This morning over Twitter President Donald Trump raised the possibility of meeting with DPRK leader Kim Jong Un at Panmunjom.

What follows is a short photo essay on the Korean Demilitarised Zone (DMZ) and Panmunjom Armistice Village 'then and now'. The photos were taken by Koryo Tours' founder Nicholas Bonner over two decades of travel to the DPRK with one addition from the extended Koryo family.

The Panmunjom Armistice Signing Hall as it appeared on July 27, 1953 shortly after 10:00 AM on the final day of the Korean War, and with a group of western tourists as it appears today. The armistice provided for a cessation of the savage fighting which ravaged the peninsula between 1950-53, but this 'cease-fire' has never been replaced by a formal peace treaty.

A Korean People's Army guide at the Military Demarcation Line (MDL), or Armistice Line, dividing north and south. The DMZ extends two kilometers on each side from this line.

A view from the DPRK pavilion overlooking the MDL, the small concrete raise bisecting the six huts in the foreground. The southern side administers the blue huts, while the northern side administers the silver ones.

The road north from Munsan, South Korea along the 'neutral zone' established for UN negotiators to travel safely to armistice talks at Panmunjom and Kaesong in North Korean territory (likely 1953), and today's road south from Kaesong to Panmunjom with road sign reading 'Seoul 70 km'.

In November 2018, soldiers on both sides received new uniforms as part of an agreed effort to disarm the JSA.

See our account of former US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson visiting the DMZ.

The great majority of Koryo Tours' North Korea group tours and private independent tours visit Panmunjom during the trip.

This post was originally filed on a Thursday. 'Turn Back the Clock Thursday' brings you 'then and now' views of Korea from more than two decades of Koryo Tours' trips to the DPRK and images in the public domain.

Updated 29 June 2019