On the Border of an uneasy ceasefire

On the 15^th of January I embarked on one of the Touristy things I wanted to do in Korea, but that said it is a must do. I took a tour through the Adventure Korea tour company to the Demilitarized zone between North and South Korea. This post is a little factual but I am hoping interesting, there will also be a number of slide shows to show off pictures.

I was picked up outside Hongik University Subway Station in Seoul at 09:30 and from there we had about a 40min drive to Tongil Bridge, the Military control line for the South Korean side of the Joint Security Area at Panmunjeom between North and South Korea.

For those of you who don’t know how it works the DMZ is a 4km wide 250km long stretch of the Korean peninsula. In the centre of this strip is a de-facto border with 2km on the North Korea side and 2km on the South Korea side. This stretch was established at the end of the 2^nd World War when things were still greatly heated between the US and the Soviets who supported South and North Korea respectively. Since then, this area has been the symbol of the tension that exists between Kim Jong Il (North Korean) leader and the rest of the world really. Interestingly enough the South Korean government is promoting the area as a tourist attraction and nature reserve in the hopes that it will become the symbol of unity between South and North should unification ever occur.

The 1^st stop once the checkpoint was cleared (where we were not allowed to take photo’s and had to hold up identification cards/passports so that the soldiers could check who we were) was Imjingak at Paju City.

This centre was set up as a memorial to the Korean war. Here I had a look at an old rusted Steam Locomotive and mulberry tree that were both retrieved from the DMZ and transplanted to their places of rest. From here you could also see The Bridge of Freedom – a railway line that crosses the Imjin River and allows supply trains to go through to North Korea once a week.

Visitors to Imjingak tie ribbons and flags with messages of piece to the fence that leads into the DMZ

From there we moved on to Lunch was rice, kimchi and a whole heap of Soy-bean products. The area inside the DMZ is very famous for its Soy-bean production.

Lunch

There are actually houses inside this joint security area and the people who live here do not have to pay taxes to the Korean government and male members of the families who live there do not have to do the otherwise mandatory army service that is required, because they pretty much have to live their lives as if they are in the army anyway. After lunch I had a very interesting chat with our main tour guide and he was less than complimentary about the current Korean government. He went as far as saying that “The president of Korean is not my president”. Apparently previous government administrations were seeking and achieving the gradual withdrawal of US soldiers from the country and as a result a decrease in a major factor that was fuelling the animosity between North and South.

Me with our tour guides

This administration however, is again asking the US for aid in keeping North Korea in check and thus the US withdrawal has been halted. This is something that our tour guide did not look on at all favourably. There were certainly some interesting opinions flying around.

Lunch was quickly followed by a visit to Panmunjeom itself, where we were taken into the 3^rd infiltration tunnel that was being dug by North Korea in the hopes that they could launch a surprise attack on Seoul. Thus far Southern forces have discovered 4 such possible infiltration tunnels, all of which were being dug from the Northern side of the DMZ with the aim of getting to Seoul. What the North did not expect was that they would have to dig (with picks and spades) and blast their way through granite and they primitive tools they were using certainly did not help them. The 1^st tunnel that was discovered was done so in 1974, the 2^nd in 1975, the 3^rd in 1978...

At the enterance to the 3rd Infiltration tunnel

...and the 4^th interestingly enough, only in 1990. That the 4^th was found only 21 years ago when the other 3 were found a minimum of 22 years before that, makes one wonder 2 things:

1.       How many more tunnels have they North dug?

2.       How far have they gotten?

The tunnel that has gone the furthest is the 3^rd tunnel which progressed 1600m across the DMZ but considering it was another 56km to get to Seoul it had a long, long way to go. As Tourists we were allowed to go 235m into the tunnel which was located 300m underground. At the end of the tunnel are 3 steel doors about 10m apart, which are sealed to prevent anyone from either side getting across.

After Panmunjeon we were taken to Dorasan Station which is South Korea’s northern most train station. It is from here that the supply train goes through to the North once a week and there is also a commuter train that takes South Korean people from that station into Seoul. I even got a joke stamp in my passport to say I was this close to North Korea

Our final stop was at the Ohdu Tongil Unification Observatory where we were given a glimpse onto North Korean soil. Well we would have had a glimpse had it not been for all the snow and haze. After that we made our way back to Seoul, safely returning from the DMZ!

For your humble enjoyment, I present to you my best work yet with Windows live movie maker - My DMZ Trip in 9min. I hope you enjoy it :)

Until next time fellow travellers - Tune in again to Geoff's Asian Adventure