I recently went on the US Air Force tour of the DMZ. My friend Julie has a friend from high school, Daren, that is currently working at the Osan Air Force base, about thirty minutes by train from Cheonan. Julie and I visited the base on Friday night and spent a few hours smiling about being "back on American soil." We ate dinner at Chilis and drank margaritas. The menu was in English and Julie and I were in a state of bliss.
After a great night of rest at a real hotel (with sheets! I don't have sheets at my homestay) we went to an American diner and boarded a bus bound for the DMZ. Immediately after boarding it became apparent to Julie and I that we were a little out of place. The bus was all military and their guests. Most guests were girlfriends and Julie and I were a little giggly compared the most of the other passengers on the bus.
Our first stop was at a lookout point by the DMZ called Imjingak Resort Park. The actual DMZ is about two kilometers wide and so our view standing on the South Korean side was mostly symbolic. This spot is a place where many people come and pray for peace and unification. It included a 21 ton bell of peace and many notes written to people in the north hung on a fence. After that stop we entered the DMZ area and proceeded to the Mt. Odu Obersvation point where we saw our first view of NK across the river. We walked around a museum and saw Kim Jung Il's signature and many artifacts from NK. The museum has very up to date articafts and I thought it was really neat to see the newspaper from just the previous week in NK. I also was really interested in looking at the school textbooks. The books looked so old fashioned and included studying the history of Kim Il Sung (Kim Jung Il's father) and his family.
After this point we proceeded to Dora station, located at the northernmost end of South Korea. This is a train station that was created with the expectation that Korea will not be divided forever and that one day the train can run between Pyeongyang and Seoul. Here we walked outside and saw the track that runs to NK and had our passports stamped.
Our next stop was the Joint Security Area, the most famous part of the DMZ. This area is called the panmunjeom and is the only area that is outside the administrative control of both North and South Korea. The U.N has many guards in this area and the whole area is very quiet. We were told not to make faces at North Korea or even point in the direction. The guard on the North Korean side was often looking through his binoculars at us at we looked at him standing on the steps of the North Korean welcome center. It was crazy to think that we were so close to North Korea, yet taking just a few steps in the wrong direction by anyone could cause a potential world war. We were unable to enter the rooms where meetings are held between the north and south because of the H1N1 scare, but we saw where the meetings are held from the outside of the building. I swear that there are very few places in Korea that were no closed for the swine flu.
After leaving the part of the JSA with the North Korean guards standing so close to us, we went to a gift shop. Why wouldn't there be a gift shop? I was pretty excited to buy some soju made in the North. I wonder if it tastes the same as the beloved drink does in the south?
Our second to last stop was at the 3rd Infiltration tunnel. This is the place where the South discovered the North Koreans digging a tunnel towards the Seoul designed for a surprise attack on the South. We walked down 73 meters and walked through the tunnel all the way to the wall that marks the beginning of North Korea. Even that far underground, the line between the North and the South had barbed wire. Behind the barbed wire was a little door leading to the North. I really wondered what was on the other side. I decided not to find out for myself.
The last stop was at another observation point where we saw the road that about 100 South Koreans drive on everyday to their job in North Korea. There are about 100 managers from the South that operate factories in the North for a few thousand employees in the town of Kaesong. I did not know a lot about Kaesong, but it was really interesting to see that although there is so much tension between these two countries, some citizens still freely go from the South to the North on a daily basis. This link is a pretty cool look at a brochure published by the North that includes some information about Kaesong: http://northkorea1on1.com/EImages/downloads/korn-Kaesong-Booklet.pdf
My trip to the DMZ was one of the highlights of my time in Korea and I am looking forward to returning for my second tour with my family in a few weeks.
