Acronyms, Kim Jong and vampire deers.. oh my! This past weekend I traveled north of Seoul to tour the DMZ, which is the DeMilitarized Zone. The DMZ, similar to what the Berlin Wall was in Germany, serves as a buffer (and barrier) between the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea) and the Republic of Korea (South Korea). Within the DMZ is the Military Demarcation Line (DML), which follows the 38th parallel across the Korean peninsula. It is 160 miles long, 2.5 miles wide and is the most heavily militarized border in the world. Soooo why wouldn't we go tour it?
The first stop on our tour was the 3rd tunnel. Discovered on October 17th, 1978, it was the third of 4 tunnels North Korea attempted to build in to South Korea. Most likely to be used for a sneak attack on the city of Seoul, the tunnel is 1,600 yards long and 1,150 feet below ground. It was discovered by a North Korean defector while the North claimed the tunnel was built to mine coal. However, upon investigation, the South did not find any coal. Instead, they found rocks smeared with black coal to look like coal. Smart ones, those Northerners. If there's one thing they are consistently good at it, it's deception.
After the 1 mile walk down the tunnel, we traveled to the JSA: Joint Security Area. The Joint Security Area is run by the United Nations on the southern side of the MDL and run by North Korea on the northern side. There are several buildings located on either side of the MDL and several that actually were built on the line. Technically, we stood on North Korean ground!
This picture is inside one of the buildings on Conference Row inside the JSA. The door behind the ROK soldier leads to North Korea and where I'm standing is technically DPRK soil. The ROK soldiers here constantly stand in a ready stance and do not speak or move unless provoked or when changing locations. The buildings on Conference Row are used for North Korea and South Korea to have negotiations with one another when needed.
The building in the back is the DPRK's and the ROK soldiers stand facing that building at all times. Tough gig, if you ask me.
From Conference Row, the military bus took us to a lookout area. From this location we could see the Kjong-dong, which is a North Korean village within the DMZ. The official position of the North is that the village contains 200 people. The flag pole in the village is the third biggest in the world and the flag itself is over 500 feet big and over 600 pounds. Observation from the South suggests that the town is actually an uninhabited village built at great expense in the 1950s in a propaganda effort to encourage South Korean defection and to house the DPRK soldiers manning the extensive network of artillery positions, fortifications and underground marshalling bunkers that abut the border zone. Though no visitors are allowed, it is the only settlement in North Korea within direct eye- and earshot of the DMZ. Until 2004, massive loudspeakers mounted on several of the buildings continuously delivered DPRK propaganda broadcasts directed towards the south. The content was condemning anti-Western propaganda speeches, Communist agitprop operas, and patriotic marching music at high volume for up to 20 hours a day.
Clearly we're all happy to be on the southern side of the DMZ! The town behind us seems ridiculously lame.
This stump and plaque are a memorial to the Axe Murder Incident that occurred in August 1976. The incident involved the attempted trimming of a poplar tree that obstructed the view from the south in to the north. The attempt to trim the tree branches resulted in the deaths of CPT Arthur Bonifas and 1LT Mark Barrett. After their murder, the US preformed Operation Paul Bunyan and sent in a massive amount of troops, artillery, supporting helicopters and armed explosives.. all without alerting the North. Before this event, the soldiers of both sides were permitted to go back and forth across the MDL inside of the JSA, a privilege since revoked.
This is a picture of the Bridge of No Return. The name originates from the claim that after the Korean War, many POWs captured by the United States did not wish to return home. The prisoners were brought to the bridge and given the choice to remain in the country of their captivity or cross over to the other country. But if they chose to cross the bridge, they would never be allowed to return.
This photo was taken at the Dorasan Station, which the ROK put a great deal of money in to make. The train lines were once used to bring materials in to the industrial factory located within the DMZ on the North Korean side. Of course, the North shut that down for some miscellaneous and unproven reason. However, many Koreans desire to reunite the people of the North and South and be a unified Korea once again. The sign here at Dorasan says it best:
The DMZ was a very interesting and intriguing experience. Living in Seoul, I am constantly aware of North Korea and the threat and intimidation they display. Although I constantly felt safe because the ROK soldiers all over the JSA and the American soldiers who lead our tour, I still had to sign a form saying I would not sue the UN if North Korea bombed the DMZ while I was there. That, along with the much smaller distance between me and Kim Jong-Il, made me a tad nervous. I can honestly say that I don't desire to be any closer to Mr. Kim or any member of his family, but experiencing the DMZ and learning about it's history was well worth the risk.
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