Face to Face with North Korea

This past weekend two of my friends (Sarah and Yeasl) and I went up to Seoul to go on a tour to the border of North and South Korea!

The orange stripe represents the DMZ.

The Demilitarized Zone (DMZ)

The DMZ is the 2 km buffer along the border of the two countries on each side (4 km total). The DMZ is represented by the orange line on the map to the right.  Our tour took us to the 3rd Tunnel. These tunnels were created by the North Koreans as they were planning to attack South Korea. Some of these tunnels are quite long, but obviously the digging of these tunnels stopped when S. Korea discovered them.  

While we were there we were able to go into the 3rd Tunnel and walk up to the point that was blocked off. The tunnel is small, wet and chilly. It was big enough to walk through but we had to bend over a bit and wear hard hats because of the low ceiling.

After the tunnel tour, we went to a museum and learned more about the conflict between the countries and what the DMZ now means for Korea. Going to the DMZ really started making the war seem more real to me. Even though I live in Korea, it doesn't seem like the conflict affects our everyday lives. It all just seems like news that has very little to do with me, but here I realized just home close I really was to huge political conflict. 

   **Let me just say that visiting this place isn't scary or anything. It's really just informative and their were so many tour groups. It is just your average light-hearted tourist attraction.

Joint Security Area (JSA)

Now THIS was the most interesting part of the tour for sure!!! The JSA is a place that is not meant to be a tourist attraction, it is an actually army base and is the only place along the border where North and South Korean Armies face each other everyday. Only non-Korean citizen are allowed to come here and you have to be in a tour with the U.S. Army (at least I think that is the only way). When we reached the gate to enter the JSA a U.S. Soldier checked all of our passports again and then continued to be our tour guide. 

The white building in the back in North Korea.

First he gave us a presentation about the history of the war and the significance of the JSA. Next, we went outside and right there in front of us was North Korea and one of its soldiers. We were brought into the little blue building (the one with the open door). This building is where the two Korea's come and talk. It is basically a meeting room with an entrance on both sides, one for South Korea and one for North Korea. The building was built exactly on the border. Since we were in the building we were able to walk around the whole room. Meaning we were able to stand in North Korea. Within the room there were two South Korean Soldiers, that at first glance looked completely fake. They don't move just like the British soldiers, but we were warned that they will move if you try to mess with them. All of the South Korean soldiers that work at the JSA are black belts in taekwondo, and they have to stand in the "ready" taekwondo position for their entire shift. I don't think I could do it...but if your country is depending on you to be prepared for an attack, then I guess you don't want to slack on your duties;)

In both North and South Korea!

As we exited the building we were told to stand in line facing North Korea. Then we were allowed to take pictures, but they were very strict saying that we could only take picture of what was in front of us (North Korea) not the South. This is because it's a military base. As we were taking pictures of North Korea, there were plenty of security cameras staring straight back at us from N. Korea. There was only one North Korean guard outside guarding their building. This guy didn't look like the most professional soldier. While the South Korean soldiers stood in their taekwondo position, the North Korean soldier was semi-leisurely pacing back and forth. He was so not ready for battle.

Surrounded by N. Korea on three side.

Following the photo-opp for the north, we were taken bus bus around the base. The first stop was to a memorial site. It was basically a small monument dedicated to all of the counties that are backing South Korea. At this location, we were surrounded by North Korea on three sides. Such a strange thought. We also could see quite a ways into North Korea. It really is such a beautiful landscape. It's so mountainous, it is just too bad that it's such an awful place for people to live.

The Flag Pole Wars

Within the JSA there are two towns. One on the south side Dae-Seong Dong) and one on the north side Gi-Jeong Dong). They are at literally right next to each other. People still live and work in Dae-Seong Dong. The town has about 200 residents and they are mostly all farmers and farm the land within the DMZ. Since they live right on the border, they have to give a three days notice to North Korea telling them that they are going out to work in their fields. This is because in the past there was an incident when the farmers would go work in their fields the North Korean soldiers attacked them. Poor little farming man.

N. Korean town, Gi-Jeong Dong

The city on the north side is known to be a
propaganda town. It was build in the 1950s to make it look like North Korea was doing well. Due to the handy-dandy telescope you can see that all of the buildings are fake and that there are no inhabitants in the town. All of the buildings are just concrete skeletons. Most of the window are just painted on the building and in the other windows there are lights that go on and off at certain times throughout the day. But there is nothing in the buildings, not even walls.  I guess that every once in a while there are people sent their to sweep the streets to make it look like it is a lived in community. 

Okay, so here is a funny little story about these two towns. So when N. Korea build their town they build a large flag pole and placed it in the middle of the town. S. Korea counter acted this with building and even bigger flag pole and placing it in Dae-Seong Dong. N. Korea could not just let it be, so they created a much, much bigger flag pole. It stands 525 ft tall; that being the 3rd largest flag pole in the world. Then on top of that is the largest flag weighing in at 595 lbs. Now that is one giant flag!  

The Bridge of  No Return

The Bridge of No Return

In 1953, when the Korean Armistice Agreement was signed both side were to return the prisoners of war. So, they brought all of the people to this bridge. As you can see it's a small bridge and on one side is the north and the other the south. The prisoners were told that they had to choose a side, but whatever their decision was, it was permanent. They could never return to the other side again. It is from this event that they bridge got it's name, The Bridge of No Return.

Living it Up in Seoul

Being pulled between the North and South!

We were staying in Seoul for the weekend and we had a fun place to stay after our tour. Sarah had won a free night at some fancy pants hotel. So we were living in luxury for the night! It was so much fun! We were like little kids in a candy store, everything was sooo nice. Then to top the day off even more, we went and had some Mexican food. It doesn't get better than that. Especially when you are deprived of Mexican food for months and months at a time. Nothing tastes better. The night just continued to get better, we were able to meet up with some of our friends who live in Seoul for dinner then we went for a walk down by the Han River. What a lovely evening. I can't even believe that I stayed up until 1am two nights in a row while in Seoul. To me that just seems outrageous, but it happened and it was the greatest weekend off the island!