DMZ
Trip Start
May 28, 2006
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81
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Trip End
May 17, 2007
Loading Map
Panmunjeom,
Korea Rep.
Thursday, November 16, 2006
10 Bridge of no return
The sights can be seen as a day trip from Seoul and we met the other people in our group just before 8am on an incredibly cold day. There were a handful of Europeans, but the vast majority were middle-age Japanese men dressed in suits. We were warned that the trip would be to a potentially dangerous area, but we still found the military precision of the operation at times quite overwhelming. 
09 N.Korean soldier
We needed to carry our passports with us at all times and could only take photos when permitted to do so, there was also a strict dress code that forbid any pseudo-military outfits or any "ganster-style clothing" and at times we were made to march in twos just like at primary school and explicitly told not to point or make any exaggerated gestures while looking into North Korea, in case the photos the other side were taking of us could be manipulated for propaganda purposes to make it look as we were giving them the finger!
02 Dorasan Train Station
We started our sightseeing in a park near the DMZ where the South Korean government paid for a special alter for displaced Northerners to come and perform ancestor worship ceremonies. Confucianism, which still seems to govern a lot of modern Korean behaviour, dictates that these important rites are conducted on a regular basis - offerings of food and alcohol are made, usually at a shrine within the home, but unable to return to their homeland North Koreans come to this park. We witnessed one tearful white-haired old man pouring several glasses of soju (rice wine) and bowing before the altar. It just brought home to us how the war split whole families as well as a nation.
03 Looking into the North
From the park we moved onto the a brand new very modern looking train station that's served three times a day by a direct train from Seoul. They don't refer to it as the last stop in South Korea, but as the first stop towards the North. It's all very optimistic stuff - thirteen thousand individuals donated money for this building, but the fact remains it seems unlikely that the Seoul - Beijing / Moscow Express will be passing through any time soon. 
08 Biggest flagpole
We got our first proper glimpse of the North from an observatory we visited next - you could pop 500 Won coins in the slot of the telescopes to see into the DMZ and beyond. You can clearly see North Korea's third largest city just a few kilomteres away and the industrial estate where five South Korean factories have been built to employ North Koreans. They produce household goods for export to Russia and China. It was the first either of us had heard of such a venture and it did seem quite hopeful as we saw a string of lorries crossing the tightly controlled border, but the news that these workers received $50 a month which was mainly then paid in tax to Kim's regime seemed less encouraging. From the observatory you also get a good look at an prime example of one-up-manship: two villages are visible one in the north nicknamed Propaganda Village and one in the south. The former got its name because, although no one lives there, up until 2004 they played constant messages through a tanoy system, it also boast the tallest flag pole in the world - 160 metres high. The North Korean flag hangs there - not really flapping as you need a lot of wind to move a 300lb dead weight. The village in the South only has a 100 metre high pole - we were told the they got theirs first and within 24 hours the neighbouring village's pole was upgraded.
04 Tunnel 3
We did find it difficult at times to know which of these details was fact and which was fiction - for instance we were told the average height of a man in the North is just 158cms where as in the South it's 178cms - true or false we're unlikely to find out at the moment. One thing we were able to verify though was Kim Il Sung's fanatical desire to dominate the whole of the Korean peninsula. We took a trip to a tunnel, discovered in 1974, which extends for 1.2 kilometres into the South's territory. It seems that despite signing a truce he just wouldn't give up the idea or conquering Seoul. 
07 Soldier
The South discovered 4 such tunnels (the last as late as 1990!) spread along the border region, but this was the most threatening as it's only just over 50kms from the South Korean capital. Perhaps the funniest thing we heard all day was that when the tunnel was discovered, the North tried to hide their true intent by saying that it was merely a coal mine - the whole area is dominated by granite rocks - so to back-up their claims they had some of the retreating soldiers paint black "coal" seams onto the wall - slightly crazy we thought!
06 Panmunjeom
After a morning spent skirting the DMZ, after lunch we headed into it proper. Panmunjeom is the only place you can visit and it's jointly administered by the North and the UN. We had to change buses and be driven by a military escort and were again briefed on appropriate behaviour. We were guests at the UN's Camp Bonifas their reassuring motto is "In Front of Them All" and after a detailed briefing we were made to sign a document - the like of which neither of us had seen before - basically saying that if a crazed North Korean solider took a potshot at us, the UN wasn't to blame. What followed was a brief if unforgettable walk around the compound where we got to enter the negotiation room and step into North Korea (half the room is in the People's Democratic Republic, the other is in the South) and have our picture taken with two unsmiling, unmoving ROK soldiers wearing dark glasses and posing in a Taekwondo stance designed to intimidate their Northern counterparts. All slightly surreal and not an experience we're likely to forget in a hurry.
