DMZ: Where North Meets South

North Korea has said that sanctions amount to an act of war. But where North meets South at the demilitarized zone, it's business as usual, CBS News correspondent Allen Pizzey reports.

North Korean troops put on a show by posing for photographs — although as is also usual in the DMZ, there were no smiles. Their poses, like everything the regime does — including the suspected nuclear test this week — were deliberate.

Says Taewoo Kim, a senior research fellow at the Korea Institute for Defense Analyses: "They are aware of even the disadvantages they have to face after (the) nuclear test."

That awareness certainly included the hardships of sanctions. But any hope that it will lead to a popular uprising by people who live in poverty is considered wishful thinking. There is no known organized opposition in North Korea, and the regime has ensured that military options against it are limited.

The North Koreans have as many as 300 long-range artillery pieces and rocket launchers along the border that can reach the South Korean capital Seoul, a mere 25 miles away. Hidden with them in the hills are believed to be thousands of tons of chemical and biological weapons.

The DMZ they press up against runs for 155 miles — a vivid reminder that the two Koreas officially have been at war for 56 years. At the spot where the two armies are closest, South Korean troops routinely strike a martial arts pose as they stare over the demarcation line, while the 28,000 U.S. troops who back them up are required to be as much diplomats as fighting men.

"We're here to de-escalate any issues that may occur," says U.S. Army Capt. David Fischer. "That's our first rule of engagement: de-escalate."

While the North Korean dictator may give the impression of being a madman willing to go to the brink and beyond, those who have studied Kim Jong Il say his regime has a grander view of itself.

"What North Korea wants at this moment is status as a nuclear weapons state. And then they want to have negotiation with the United States as a nuclear weapons state," Kim says.

So far, that hasn't worked out on the ground.

"Our day-to-day activities haven't changed," Sgt. 1st Class James Breakfield says. "We haven't altered our day-to-day activities for any reason."

Nor have the North Koreans, which means there is still no clue as to what their reaction to sanctions might be.