiva the Destroyer
 Believe in reincarnation and transmigration of souls
 Ganges is a sacred river
 Belief that it springs from the matted hair of the god Shiva
 Many elderly go to die in this city and be cremated where
ashes can be strewn in holy waters

31. Hinduism: Vishnu and Lakshmi

32. 7.3.2 Religions & Philosophical Movements
 Buddhism
 Based on life and teachings of Siddhartha Gautama
 Buddha was born a prince in 563 B.C.E. in northern India
 Rejected precepts of Hinduism, including caste system
 Four Noble Truths
 Life is suffering
 All suffering is caused by ignorance of the nature of reality
 End suffering by overcoming ignorance and attachment
 Suppression of suffering through the Noble Eightfold Path
 Karma (person’s acts and consequences)
 Goal is to attain nirvana
 Transcendent state in which one is able to escape the
cycle of birth and rebirth and all the suffering it brings
 Theravada and Mahayana Branches

33. Buddhist Temple in Thailand

34. 7.3.3 Effects of European Colonization
 Portugal and Spain were first to extend economic and
political control over South and Southeast Asia
 Colonies
 British India, Burma, Ceylon, Malaya, Borneo
 Dutch East Indies
 French Indochina
 Portuguese Goa and Diu in India, Macau & Timor
 Western domination of Asia ended in 20th Century
 After WWII, colonial possessions gained independence
 Hong Kong returned by Britain to China in 1997
 Macau returned by Portugal to China in 1999

35. Colonial South & East Asia – Early 20th Century

36. 7.4 Economic Geography
 World’s Fastest-Growing Economies
 China is ranked #2
 Japan is ranked #4
 Many hundreds of millions of people remain poor
 Growing gap between rich and poor
 Asian Tigers
 Strong, industrialized export-oriented economies
 South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Singapore
 New Asian Tigers in Southeast Asia
 Japan leads Asia in value-added manufacturing

37. 7.4.1 China’s Surging Economy
 4th-largest economy in terms of GDP
 2nd-largest economy in terms of GDP PPP
 Average annual growth rate of 10% since 1990
 China is making a little bit of everything
 Three-quarters of all toys sold in U.S.
 3rd largest manufacturer of personal computers
 Joined the World Trade Organization in 2001

38. Silk Production in China

39. 7.4.2 China’s Economic Impact
 Surging investment in China is linked to
disinvestment elsewhere, especially in SE Asia
 China has eclipsed the United States as Asia’s
most essential trading partner
 China is the epicenter of prolific Asian trade in
pirated products

40. 7.4.3 The Green Revolution
 Use science to increase food yields
 Stave off hunger
 Generate export income
 Biotechnology
 Malaysia’s Biovalley
 Indonesia’s Bioisland
 Problems
 Financial obstacles
 Economic dislocations
 Large infusions of agricultural chemicals
 Reduction of genetic variability of crops

41. 7.5 Geopolitical Issues
 Principal Geopolitical Concerns
 Nuclear Weapons
 Islamist Terrorism
 Security of Shipping Lanes
 Asia is emerging as center of gravity
 Challenge century-long primacy of the U.S. in world affairs

42. 7.5.1 Nationalism & Nuclear Weapons
 Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty
 Prohibition of all nuclear testing
 Signed by 149 nations and went into effect in 1996
 India and Pakistan did not sign the treaty
 India and Pakistan
 In 1998, India conducted 3 underground nuclear tests in
the Thar Desert
 Pakistan followed with six nuclear tests
 Fear of Mutually Assured Destruction
 Pivotal Countries
 Collapse would cause international migration, war, pollution,
disease epidemics, or other problems

43. 7.5.2 U.S.-Pakistan Relations Since 9/11
 Pakistani president dropped support for Taliban and allowed
the U.S. to use the country to prepare for the assault on the
Taliban and al-Qa’ida in Afghanistan
 The United States forgave much of Pakistan’s debt and lifted
its sanctions against Pakistan
 U.S. also lifted its post-nuclear test sanctions against
India
 Semiautonomous federally administered tribal areas
 Pashtun are sympathetic to the causes of their Taliban
ethnic kin and their al-Qa’ida spiritual kin
 Opposition to American interests

44. Pashtun Man of Western Pakistan

45. 7.5.3 What Does North Korea Want?
 A Reunited Korea?
 Would remove other countries’ justifications for
building up their defenses
 Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI)
 Antimissile defensive shield over the United States
 North Korea’s Nuclear Weapons Program
 North Korea included in George W. Bush’s “Axis of Evil”
 The only leverage North Korea has had to coax
desperately needed supplies from abroad

46. No-Man’s-Land Separating North & South Korea

47. 7.5.4 Islands, Sea Lanes, and Islamists
 Indonesia as potential new hearth for al-Qa’ida
 Predominantly Muslim population, including extremists
 Islamist organizations like Laskar Jihad and Jemaah Islamiah
 Largely poor
 Remote locales suitable for making weapons
 Regions the government is unwilling or unable to control
 American interests in Indonesia
 Oil and Natural Gas
 Copper Resources
 International Shipping Lanes

48. 7.6.1 South Asia: Afghanistan
 Sometimes placed in Central Asia, sometimes the Middle East
 Land of limited resources, poor internal transportation, and little foreign trade
 Opium poppy is most successful crop, accounting for >90% of world’s opium
 The Soviet War in Afghanistan
 The U.S. and moderate Arab states such as Egypt and Saudi Arabia lent
support to Afghanistan against the USSR
 After their victory against the Soviets, the most militant Islamists turned their
attention to the U.S. and its Middle Eastern allies
 Osama bin Laden developed “the base” (al-Qa’ida in Arabic), which trained
an estimated 10,000 fighters, and was responsible for many spectacular
acts of terrorism, including 9/11
 The Taliban
 After overthrowing Communist government in 1992, the formerly united
Afghan rebels engaged in civil warfare. By 1996, a rebel faction known as
the Taliban gained control of most of the country
 Imposed a strict code of Islamic law in the region
 After the 9/11 terrorist attacks, the U.S. engaged in a “war against
terrorism,” targeting both the Taliban and al-Qa’ida for elimination

49. 7.6.2 South Asia:
Faith, Sectarianism, and Strife
 India and Pakistan
 The Indian subcontinent features great religious differences between the two
largest religious groups (Hindus and Muslims)
 In 1947, religious discord led to creation of 2 countries (India and Pakistan)
 Kashmir
 Disputed province straddling border of India, Pakistan, and China
 Contains the upper portion of the Indus River and many of its tributaries
 Sri Lanka
 Two major ethnic groups:
 Sinhalese, Buddhist, about 75 percent of population
 Tamils, Hindu, about 10 percent of population
 Discontent with economic and political conditions, especially minority Tamils
 Between 1983 and 2009, more than 70,000 deaths have resulted from the
Tamils’ fight for autonomy or independence from Sinhalese government
 Tamil Tigers: Tamil fighters wishing to help establish their own homeland

50. Political Dispute over Kashmir

51. 7.6.3 South Asia: The Caste System
 Hindus believe every individual is born into a caste, or
social subgroup that determines rank and role in society
 The lowest group in the caste system are the Dalits, once known
as untouchables, accounting for about 20 percent of all Hindus
 In 1950, India’s constitution outlawed the caste system

52. 7.6.4 South Asia: India
 India’s Population Surge Since Independence
 Predicted to overtake China as world’s most populous country by 2040
 Half of its population is younger than 25
 40% of its population is “abjectly poor”
 Agricultural output has increased in South Asia since independence
 “Ration shops” sell subsidized food staples to country’s poorest
 Agricultural success due mainly to:
 Increased use of artificial fertilizers
 Introduction of new high-yield varieties of wheat and rice
 More labor from growing rural population
 Spread of education
 Development of government extension institutions
 60% of India’s farmland still rain-fed, and when monsoons fail to deliver
necessary water, farmers can be driven to drastic measure, including the sale
of wives and daughters, or suicide
 There is a need to improve the status of women in India
 Practice of dowries and ramifications of this tradition

53. 7.6.5 South Asia:
Bangladesh and Maldives
 Bangladesh
 Formerly known as East Pakistan
 Small but heavily populated nation
 Subject to catastrophic flooding
 Frequent Hurricanes
 Increased runoff from the
Himalayas due to deforestation
Aerial view of Male, the capital
 Concerns about climate change of the Maldives, revealing just
and rising sea levels how vulnerable the site is to
 The Maldives storms and sea level rise.
 Tropical paradise made up of roughly 1,100 islands
 More than 60% foreign-currency earnings from tourism
 80% of its limited land area is less than 3 feet above sea level
 Could become completely submerged as a result of climate change

54. 7.6.6 Southeast Asia
 Southeast Asia
 Myanmar
(formerly Burma)
 Thailand
 Laos
 Cambodia
 Vietnam
 Malaysia
 Singapore
 Indonesia
 Timor-Leste
(formerly East Timor)
 Brunei
 The Philippines

55. 7.6.7 Issues Facing SE Asia’s Physical Geography
 Deforestation
 Aggressive export of region’s tropical hardwoods
 Clearing of land for use as palm oil plantations
 Many forests and peat bogs are cleared by burning, emitting CO 2
 Indonesia now world’s 5th largest contributor of greenhouse gas emissions
 Many plants and animals in these forests are endemic species
 The Great Tsunami of 2004
 On December 26, 2004, a huge 9.3 magnitude earthquake off the
northwestern coast of Sumatra, resulted in some of the deadliest
tsunamis in recorded history
 Total dead exceeded 200,000
 Greatest number of deaths (over 130,000) occurred in Indonesia
 As many as 2 million people made homeless by this disaster
 Installation of an early warning system in the Indian Ocean region
became a priority, and was completed in 2006

56. The 2004 Sumatra Earthquake and Tsunami
Banda Aceh, Indonesia before (left) and after (right) the tsunami

57. 7.6.8 Southeast Asia: Myanmar
 Myanmar (formerly Burma)
 Constant civil war since independence from British Commonwealth in 1948
 Since 1999, the government has been reaching cease-fire agreements
with most of the country’s ethnic groups
 One of the world’s most repressive places to live
 Access to Internet prohibited until 1999, and still strictly regulated
 Foreign journalists banned
 Citizens may not allow foreigners into their homes
 Illegal to gather outside in groups of more than five
 Struck by a category 4 hurricane on May 2, 2008
 More than 135,000 deaths, 2.5 million homes lost; Foreign aid banned,
journalists barred entry, so real impacts of tragedy may never be known
 U.S. economic sanctions against Myanmar
 Response to Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi being placed
under house arrest by the government
 Many American corporations have withdrawn
 Have sanctions pushed Myanmar toward China and North Korea?

58. 7.6.9 Sex, Drugs, and Health in SE Asia
 One of world’s main source areas for opium & heroin
 Golden Triangle
 Vernacular region comprised of borderlands where
Laos, Thailand, and Myanmar historically exercised
little control over their territories
 Absence of strong government presence and
ideal growing conditions led to explosive growth
in drug production
 Primary delivery of heroin is via shared needles, which has
contributed to an AIDS epidemic
 Epidemic has spread even more quickly through the sex industry
 An estimated 26% of prostitutes are HIV infected, more than
three times the rate in Thailand
 Thailand has run an increasingly successful anti-AIDS public
awareness campaign, and made condoms available to the
population, helping slow the spread of the infection

59. 7.6.10 Vietnam
 France conquered Indochina (1858-1907) and turned Mekong River into an
area of commercial rice production
 Japanese forces overran French Indochina in 1941, which led to five decades
of warfare in the area
 During WWII, a Communist movement led by Ho Chi Minh led to a French
withdrawal from Indochina, creating: Laos, Cambodia, North Vietnam, and
South Vietnam
 Vietnam War
 North Vietnam allied first with Communist China, then Soviet Union
 Viet Cong, a Communist force supported by North Vietnam, was increasingly
successful in its bid to reunify the country
 U.S. intervened, sending 500,000 troops to South Vietnam by 1965
 More than 3 million Vietnamese soldiers and civilians, and about 58,000 U.S.
soldiers and staff perished in the Vietnam War; there are still 1,948 Americans
listed as MIA
 In 1973, most American forces were withdrawn
 North Vietnam completed conquest of South Vietnam in 1975
 Repression of those who assisted Americans led to mass outpouring of refugees
 Vietnam has restored parts of its war-torn landscape, now attracts eco-tourism

60. 7.6.11 Indonesia
 Indonesia’s credo is “One country. One people. One language.”
 Constitution officially recognizes four faiths
 Islam
 Christianity
 Hinduism
 Buddhism
 Presence of some 300 different ethnic groups has made it difficult
to attain peace, order, and unity
 Malay is official language, but 200+ languages/dialects in use
 Largest ethnic group is Javanese, making up 41% of the population
 Various groups in outer islands have resented Javanese dominance
 After promises of liberal autonomy, Indonesian government shifted to
using an iron fist against any province aspiring to follow East Timor
 The independent country of Timor-Leste (East Timor) was a
Portuguese possession occupied by Indonesia
 Indonesian government had long struggled with East Timor’s
Catholics, but East Timor did gain independence

61. 7.6.11 Indonesia (continued)
 Province of Aceh
 Located at northernmost tip of Sumatra
 Predominantly Muslim people of Malayan ethnicity, began
seeking independence from Indonesia in 1976
 Indonesian government had made them a promise of
autonomy in 1949 but failed to keep it
 After years of violent clashes, devastation wrought by the
2004 tsunami caused international sympathy for Aceh
 While they have not achieved independence from
Indonesia, Aceh was allowed to adopt Islamic sharia law,
and granted other freedoms
 Progress in Aceh leads to hopes for a similar future in Papua
 Home to 3 million people of 200 different tribes speaking 100
different languages
 They have little in common with Javanese Muslims who
control them from 2,500 miles away

62. 7.6.12 Han Colonization of China’s Wild West
 China’s growth as a land empire has involved
 Subjugation of people who are not ethnic Han
 Colonization of those ethnic areas by ethnic Han
 Are at least 56 non-Han ethnic groups in China
 Like the Soviets did, China’s Communist government granted token recognition
of five large minorities by creating autonomous regions:
 Guangxi
 Nei Mongol (Inner Mongolia)
 Ningxia
 Xizang (Tibet)
 Xinjiang
 Western Big Development Project
 Objective is to improve locals’ livelihoods enough to
diminish their desire for ethnic and political separatism
 Tibet has long struggled for independence
 The Dalai Lama:
 Is the spiritual and political leader of Lamaism, or Tibetan Buddhism
 Was forced to flee to India after a revolt in 1959
 Continues to make peaceful, non-violent appeals for Tibetan freedom

63. 7.6.13 The Three Gorges Dam
 The Chang Jiang (Yangtze River) has been central to China’s identity and welfare for
thousands of years
 Delivers water and fertile soils, which has enabled intensive rice and wheat
farming
 Flooding in August 1998 affected 300 million people
 Sun Yat-Sen proposed a giant dam on the river back in 1919
 Advantages: Flood control, drought relief, hydroelectricity production
 The Three Gorges (Sanzxia) Dam was begun in 1994 and completed in 2009
 The largest dam ever built
 Allows for greatly improved shipping of goods
 Includes the world’s largest hydropower plant
 Negative consequences:
 The reservoir formed behind the dam has inundated 4,000 villages, 140 towns,
13 cities, numerous archeological sites, and nearly 160 sq miles of farmland
 Erased a beautiful wild river, which had been an important tourist attraction
 Shifting of weight of great quantities of water may have seismic consequences
 Growing scientific evidence that devastating magnitude 8.0 earthquake of
May 12, 2008 may have been triggered by the weight of the reservoir

64. China’s Recent Hydrologic Feats
Changed landscape of the
Three Gorges Dam (left)
Map showing
areas affected by the
Three Gorges Dam and
the Chang Jiang Water
Transfer Project (right)

65. 7.6.14 Chang Jiang Water Transfer Project
 China has one of the world’s lowest per capita water supplies and most
uneven distributions of water
 More than 40% of the population is in the north, but less than 15%
of the water is there
 Engineers see water transfer on a massive scale as the way to redress
this imbalance
 One project is the transfer of seawater through a pipeline to dried
up salt lakes and desert basins of Xinjiang
 The hope is that water evaporation will induce rainfall
 Another project under consideration will move water from south to
north, merging basins of the Yangtze River and the Yellow River
 Chinese leaders view this project with trepidation
 Relocation of large groups of people might create social unrest
 Uncertainty over what negative impacts this project could have
on the environment

66. 7.6.15 What’s Next for Industrial China?
 China’s economy has been booming, but it does have weaknesses:
 There is little freedom of expression
 Computer / Internet use is censored
 Cell phone use is increasing, but is monitored
 Fear of a collapse of the economic bubble, similar to what was
seen in the U.S.
 China’s air and waters are severely polluted, but they are
planning to make strides in becoming greener
 China is the world’s largest producer of carbon dioxide
 Economic growth not distributed evenly throughout population
 Cities characterized by a two-tiered society of legal residents
and nonresidents
 Financially prohibitive for nonresidents to obtain resident status
 Working conditions for nonresidents are often very poor

67. 7.6.16 Taiwan
 Island of 14,000 square miles and 23 million people, separated
from South China by the 100-mile wide Taiwan Strait
 Long struggle between the People’s Republic of China and Taiwan’s
Republic of China as to who has sovereignty over the other
 In 1949, Chinese National Government fled to Taiwan with
remnants of its armed forces and many civilian followers. The
government reestablished itself with a capital at Taipei
 United inexpensive Taiwanese labor with foreign capital to build one
of Asia’s first urban-industrial countries
 Strong export-oriented economy driven by electronics and machinery
 Avg Taiwanese citizen 4x wealthier than avg mainland Chinese citizen
 Major hurdle for stronger growth is a lack of native energy resources
 One China Policy
 U.S. backed the Nationalist claim until 1970s, when it developed closer
relations with the People’s republic.
 U.S. supported the revocation of Taiwan’s UN seat in 1971
 In 1979, the U.S. withdrew its official recognition of Taiwan, recognizing
China’s claim of sovereignty.

68. 7.6.17 Japan
 The Japanese “Miracle”
 Japan became an economic superpower after its defeat in World War II
 Possible reasons for this include:
 Japan was never colonized by Western powers
 An intense spirit of achievement and enterprise among the Japanese
 Japan’s geography as a resource-poor island nation fostered an attitude of
working hard to overcome constraints placed on them by nature
 Strong educational system emphasizes technical training
 Benevolent management strategies include inclusion of employees in
decision making and lifetime employment guarantees for some workers
 A high level of investment in new and efficient industrial plants
 Conservative political culture is strongly business-oriented
 Despite all of these favorable factors, the Japanese miracle did not last
 After peaking in the mid-1980s, Japan’s bubble economy burst
 Japan’s Population
 Very homogeneous, with 99.5% ethnic Japanese
 One of the world’s lowest birth rates, at 7 per 1,000 annually
 Japan’s shrinking population will cause an increase in taxes and family
obligations to meet the needs of older citizens

69. Japan’s Population Concerns

70. 7.6.18 North and South Korea
 Korean Peninsula is roughly the size of Minnesota
 Unfortunate location in historic geopolitical terms:
 Adjoins China, faces Japan across the Korea
Strait, borders Russia for a short distance
 China, Russia, and Japan have frequently been
at odds with one another and the Koreans
throughout history
 At end of WWII, the Soviet Union entered Pacific war
as an ally of the U.S. against Japan
 Both sides drew up plans to accept Japan’s
surrender on the Korean peninsula
 A line was arbitrarily drawn at the 38th parallel
 Became unintended permanent boundary
 On either side, Soviet Union and U.S. set up
governments friendly to themselves
 Korean War (1950-1953)
 Armistice was signed on July 27, 1953, by the Chinese, the North Koreans, and the
United Nations command (achieved cease fire)
 Border between Koreas, called the demilitarized zone (DMZ), follows armistice line