As we were riding, our guide told us about the DMZ, which she pronounced DM “Jed”. The letter Z isn't in the Korean alphabet, so Koreans use J instead. We got a brief history on the Korean war and overview of the area as the crush of buildings gave way to countryside. I haven't seen many suburbs in Korea. There's city and suddenly there's countryside. Japan has areas with neighborhoods and subdivisions, but even less populated areas in Korea have high rise apartment complexes.
Anyways, we were following the Han river, and soon there were barriers on the banks to keep people from swimming to South Korea. We passed between two short walls, which our guide told us were full of dynamite “for protection.” Eventually we reached the Joint Security Area and the Camp Bonifas. Some rather imposing looking Bonifas personnel ushered us out of the buses and gave us a briefing on the history of the JSA. Notably, they mentioned an “Axe Murder Incident” that I had never heard of. Apparently, in 1976 while U.S. Soldiers were pruning a tree, North Korean forces surrounded them and axed Captain Bonifas to death. The retaliation effort, called “Operation Paul Bunyan,” involved masses of UN forces protecting the determined lumberjacks.
We piled into different buses for “security reasons” and were driven to an area designed for meetings between North and South Koreans. The soldiers, who were clearly some of the U.S. Army's buffest, warned us not to take pictures, make gestures, or walk anywhere outside of the boundaries they set for us. As we lined up in a desolate building designed for family reunions between separated family members—which has never been used—we were told to wait inside. Glancing through the doors, we discovered that there were North Korean forces touring the area. The soldiers were less than a hundred yards away, but they remained on the other side of the line, a raised piece of concrete separating the two sides of the camp. When the North Koreans left the courtyard, we were allowed to step out onto the patio and take pictures. Meanwhile, the North Koreans emerged on the balcony of another building and took pictures of us. As we watched and ROK soldiers hovered nervously around, another group of North Korean soldiers marched up to the line one by one and had their pictures snapped with us as a backdrop. It was truly bizarre.
We went into a building in the center of the courtyard where officials from both sides had meetings. Here, I technically crossed into North Korea as I walked to the other side of the small structure, which was marked T for temporary back in the 50's.
After we piled back into the buses, we were told we wouldn't make it to the “Bridge of No Return” because of security concerns. The bridge was so named because after the cease fire, Koreans were allowed to pick a side with one stipulation: once they crossed the bridge there was no going back. We returned to our original buses and headed for the infiltration tunnel
There's not much to say about the tunnel except it was short and we had to crouch through it. The North Koreans dug several tunnels into South Korea; three have been discovered and 14 more are suspected to exist. One tunnel almost made it to Seoul. Those soldiers—men and women, incidentally, as North Koreans have ten years of involuntary conscription for both sexes—must have been pretty tough to crouch through miles of that.
We went to the Panmunjon Overlook, where we could peer into North Korea through pay telescopes. Here we saw Freedom City and its dysfunctional sister, Propaganda City (I can only guess what the North Koreans have named them). Both had really high flagpoles with massive flags on them. Apparently there was a bit of a height war, with each side building their flagpole up until both were over a hundred meters tall (the South Koreans capitulated in the end). The Republic of Korea lures residents to Freedom City by subsidizing the housing and farmland and exempting residents from South Korea's conscription requirement, which is two years for all males. No one lived in Propaganda City, though one of North Koreas ubiquitous propaganda megaphones blasted slogans from the center until a few years ago. The cities sit hundreds of meters apart, and their absurdly large flags bring to mind a Dr. Seuss novel. We could also see a North Korean city and a statue of Kim Il Sung. We couldn't take any pictures from the lookout point. We were allowed to take pictures from behind a line painted on the concrete which allowed us some unimpressive shots of the railing and horizon.
Our penultimate stop on this increasingly surreal tour was a tollbooth on the road to North Korea. There is, in fact, a road to North Korea, and since they have cracked their doors for South Korean business, you can conceivably drive to North Korea. All but one of the tollbooths had red X's over them, and not one car drove up to the remaining lane for the hour we were there. We then went to Freedom Bridge, which appears to be a large tourist spot for South Koreans. There was a “Unification Resort”, which included a small park, a lagoon, and a lot of restaurants. As we listened to what I assume was sentimental music, we walked partway down a bridge to North Korea to a wall, which was covered with prayer and memorial ribbons. I noticed a full bottle of soju, uncapped, at the end. Someone left an offering for his North Korean brethren.
We got back onto the bus one more time to go back to the city. As we rode back, a bombastic young American teacher behind me regaled us all with his thoughts on the North and South Korean relationship , saying erudite things like, “When the U.S. is involved, things will be different” and “You know, it's hard for North Koreans. I feel sorry for them.” I could see Bobby turning purple with the urge to tell the kid to shut up, but he didn't. After a long bus ride, it was back to the lodge to pick up our bags, and then back to Daegu on the KTX.
I can't say I understand what it's like to have a divided country. I know reunification will be harder the longer it takes. Already a generation of Koreans who know no family in North Korea has reached middle age. North Korea has a very small percentage of the GDP of South Korea, and reunification will create a huge strain on South Korea's economy. Nonetheless, when Koreans talk of reunification, they never say “if,” always “when.” I suppose if they can build their country from shambles to industrial leaders in under 50 years, they can do anything.
Here we are! The blue buildings are UN, the gray ones, North Korea. There's a gray building just out of sight on the right that was the Czech and Polish communist building. Don't know what they use it for now...
North Korean soldiers taking pictures of us taking pictures of them. The ROK soldier with his back to us is one of those guys I wouldn't mess with.
North Korean and ROK soldier statues outside of the tunnel
The no picture line. Love the view.
The wall at the beginning of freedom bridge
The road to nowhere...er, North Korea (Talking Heads fans will get this. No disrespect intended.)
Unification resort. I think this is one of those situations where the translation doesn't come out quite right. It's more like a reunification mini mall.
The bridge to North Korea
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