Korea Day 8 - North Korea

Both me and Ken had to get up early the next morning for our DMZ tours. The DMZ is just outside of Seoul so most of the tours just start in Seoul. Some of the tours went just to the stuff outside of the actual DMZ, but still related to the war or North Korea, some went just to the DMZ and some did both. I wanted one of the tours that did both while Ken just wanted to go to the DMZ. Unfortunately Ken's tour got canceled and after talking with some seriously unhelpful tour operators he basically found out that he could now only go on one of the tours that didn't go to the DMZ. Figuring it was better than nothing he signed up for one of those. My tour picked me up at the hotel. I was actually outside early but they also showed up early and we got going. After meeting up with the full group in downtown Seoul we headed off toward the DMZ. The first stop was at a place called unification park. Both North and South Korea talk a lot and genuinely seem to want reunification but they just have different ideas of how that would play out. The park isn't actually all the close to the border, being outside the DMZ, but it is one of the closer points that normal Korean people can go to. Besides some tacky stuff like little kid amusement park rides there were also a few monuments depicting different parts of North Korea and a bridge where people put up different messages and what not about unification.

Though no one really travel between the Koreas any more right after the war ended a number of families were split apart, a legacy which remains to this day. There is also a train bridge that I don't believe actually goes anywhere but is one of the many things they seem to build on the theory that one day it will be useful. The most interesting thing was a big pool shaped like the Korean peninsula, which had a fountain that wasn't on while I was there. Next we went to a place up on a hill that overlooked the DMZ. There were those big tourist telescopes that allowed you to look down over the DMZ and even into North Korea. In the DMZ you could see two model villages where apparently the farmers had to be guarded by soldiers while they planted crops. The North Korean one is apparently empty just housing a huge sound system so that they can broadcast propaganda messages at the other village. Both villages have gigantic flag poles with the North Korean one being a little bigger as apparently the South Koreans figured that they had better stuff to do at some point. The area is actually noted for its lack of development due to the high tension. The whole DMZ has become something of a sanctuary for rare and endangered birds since so few people live or go into it.

I could also see down into the Kaesong Industrial Park a industrial area where South Korean companies could use North Korean labor. The park was actually having trouble just as I got to Korea and the North Korean government was demanding higher wages, the wages were paid directly to the North Korean government who supposedly gave them to the workers. The park was actually a lot bigger than I thought as I saw some rail and a bunch of machinery suited for heavy industry. The whole thing was basically the brain child of the founder of Hyundai who was originally from North Korea, though before the war. According to legend he stole a cow from his family's village and used the money to start the company. Years later besides starting the Industrial Park he also donated 1001 cows back to North Korea as a form of food aid/publicity stunt. While you could look over into North Korea you weren't allowed to take any pictures over the side. They had a designated picture taking zone from which I could see exactly nothing worth taking a picture of. Next we headed to the famous third tunnel. After the war despite high tension on the DMZ North Korea tried several times to build tunnels under the DMZ for god only know what purpose.

Of these tunnels the most recent or third tunnel is probably the most famous as it actually made it all the way across the DMZ before they stopped it. Apparently they only even knew about it thanks to a defecting engineer. The South Korean built an intercepting tunnel and stopped the North Koreans sending them back. In a despite and just plain odd attempt to hide what they had been doing the North Koreans painted the entire tunnel black and claimed they had been looking for coal. The South Korean eventually sealed off the tunnel where it went across the border but widened the entrance they had built and turned it into a tourist attraction. The sight became so popular that at one point North Korea demanded some of the money for it reasoning that they had built the tunnel after all, they were let's say rebuffed. The entrance to the tunnel was a long sloping walk way that was steep enough and long enough that it was like walking up a 30 story building. It never looked like that much while I was in it but going up was extremely tiring. Since it was deep enough underground it was close to the earth's core temperature which is pretty cool. They made us wear hard hats which was a good thing as I bumped my head into the ceiling pretty hard a couple of times.

In the tunnel I was actually able to get within 100 meters of the boarder, the point at which the South Koreans had begun to put up walls and what not. Despite it being cold and wet underneath it was incredibly cool and you could actually see the paint and coal dust they had brought in to disguise the tunnel. After I came out of the tunnel I went through a little museum that described the history of the area. The last stop before the lunch was at a railway station that was built just outside the DMZ with the idea that someday it would be the jumping off point for when normal traffic started between North and South Korea. There was even an odd painting of a train heroically going between the Koreas. The whole thing looked like a big working train station but there was only one train a day from Seoul and that was only for tourists. After that we went to this place for lunch which was included in the price of the trip. After lunch our group joined up with a few other groups. I was apparently the last one on the bus after I went to the bathroom even though I was still 15 minutes early.

We drove off into the DMZ stopping at several points while a soldier got on the bus to take a quick look at our passports. We passed several what looked like tunnels expect they were basically just huge concrete blocks suspended above the road. The idea we were told was that if there was ever a war these would be dynamited blocking the road so that it would slow down the North Korean advance toward Seoul. We drove past roads marked with little signs to warn people that just off both sides of the road were mine fields. We came to an American base, one of the few in the DMZ since years ago they realized that while the North Koreans would launch suicide missions against American bases they more or less left the South Korean soldiers alone. In the base we watched a short history of the area and had to sign a liability waver which must be one of the few that includes a waver for "enemy activity." While the DMZ is pretty quite now that wasn't always the case. The main area we were going to was the central area and meeting point. At one time it had actually been a neutral area so North Koreans could go to the south side in that area and vise versa. But apparently while the UN forces built security check points on there side the North Koreans just built them all over the place.

At one point there was a UN check point that was basically surrounded by North Korean ones. a tree had also blocked the view of the place so it was really cut off. An attempt had been made to cut down the tree which the North Koreans vigorously protested. When they attempted to cut down the tree a second time a North Korean soldier grabbed the axe and killed to US soldiers with it. This lead to a raising of the US's nuclear alert status and a near war and apparently even resulted in the leader of North Korea issuing an apology. The next day a team including 64 Taekwondo masters came in to cut down the tree. Years later there was a small gun fight in the DMZ after a Russian tourist defected across the line. After signing the waivers we got back on the bus and drove to the main DMZ area. We entered a big building and then were told not to take pictures and to walk in a straight line as we walked to a little blue house situated on top of the border. In the house was a conference table whose middle matched the border exactly. There were also a couple of South Korean soldiers standing perfectly still. We were allowed about 10 minutes to walk around and take pictures. Even though the house was located on the border we were free to walk around in it so I was technically in North Korea for about 5 minutes.

While I was inside taking pictures outside there were some actual North Korea soldiers milling around. At first I wasn't sure what exactly they were doing as they walked up to the border but it soon became clear that they were making a Christmas card, if of course North Korea had Christmas. Three of the soldiers stood at the border while another, with what looked like a ten year old camera, took a few pictures before they all left. The whole thing just seemed so bizarre. One of the most tense and dangerous borders in the world and we are all taking pictures of one another. The South Korean soldiers stood totally motionless in modified Taekwondo stances wearing glasses so they didn't make too much eye contact with the North Koreans. The North Koreans for their part seemed pretty at ease, but I suppose since they're always the ones starting shit if they aren't starting anything what's to be worried about. After milling about on top of the border we all marched single file back into the main building. Apparently some one took a picture while they were outside and they stopped and made them delete it. Actually the oddest thing they told us was that they didn't allow people in really scruffy cloths since they were worried that the North Koreans would take their picture and use it as propaganda saying look they can't afford to cloth their people. Me I hope that with my crazy beard I am now on a poster somewhere in North Korea.

We then went outside on a little raised platform next to the building where we could look down over where we just were. They let us hang out here and take more pictures for around 15 minutes. Most of the North Koreans had gone inside so I mostly just took pictures of the buildings and the extremely tense South Korean soldiers. We got back on the bus after that and they drove us around and showed us a few more interesting things in the DMZ including the place where the axe indicant happened and a place where you could see the little stone markers that were the border stretching across the countryside. The last place we went was a gift shop on an America base where they sold little things like DMZ shot glasses and golf balls. When we finally left the DMZ they gave us the release forms back to keep. The whole thing was really interesting but quite odd as it was talked up so much as to danger but then just seemed sort of silly in many ways.