Visiting the DMZ has been on our "Bucket List" for Korea, so since we had a Friday conference with our school up in Seoul, a small group of us decided to take advantage of the free trip up and stick around to go to the DMZ.
It was one of the most interesting places I have visited. It felt like we were visiting some great historical site, only it's a present-day issue. We kept talking about how in the future all of these places are going to be historical sites for when there
used to be the DMZ. The attitude that we noticed in all of our stops was that of
when the Korean Peninsula is united, not
if.
It will be easier to explain everything through pictures, so fasten your seatbelts and settle down for a few minutes - you're in for your own mini DMZ photo tour.
Our first stop was the Dora Observatory. At 9:30am the weather wasn't cooperative to see much, but usually from here you can see the DMZ, Kaesung City (one of the larger cities of the North, and one you may have heard about last year around this time when tension was high), and Propaganda Village. Unfortunately, we couldn't see much at all, and we were restricted to only take pictures behind a line that really prevented us from capturing anything from the other side. This picture is from the main building at this stop, though.
The yellow lines are the North and South borders of the DMZ. The red line is the MDL (Military Demarcation Line)
Our next stop was the 3rd Infiltration Tunnel which was discovered in October 1978. It is 1,635 meters long, and we were told that it is 25 stories underground. Thankfully, we got to take a monorail down and up. They have found 4 tunnels like this so far and are not sure how many more there might be.
Sharon, Laura, Me, Justin, and Elizabeth
We had to wear hard hats to go down into the tunnel.
We weren't allowed to take pictures inside, but I found this one online. We got some great practice walking like an ajumma inside the tunnel.
Outside of the tunnel at the DMZ sign.
The next stop was Dorasan Station which is the closest station to North Korea. Technically the railroad could/would connect all the way from Busan through North Korea and up to China or Russia, but as of now it can't be used that way, of course.
Once the Korean Peninsula is united, you would be able to take a train from Busan all the way to London or Portugal if you really wanted to.
We then set off for Imjingak and the Freedom Bridge. The Freedom Bridge was used to exchange prisoners after the Korean War.
The Freedom Bridge is to the right behind us
Flags of all of the nations that were present during the Korean War
The best place we got to visit was by far Panmunjeom and the JSA (Joint Security Area). During this part of the tour we were actually inside the DMZ, not just looking at it. The most exciting part was going inside the Conference Room where we could cross the border and step into North Korea. This is a
very strict place to visit, for good reason. We were not allowed to make hand gestures or talk loudly.
The conference room
Standing with a UN soldier who is right on the MDL. The lady on the other side of him is in North Korea
Laura and I are in North Korea!
This is the MDL. To the left is North Korea, and to the right is South Korea.
A North Korean soldier was standing guard at the building opposite us.
We were told several times that although only one North Korean soldier was standing outside, we were being watched by many from inside. Here's the proof! Kind of crazy.
Looking at North Korea. The blue building directly behind us (the one we are blocking) is the conference room we got to go in. The soldiers in all green are UN soldiers, and the others are South Korean soldiers, although there are also American soldiers here as well. They stand facing North Korea in a martial arts stance in order to be prepared for anything. The big white building in the back is North Korean and is where the lone North Korean soldier was standing.
Our trip to the DMZ was quite the history lesson, but like I said, it's even more interesting because it's still a current issue. How many currently warring nations are allowing tourist groups to come through? Korea never signed to armistice for the DMZ to be put into place, so to the North and South, they are still officially at war. It will be cool in the future to be able to say that we were there when the peninsula was separated in two.
