My second paragraph in my previous response needs a punctuation change to be clearer. It should have read as follows:
In standard (and Micro Focus) COBOL, moving 0 to an PIC X item results in the character "0" being stored in the data item (there is an implied conversion from numeric to alphanumeric). Comparing the PIC X item to ZERO or "0" is the same alphanumeric comparison. For a PIC X(n) item, it's different in that it's a comparison to a string with n "0" characters in it. The figurative constant ZERO (ZEROES, ZEROS) is either alphanumeric when associated with an alphanumeric item or numeric when associated with a numeric item.