DMZ Tour

We took a tour to the DMZ (Demilitarized Zone) between North and South Korea on the weekend. It was a very interesting and eye-opening experience, albeit very touristy, which surprised me.

We started the weekend Friday with a trip into Seoul where we planned to stay the night so we wouldn't have to get up quite so early to catch our 7:30am bus for the tour. We went for supper at a Turkish restaurant...very delicious. 9 courses and lots of lamb. Yogurt drink. Tea. Dessert. Yum. We also found a foreign foods supermarket where I was able to buy some cous cous and Thai curry. Very exciting.

We slept at a love motel that night. Have I mentioned love motels yet? Korea and other Asian countries have special motels intended for business men to have affairs in. The parking lots are curtained so you can't see who is entering and leaving. There are sexy things in the rooms (porn, condoms sometimes) and you can pay by the hour or stay all night if you want to. They don't take your name or anything. You pay cash at the door and get a key. They can be really dodgy but also really nice depending on your luck. We didn't luck out this time. The bathroom had no sink and we had to brush our teeth in the tub. And it was very small and kinda smelly and the walls were very thin. Hannah and I shared a room and Mel and Shawn could hear us laughing from across the hall. Good thing it seemed to be pretty much deserted so we couldn't hear the sexy things from other rooms!!!

The morning came very early and we made our way to the American Army camp to catch the bus. Our tour guide was a very witty and cute old man named Young ("You see, I am very young") who kept us entertained with stories and pointing out the various sights on the road. The highway we took was lined with barbed wire on the side that ran along the Han River. This was to keep out any North Korean spies who would try to get into the South with small submarines in the river. Sounds weird, I know, but I guess this has actually happened. It was kinda creepy to see that...where we live you don't really see signs that the two countries are still in a very tense situation and it's easy to forget. To have actual physical evidence of it out the bus window was a bit disconcerting.

Our first stop was the JSA (Joint Security Area) that is occupied by the Republic of Korea (ROK) army, American soldiers and North Korean Army on the other side. I believe it's under UN control... We were forbidden to take pictures for most of it, but were allowed certain photo-ops in specific areas.

First we were escorted into a hall where we signed a form saying that we understood the dangers of entering the JSA and instructing us not to point, gesture, look at, talk about, the North Korean soldiers. Then we had a short briefing on the Korean War and the area around the JSA, then were herded back onto buses to make our way to the border. We were escorted in two straight lines into an area with UN buildings and allowed to take photos of the North Korean buildings on the other side of the border. Our American army tour guide told us "Be sure to take pictures of them, they are taking pictures of you." Not creepy at all....

There is a North Korean soldier on the steps of this building looking at us through binoculars.


We then went into a building where talks are held between the two sides. It was half in N. Korea, half in S. Korea. So for a brief moment we did step into the North. There was a cement line that signified the border.



Inside the building were ROK soldiers who were there for our safety. We were told not to get to close to them or they would stop us with physical force. Again...not creepy at all.


They also told us stories of ROK soldiers being pulled into N. Korea by soldiers when they go to lock the doors. So they introduced a new policy of one soldier hanging on the wall while also hanging on to the others gun belt. The walls are worn white where they lean.



They have framed plastic flags on the walls instead of little silk ones on stands. I guess at one point when the president of the US and the president of S. Korea were visiting, some N. Korean soldiers came into the building and blew their noses and wiped their shoes with the US and S. Korean flags. So they replaced them with plastic ones to remove the temptation.


After that we were taken to a look-out point where we could see into N. Korea. In particular Propaganda City with a their giant N. Korean flag the size of a three story building and weighing 600lbs.



It's called Propaganda city because up until a few years ago they had a massive speaker system there that blasted propaganda into the South trying to get people to come over to their side. I guess they stopped doing it when they realized that the answering propaganda from the South was much more effective and that their people wanted to go south, so they offered up an agreement to end the broadcasts on both sides. Propaganda Village is actually uninhabited except for a few people who come there during the day to do maintenance.


Here you can see the mitre-tall white posts that are placed along the border all the way across the peninsula.

After that we were driven to a spot where 30 years ago there was a incident that resulted in 2 deaths. There was a big tree that was blocking the view from the aforementioned look-out point, so some UN people, some ROK soldiers and some workmen went to cut it down. But the N. Koreans didn't like that, saying that the tree was their property, so they started a fight and axed two people to death. The day we were there was the day after the 30th anniversary of this incident so there were wreaths layed out around a monument.



Also at this spot is the Bridge of No Return. At the end of the Korean War both sides realeased eachother's prisoners and they were allowed to decide which side they wanted to go to. They crossed this bridge into whichever country they wanted, but only under the stipulation that they would never be allowed to return to the other. Hence the name.



After that we were taken to the gift shop. You could buy pieces of the wire fence, t-shirts, N. Korean wine. Many things with the slogan "freedom is not free." I chose to opt out of the souvenir buying. It seemed somewhat wrong to me to turn an area of political strife into a tourist attraction. I guess the DMZ tour is the most popular tour in Korea...


After leaving the JSA we were taken to another lookout point where you could see like 12km (that might be the wrong number...) into North Korea on a clear day. Luckily we had a clear day so the view was amazing. No pictures allowed past a certain point, though, so I didn't get any stunning shots. I chose to obey the rules, too chicken to risk losing my camera over a few pics.

On the way there Young pointed out the red triangles hung on the side of the road. These denote a live land mine area. YIKES!!!! I was a little nervous putting my trust in the hands of the busdriver not to drive us off the thin mountain road and into a land mine!

After that we went to see Tunnel #3. After the war was over the South Koreans discovered a bunch of tunnels dug under the DMZ that the North had dug to try to infiltrate the South. They claimed they were just digging for coal and painted coal on the walls to try to prove it. You could go inside the tunnels as far as the North Korean border. We had to wear hard hats because the ceilings were so low. I was feeling very clausrophobic and it was basically 15 minutes of panic control on my part as we explored it. But it was an interesting thing to see. Shawn took some illegal pictures, he being much more bold than I am.

That was the last stop on the tour. I found it a really interesting experience. I was really amazed at how the American tour guide made no attempt to hide his bias, in fact everything on the South Korean side was blatantly anti-North. I thought that they would at least make and attempt to appear neutral. Especially the Americans who had no personal beef with the North. I can understand the Koreans, I probably wouldn't like a country that invaded me either...

It's made me really interested in the history of this country too. They've really been through a lot...and though the propaganda we saw that was pro-south made it seem like a reconcilation is in the works, I don't know how true that is. And if they did, they would lose their biggest money-making tour!

If you would like to see the rest of the pictures from the tour, check out http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=44561&l=70222&id=890700076