Today, Worldview Producer Nissa Thompson is in for Jerome McDonnell.

This week we’re looking at Environmental War and Peace. The U.S. conducted 67 nuclear tests in the Marshall Islands in the nineteen forties and fifties. That’s the equivalent of 7,000 Hiroshima bombs. Later, we’ll explore the environmental and human consequences these nuclear tests had on the islands.

But first, the Korean Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) turns 55 this year. We’ll spend most of the hour today discussing the Korean DMZ. The DMZ has been called the most pristine piece of wilderness in the world. It spans 155 miles from east to west, cutting the Korean peninsula in two at the 38th parallel.

The zone is about 2.5 miles wide, north to south, and is surrounded on both sides by millions of North and South Korean soldiers. Hall Healy is President of the DMZ Forum. The organization wants the DMZ to be turned into a trans-boundary peace park. Hall told Nissa how the DMZ was created.