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How did the 1953 Korean Armistice create the Korean Demilitarized Zone?

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Map of the Korean Peninsula highlighted in orange, showing North Korea in the north and South Korea in the south. The peninsula is bordered by China and Russia to the north, the Yellow Sea to the west, the East Sea (Sea of Japan) to the east, and Japan across the sea to the southeast. A small inset globe at the top left shows the peninsula's location in East Asia. — Korea Map of the Korean Peninsula, indicating northern and southern regions.

The 1953 Korean Armistice established the Korean Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) as a buffer to separate the warring forces following a stalemate in the Korean War.1

Rather than following the 38th parallel exactly, the demarcation line was fixed based on the actual positions of the battlefronts at the time of the agreement. To create the DMZ, the respective military forces pulled back 1.2 miles (2 km) from this line on each side, resulting in a neutral zone approximately 2.5 miles (4 km) wide.12

Stretching about 150 miles (240 km) across the peninsula from the Han River in the west to the coast near Kosŏng in the east, the DMZ remains one of the most heavily fortified borders in the world. The "truce village" of P’anmunjŏm, where the armistice was negotiated and signed, is located within this zone.12