It has been said that the DMZ is the world’s most dangerous place. I don’t really believe this, (I feel like the wrong side of Memphis or areas of the Congo are worse) but it does make a cool story to say that I’ve been to the world’s most dangerous place!
On Tuesday of our vacation we woke up again at 6:45 for our tour. We ate breakfast again in the breakfast room, talked to Lars (I think that was his name!) again, and waited outside our hotel for the pick up. At 7:35, a 15-passenger silver van pulled up, and we got in it along with a few other people. It took us to a drop off point where we joined a bigger crowd on a tour bus. The DMZ was only a short forty-five minute ride from Seoul, which really intrigued me. Both capitals of North and South Korea, Pyongyang and Seoul, are less than an hour from the DMZ on either side of the border. In fact, at the beginning of the Korean War, North Korean troops were able to invade and capture Seoul within three days since it is so close.
Our tour guide spoke fluent English, and she was absolutely amazing. On our way to the DMZ, she explained how the day would be organized, what the DMZ was like, (It’s actually a 4 kilometer stretch of land with three different checkpoints. I was thinking that it was basically one line with a huge concrete wall between the two nations or something.) when it was OK to take pictures and when it wasn’t, and other fun facts about the DMZ and surrounding land. For example, did you know that people can live within the borders of the DMZ? It’s not very many people, but if they do, they don’t have to pay Korean taxes. Another thing that she said was that most South Koreans want to reunify with the North. I was surprised by this! I thought that South Koreans wanted nothing to do with the North since the country has no economy and hardly any infrastructure. She said that many South Koreans, despite the differences, still see themselves as one united nation since the North and South is the same race, speaks the same language, etc. (Also, here’s a fun fact for you. South Koreans are the largest Asians. Compared to Americans, they are normal sized. However, North Koreans are the smallest of Asians. Compared to Americans, they are midgets.)
Our first stop was Imjingak Park, where you can see the ONLY train bridge (Freedom Bridge) still standing over the river that connects North and South Korea. As soon as we pulled up into the parking lot, I was overwhelmed with how touristy the area was. Tour buses crowded the parking lot, venders had set up shops selling cheap souvenirs, coffee shops and snack shops lined the perimeter, but the worst thing was the crowd. I’m not lying when I say that there were HORDES of people. Everywhere I went I was being pushed or shoved. Any pictures that I took had at least a few people in them, and I was even grabbed by random Asians to get out of their pictures. I didn’t like it at all! Once we regrouped on the bus and were on our way to the next stop, our tour guide said that this was the busiest she had ever seen the DMZ. She said that on Sunday when she came, there was hardly anyone at all and that for the past couple of weeks business had been very slow because many people were afraid of traveling to Korea due to the North’s errant claims of death and destruction to everyone.
At first I thought, great! The ONE day that we’re at the DMZ and it’s the busiest dang day ever. With all of these crowds, how will we ever get to enjoy it? However, we soon realized why it was such a busy day. That was the LAST day that North Korea was allowing the South Korean workers to come and work in its factories. There were only a handful of workers left, but that was the FINAL day for them to be employed. Tons of news crews were there, set up and ready to capture images, and security was heightened even more than normal at the DMZ since no one knew if North Korea would try to start something that day. That was basically the last day that North and South Korea had any ties to one another. After that, all ties were severed. It was actually a really cool day in history to be there!
We had to go through the first checkpoint of the DMZ to get to our next stop on the tour. The checkpoint consisted of our tour guide explaining that we were a tour group, the soldier checking passport numbers, and then him coming onboard with his huge gun clutched tightly in his hands, looking for any suspicious activity. All of the soldiers were very serious and didn’t smile a lot. However when we passed through the checkpoint, Ian and I were staring out the window, and one of the soldiers smiled and waved at us! It was such a random and unforeseen act that we could do nothing but smile and wave back.
Our next stop on the tour was the 3rd Infiltration Tunnel. After a truce had been agreed upon when the war fighting stopped, North Korea secretly dug a tunnel in order to invade South Korean. Luckily someone leaked the information, and the invasion was thwarted. Our tour guide told us that since the day was rushed, we only had twenty minutes to see the tunnel. It’s quite a rush to do it in only twenty minutes!! It’s a 200 meter walk down a steep incline and then another 200 walk to the end of it. Add in the crowds, and we had quite a challenge! It felt like we were rushing through it. We literally had to run UP the steep incline in order to meet back at the bus in time. I was sweating by the time we made it to our next stop, the theater across the way for a quick documentary about the Korean War.
In one day at the DMZ I learned more about the Korean War than I did in any of my history classes. I feel like the Korean War is kind of skipped over in history as “that war after WWII but before Vietnam.” For example, I had no idea that the Korean War was kind of a surprise. North Korea, with the help of the Soviet Union, basically blindsided South Korea. Unprepared and outmanned, the South Korean forces were forced to retreat further and further away. Residents in the capital of Seoul were given a day’s warning to evacuate. At it’s worst, the entire Korean peninsula was overtaken except for a small circle in the south around Busan. That’s when the UN troops, led by the Americans, charged in.
Enough about history……our next stop was the observatory in which we could look across the border and into North Korea. Even at the observatory, the DMZ stretches probably another kilometer before the actual North Korean border takes over. It was a hazy day, but we could still see into North Korea. There are a couple of villages dotting the border, and one of them has a giant North Korean flagpole. Our tour guide told us the significance behind it. South Korea put up a flag pole on the hills beside the border. Then North Korea put up a slightly taller flag pole in the nearest village. South Korea put a slightly taller flag pole. North Korea put up a slightly taller one. The silly contest continued until South Korea finally said (and I’m paraphrasing here) “Fine! You win! You have a bigger flag pole, but we have running water and electricity. Enjoy that flag pole.” It was pretty cool to look over and see North Korea, but honestly the country looked like a barren wasteland of nothing. Our tour guide told us that if we were there at night, you could look out to North Korea and see complete darkness because those villages don’t have electricity.
Our final stop on the DMZ tour was to the Dorasan Station, the cleanest and nicest train station I’ve ever seen. The reason for this is that it’s the end of the line in South Korea. When relations with North Korea were a little better, the train station was the last stop in South Korea before crossing the border, and the train station is actually a little bitter pill to swallow because it was this big, beautiful building constructed to bring better relations and more travelers between the two countries. However, when North Korea closed the border to South Korea in the mid-2000s, that station became a rarely used building. Plus, it cost a TON of money, and South Korean tax payers are still paying for it today. (Fun fact: Our tour guide told us that foreigners are still allowed into North Korea today. Hardly any countries actually fly into the country, so you have to fly through China first. The visa process isn’t difficult, but it does cost $3,000 because they want your money. I’m not sure WHY anyone would want to go to North Korea, but it is possible.)
After our tour, we decided to re-try visiting the War Monument/Museum. I’m really glad that we were finally able to see it because it was phenomenal. I wished we could have skipped over the first couple of exhibits about ancient Korean history and moved onto the Korean War and more recent history because we ran out of time. Ian, Mollee, and I actually didn’t even get to the 3rd floor because we ran out of time!
That night we met up with a friend, Erin, who teaches outside of Seoul. She asked what food we’d like to eat, and knowing that it’s not something we readily get in Japan, we said Mexican. She said that she knew of a taco place that got good reviews, but she hadn’t been there yet. To the taco stand we went! It was a great choice, too. Everything is fresh and handmade by the owner, a guy from California. After dinner, we wandered around that area of town, eventually grabbing some street food. Ian got a 911 spicy chicken stick, and I got a “no spicy” chicken stick. To explain just how hot Korean food is, Ian’s 911 chicken made him cry, and my not spicy stick was still spicy.
This whole blogging about South Korea thing is quite time consuming, but I swear that I’ll eventually get caught up!!
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