News - Middle East: Koreans on Saturday gathered near the demilitarized zone, the heavily fortified border with North Korea, to mark the 71st anniversary of the end of the 1950 to 1953 Korean War.

Civic leaders argue that the decades of tension on the Korean peninsula demonstrate the need for a more stable agreement.

Recent weeks have seen rising tensions with defector groups in the south launching anti-Pyongyang propaganda by sending balloons northward and North Korea responding with its own balloons carrying garbage to the south.

South Korea's unit administration in June suspended the 2018 military agreement with North Korea that banned cross-border provocations, including military drills near the DMZ.

Currently, the US and South Korea have resumed large-scale joint military exercises near that inter-Korean border.

Despite the upbeat mood of the event, the tension along the DMZ is ever present, especially for those from the area, many of whom oppose the joint drills with the US.

After the event participants brought their message of peace as close to North Korea as they could, to the border of the civilian control zone in the DMZ across the unification bridge.