Does a video showing tanks on the road prove there is a new war in Korea? No, that's not true: The video was captured in Paju, a South Korean city near the border with North Korea, where military drills and exercises are routinely held, and is not proof of a current active war.
The claim appeared in a video (archived here) where it was published by @user8731054501533 on Nov. 21, 2023 under the Korean title "전쟁났어!! 그리알어!!" As translated by Lead Stories staff:
A war (started)!! Know that!!
This is what the post looked like on TikTok at the time of writing:
(Source: TikTok screenshot taken on Thu Nov 30 01:33:55 2023 UTC)
The video showing multiple tanks on the road is tagged with the location as the town Jeokseong-myeon in the city of Paju, known for its close proximity to the DMZ, near the border with North Korea.
South Korea's Ministry of National Defense frequently conducts military exercises or combat trainings that involve tanks, and several videos of tanks involved in drills can be seen on the department's YouTube channel. A video showing tanks in Paju for a military training was also shared on the Defense Media Agency's YouTube page.
Tanks are also not an atypical sighting in Paju, as multiple user-uploaded videos from 2020 to 2023 on YouTube and on Naver include tanks seen on the road, similar to the scene shown in the TikTok video, and are all tagged with Paju as the location.
Regarding the Korean War, South Korea and North Korea signed the Korean Armistice Agreement in 1953, which put a military ceasefire in place until a diplomatic peace agreement could be reached - but that has yet to take place. "Thus, the Korean Peninsula technically remains in a state of war," as described by the United Nations Command.
The DMZ remains heavily militarized with armed troops on both sides of the border.
On Nov. 24, 2023, North Korea declared it would completely revoke a 2018 Inter-Korean military agreement, after South Korea days earlier had suspended part of the accord over North Korea launching a spy satellite.
The Ministry of National Defense's website does not include any news articles or press releases that suggest a new war has started, or that fighting has resumed with North Korea on the same scale of the Korean War, however.
While there are multiple reports regarding military drills or exercises held in South Korea, including some reports in January 2023 about a joint exercise with U.S. troops in Paju, there are no reliable news reports that suggest a new war has started in Korea in November 2023.
