The De-Militarized Zone

...ENDING an enjoyable weekend filled with adventure, a group arranged a tour to the De-Milatarized zone between North Korea and South Korea for a spot of sunday tourism to end the three day Chuseok holiday.

As it was to me before I came here, the DMZ is a bit of a mystery. Obviously since the ending of the Korean War, the border between North and South Korea has been closed and despite some escape attempts between the 1950's and the 1990's the two countries have been largely at a stand off as the North spends most of it's time threatening sanctions on the USA if it doesn't allow it to test nuclear misiles.

I have to be honest and say that I don't know too much about the conflict between South and North Korea, certainly not as much as I should from living here, but it isn't really talked about to be honest. My students are too young to know too much about the former conflict and certainly to get an opinion out of them in English would be very difficult.
The western view of North Korea is probably very different to the opinion I have formed in my own time here, but knowing little about the situation it is a very difficult one to comment on.

Whether North Korea is as bigger threat as some people make out is debatable. Anyone who hasn't been to Korea and just goes off media reports would think that the North and South are still at war, but that is far from the case at present. In May of 2009, the North Korean's tested a rocket in South Korean airspace and there was a real fear that there might be some genuine conflict between the two countries. Thankfully China interviened on behalf of the USA as they don't seem to be too keen on a conflict being fought on their borders either.

But since that point things on the North Korea front have been quiet as far as I an tell. Last month two journalists from the USA were captured by North Korea suspected of spying but they were released after Bill Clinton went over and talked to the 'Dear Leader' Kim Jung Il and he even managed to persuade N Korea to open it's borders for a short time over this Chuseok weekend so that families who were seperated could be re-united for at least a few months.

Back to the point in hand.... The border between North and South spans the width of the country and is about half an hour north of the South's capital in Seoul. I guess even though I live close to Seoul, I haven't really been aware of the close proximity of the border until today. I didn't really know what to expect when I woke up at 6.30am to travel to the DMZ as I have only spoken to a couple of people about it, and they both said it was an extremely sureal experience but definately one not to be missed.

Me, Charlie, Kevin and Aimie all woke up early this morning to make our way to the Ibis Ambassedor Hotel where Charlie's parents our staying as our tour guide was waiting for us there to set off to the DMZ at 8am. Needless to say the four of us were pretty tired having to get up so early on the weekend but we were hoping that the prospect of a long day ahead of us was going to we worth it.

We boarded a minibus to head towards Seoul after meeting our tour guide and on the way there she filled us in on some of the details about the kinds of things we were going to see. Whilst letting us know what was in store for us during the deal our guide also gave us some background information into the DMZ, I'm not going to share everything that she told you, but if you are interested in learning more than follow THIS link to the wikipedia information page.

Rather interestingly the tour guide of ours told us that people in the South of Korea are extremely positive and are really wanting the country to re-unite as one country again. The fear the threat of war and have done despite the civil war finishing more than fifty years ago. She told us that in preperation for this Korea had actually started to build roads linking the two countries together and although the North had allowed their construction, they are yet to be allowed to use them. The funny thing is, is that the road goes all the way through their northern neighbours land all the way to China as Korea has big plans to link itself to Europe, just one country stands in their way from achieving their goal at the moment though.

She also gave us what little information the South Korean's have on the North's feelings towards reunification. Kim Jong-Il as it it widely known has been sick for a long time and it has already been decided that one of his sons will take charge of the country when he passes away. Personally I thought that because of the situation in North Korea at the present moment, the whole world supported a change of leadership as they feel this might be benneficial to the political situation. Interesting enough though our guide seemed to think that a there is a good enough relationship between the two countries at the current moment to build a link and she said that is Kim Jong Il stays in charge for the next five years then a change may happen. South Korean people are worried that if there is a change in the countries leadership then they will be more under threat from the N Korean's than if the current structure stays in place.

About an hour and a half after setting off we reached our first destination Imjeongbak. This is the last stop on the commuter railway line and the nothern most point which people who aren't going to the DMZ are allowed to travel to. As we began to get closer and closer to the DMZ the landscape and our surroundings changed dramatically. For once there weren't tonnes and tonnes of tower block flats to be seen and although there were houses and mountains to the right, on our left hand side there was as massive lake surrounded by barbed wire fence and a large number of guard towers.

Back in Imjeongbak we got off the bus and were free to walk about the area and take pictures. As well as looking at the station we were able to see a brief sighting of N Korea for the first time and there was also a rather interesting railway line which is beginning to be built heading north. As well as this there was some war memorobelia and a picturesque park which the South hopes will be known as the 'peace park' if the borders between the countries ever opens.

It was extremely surreal being able to see one of the most closed border countries in the world in the distance and with busses and busses of people around it seems that the South are doing all they can to get tourists in to see exactly what the border between the two countries looks like.
We then hopped on a big tourist bus with a couple of other groups to head closer to the DMZ and reaching our first checkpoint on the way an armed guard came on board our bus to check our passports and clear us to go on to the next place.

As we were driving it was pretty strange to be driving on a basically empty road which seemed to be heading towards nothing. We drove up a windy path and on the side of the road there were signs which said 'Danger mines' as before the road we were driving on had been constructed it had been used as a point at which the North Korean's had attacked so to protect themselves the South had lined the road with mines should it be necessary to blockade the road.

A little further down we also saw two relatively tall towers which looked like the were lookout posts. We were informed that they were infact filled with dynamite which could be detenated should there be any attempt by North Koreans to storm the country as this would also prevent access to the only road into South Korea.

At our next port of call we were told that this would be our first oppertunity to actually see into North Korea. As we climbed up an observation deck we were greeted with the sight of armed guards and a row of about twenty sets of binoculars. For 500 won (50p) you can look through the binoculars and see the closest city to the border over the other side and if you looked close enough you could actually see people working in the fields.

Strangely enough whilst I was looking I didn't see a single car or motorised vehicle driving on the road and aside from one person working in a field all I saw was a man riding a bicycle. It's a strange concept really to be effectively spying on a town across the border but you can bet your life that people in well hidden guard towers are probably over the otherside doing the same thing. Sadly whilst we're armed with cameras there're more than likely to be armed with AK47's!

Although from the observation tower you can look into North Korea we were informed that you're not actually allowed to take pictures unless you are behind a yellow painted line on the floor. I witnessed a couple of people trying to get away with it subtly but they were harassed by the guards who made them delete the pictures off their cameras. Don't ask me why your only allowed to take pictures from behind a yellow line two meters away from the bicoculars that you can actually look through and see people on the otherside but that's just the way it us.

If you're tall like Kevin you can actually get a decent picture as you can still see over the wall and take a good picture but for the short ones amongst us your best served holding your camera up above your head and hoping to get a good shot. Hopefully that is what I managed to do.

After our allotted time at the observation tower we headed back on board the bus and in the direction of the '3rd tunnel'. The 3rd tunnel was the third of four tunnels which the North Korean's had used between the end of the war and the 1990's to try and complete a surprise attack and invasion on Seoul. The third tunnel is the only one still intact and was discovered when a scientist was conducting an experiment using water in the ground and who accidenly stumbled upon a plot to attack the country.

There were no pictures allowed to be taken in the 3rd tunnel so we had to put out bags in lockers before we got going and then we started to climb down a small slope before joining a queue to collect a safetly helmet for our descent.
The tunnel has obviously been improved alot since it was first created but it still had the dank surroundings which were used in it's initial creation. There was water dropping from the roof, no scaffolding holding it up and small holes in the wall where dynamite was used to make the tunnel big enough for 30,000 troops to crawl through in an hour.

It took about ten minutes to get to the bottom of the tunnel and when you get there all that prevents you from walking further is a huge reel of razorwire and a huge blast door which has a small window in. The door is exactly 170m from the North Korean border and though thw window you can see two other doors which are even closer to the border. Sadly you're only able to look at them and not able to walk any closer though it was pretty strange to be able to get that close to the border of N Korea.

After taking the strenuous walk back up the 3rd tunnel we watched a short film and were guided round a museum which has plenty of war memorobellia and also an aerial photograph of how the DMZ has developed over time. We boarded back onto the bus at the end of our tour and headed back to Imjunback where we got back on our bus and headed back towards Seoul for a much needed spot of lunch.

Getting into Seoul took about an hour or so, and on the way back our tour guide gave us some interesting facts about the city, including the fact that 70% of Korean's live in Seoul and the surrounding area. A pretty amazing statistic I'm sure you'll agree.

We headed towards the World Cup Stadium for some lunch, a spot where we'd been a couple of weeks ago on our way to Global Gathering, and we sat down to eat in a food court which was just on the outside of the stadium. I was pretty hungry after not eating anything more than an ice cream and some faux Frosties in the last seven hours so I pretty much picked the buggest meal I could get my hands on!

Lunch was followed by some light exercise in the area surrounding the Stadium, known as the World Cup Park. A pictureque view of Seoul was visable by climbing up 292 steps to the top and a big group of us managed to make it up to the top to get some great pictures and work off the lunch which we had just eaten!

Climbing back on board the bus we headed to our final destination for the day which was Hanok Village. It was just a few stops from Myeong-dong Station which is where Seoul Tower is located and therefore it provided a fantastic view of the tower itself.
The palce of Hanok was actually pretty cool and with it being Chuseok there was plenty going on. Plenty of traditional games were taking place as we'd seen the day before at Chenggyeongyang Palace and there were were also some stalls with traditional Korean food being made and the oppertunity to dress up in some native Korean costumes. (something which as you'll notice, Charlie's family decided to take part in)

Staying at the palace for about an hour we were all pretty tired and our tour guide suggested that we make our way back to Suwon after an extremely full day. It took about another hour or so to get back to Suwon-Si and after a fun filled day we were all ready for some much needed rest which we all picked up after having some dinner and going our seperate ways.

It's hard to put into words how truly incredible the DMZ was and visiting there has definately ticked off one of the things that I definately needed to do whilst I was in Korea. It's a very unique tourist attraction and I'm very fortunte to have been able to go there. Although I wasn't able to take as many pictures as I'd like whilst I was there (partly because you weren't allowed to prevent annoying the N Koreans) but I certainly will always remember what I have seen.

The weekend as a whole was throughly enjoyable and I am looking forward to the next five days passing by so that we can spend another weekend being tourists and getting out to see what Seoul has to offer.

Some videos of the last couple of days in Korea can be seen on my video website at: http://s76.photobucket.com/albums/j28/benjsmall_0014/Korea%202009-2010/

And some pictures of my trip to the DMZ can be seen at: http://smallsyskoreanadventure.shutterfly.com/1560

Enjoy and take care,

Ben

Before you can score
you must first have a goal.
Greek Proverb