Today was one of the two planned tours on the trip, this one to the DMZ between North and South Korea. We boarded the bus in Seoul, and took the one hour bus ride north. That’s not actually that far north, about 50km. There’s a river that comes from North Korea down towards South Korea, so basically there’s barbed wire the whole way on the river bank, with concrete guard towers every two hundred meters or so. About one in five towers were manned. Apparently spies would float down the river, explaining all the barbed wire. The border was basically the place where troops were when fighting stopped. They then when 2km north and south, and that created an upper and southern boundary line. The bit between the two boundaries in the DMZ. In South Korea there’s a civilian line quite a bit further back, which you can’t cross unless you’re authorised, such as working in the zone, or being on a tour. The first stop was Dorasan Station, which is the last train station in South Korea. a while ago relations were improving between the two countries so an old train line connecting them was being done up. Freight traffic was sent across, and a big passenger station was built. Relations deteriorated, and no passengers ever travelled through the station. So basically, we toured a big quiet train station. It was a bizarre experience. Kathryn compared it to like being on a film set. Next, we headed to the Dora Observation Post. This had good views of North Korea through those paid for binoculars. There’s a gift shop there you can buy chocolate. Which is weird. I thought I saw big black birds flying overhead, turns out they were drones. We saw the North Korean propaganda village which was empty but looks like a full city. We saw one of the largest flags in the world, which weighs about 300kg. So that was weird. Weird I think was the word of the day. More to come. We then went to the 3rd infiltration tunnel. So North Korea dug a bunch of tunnels under the DMZ to prepare to invade Seoul. Some were discovered when defectors talked about them. This tunnel was the closest to Seoul, and when asked what they were doing, North Korea claimed they were coal mining. They even sprayed Coal Dust on the inside of the tunnel. Of course, it’s all granite under the ground, so that was perhaps the worst fake story they could have come up with. So I walked down this steep incline (think a steep street) 350m, then saw the tunnel for 260m, then a concrete wall. The tunnel was about 1.7m tall in most places, so I had to stoop a bit, this tall German dude had to nearly crouch. So all that was weird. But the weirdest bit was visiting Panmunjeom, or the meeting house on the border. We had to get a briefing, then walk in double file up these steps to then view the meeting house, which is one of the blue buildings, and then the North Korean place, which is the big building in the photo. We were only allowed to take pictures in certain places, at certain times, pointed in certain directions. We then walked in double file into the main meeting room. Because this meeting room borders both North and South Korea, standing in the other side of the meeting room means you’re technically in North Korea. Which is bizarre. The whole thing seems a little unreal and a bit of staged show, until you hear about a bunch of South Korean and American soldiers who were murdered by North Korea when they tried to cut down a tree that was blocking their line of sight of one of their outposts. Just crazy stuff. North Korea and South Korea only signed an armistice, which is like a truce between fighting. They're still technically at war since no peace treaty was ever signed, and things can flare up at any time. We then made our final stop at an observation post overlooking North Korea. The sun was low in the sky, setting over the massive flag at the propaganda village, the air was clear, still and calm, and all the trees had lost most of their leaves, making it look pretty serene. It was like we were overlooking a national park. I ate an ice cream. You can buy ice cream on the border between two warring countries. As a New Zealander, that places like this exist in the world just blow my mind. We then caught the bus back to Seoul, and they played a K-Pop movie called Joint Security Area, a fictional movie about North Korean and South Korean soldiers who become friends in the DMZ.

• published: 15 Nov 2014
• views: 139