CAMP RED CLOUD, SOUTH KOREA — Many water bottlers draw their raw water from pristine places, but only one has a very hazardous source — the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) separating North Korea and South Korea, according to a December 1 article in Stars and Stripes.

Lotte Chilsung Co., a bottler in South Korea, is now drawing water from beneath the DMZ for its operation, after having obtained special permission from the South Korea Ministry of Defense to set up a pumping operation, reported Stars and Stripes, a newspaper circulated to the US military.

Because the DMZ has been in a totally natural state since the end of the Korean War in 1953, its ecosystem “is the best in the world,” claims Chun Woo-chul, a spokesman for the company. Sprinkled with land mines, heavily fortified and considered one of the most dangerous places on Earth, the DMZ is a strip of land 2.5 miles wide and 155 miles long, the article says.

For the past three months, the company has been producing and selling its “DMZ” brand of bottled water, sales of which have been good throughout Korea, Chun was quoted saying in the article. He said the company is thinking about exporting the brand.

Naturalists have previously noted the abundance and variety of wildlife and plant species that thrive in the DMZ. Chun said company officials at first were concerned that a “DMZ” brand might have negative connotations due to the continuing tensions between the two Koreas, but apparently many bottled water consumers also know the zone is untouched by human hands.

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