The Demilitarized Zone (The Border -- North and South)

No trip to South Korea would be complete with a trip to the Demilitarized Zone. Its the most interesting area on earth. Its a contrast -- in everything really -- its a tourist trap (with gift shops), its a war zone, its guarded (on South Korea's side) by the free world, you stand 50 yards from the enemy. Its bold and scary and yet surreal and amusing. It was the strangest day of my life and yet one of the most interesting.


Our intro-briefing.

Our guide / main protector. Every move a civilian makes in the DMZ is protected by the Americans, the UN and the South Korean military. We felt free, uninhibited and yet safe and protected.

The actual current border is the cement strip, between the two buildings, running across this picture (just in front of the guards). Here's how the DMZ works -- in this area we are standing in the JSA (joint security area). Its a carved out area with the border running through the middle that is jointly patrolled by both nations. Its also the where the monthly communications meetings between the two sides are held. In reality, its much simpler. For every South Korean building, there is a North Korean one. They are differentiated by the colours. Blue is the UN and gray is the North Koreans.

In this picture the South Koreans guards are staring at the North Korean guard. The SK guard standing half-protected by the buildings in case of gunfire. The SK guards also are standing in a defensive position, designed to create an intimidating stance for the North Korean soldiers.

Here's the odd part. Everyone was taking photos. We felt odd smiling, even taking photos, but o the other hand it seemed like any other tourist destination
and completely normal to take photos!

More on the stance. Its a modified Tae Kwon Do position. Designed to create fear and intimidation in the person it is directed at. The sunglasses and the helmet are also wore to do the same. In all fairness, the hostility wasn't directed at us and we still felt slightly intimated! :)

This is my head in the picture. We are standing at one of the check points on the border. At this particular space we are standing surrounded by the NK border on three sides.

This is the NK checkpoint directly across from us. My video camera has an incredible zoom lens so as I zoomed in on the tower, I caught -- big and bold -- in my screen a NK guard with binoculars zoomed in on me! It was so surreal!

The SK's have a village in the DMZ and it has a very large flag pole. It is entirely visible from the border so the flag is there as a reminder of SK. The NK's (not ones to be out done) doubled the height of the flag pole in the NK village on the border and constructed one of the largest flags in the world to fly from it. It is easily the most visible sight for miles upon miles. The flag weighs 600 pounds dry and the flag pole is 160m tall!

This is the bridge of no return. At the end of the Korean War, the POW were returned to their home country -- the terms of the agreement were that the soldiers were allowed to select the country they wished to return to -- however once they crossed the bridge to that country they would never be allowed to return.

The second stop on the tour was another observation tower. It was raining when we arrived so the sights weren't that great, but the view was still incredible!

The third stop was to the tunnels. This particular tunnel was discovered in the 1970's. It was built from the NK side and it would allow 30,000 NK troops to enter SK by the hour. It is an impressive tunnel and on the tour you are allowed to go in it. You walk down a distance of 79m and then you are able to walk about 360m into the tunnel. You can see the dynamite holes through the tunnel and interestingly, the NK government had the tunnel painted with black paint and smeared with coal. When the tunnels were discovered, the NK's declared that they were abandoned mine shafts, even though there is no coal in the region whatsoever!

We are standing at the entrance to the tunnel. Originally we were not going to wear the hard hats, but boy are we glad we did! The tunnels were so short! Jason must have hit his head on the ceiling at least 15 times! So hard hats are a must!!