DMZ

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Last weekend I went to North Korea! It was probably the coolest thing I've ever done.

First we took a bus up from one of the military bases in Seoul up to the Panmunjom, which is the area between North Korea and South Korea. We had to watch a short video that was both informative and funny, in that it was a sort of propaganda. I already knew North Korea is messed up. I didn't need to be constantly reminded. Then we went to the Joint Security Area, which is the only area where North Korean and South Korean soldiers look directly at each other. While we were taking pictures of North Korea and their buildings, some North Korean soldiers started filing out of their building, which made our security escort nervous, which made ME nervous. But they just walked up to the line and started taking pictures of one of the guys. Or pretended to take pictures. Because he was pointing that camera for quite a long time. And there was no flash. Then we got to go into one of the buildings that straddle the border. That's where they have talks between the two countries. So if you stand on one side of the building, you're in North Korea! I was sort of freaking out about that.... It was so cool!

Then we learned that there are 4 tunnels that they've found from North Korea. Some defectors told the South Koreans that they've been digging tunnels to Seoul, and they think there are more tunnels out there. We got to go into one of the tunnels and walk almost to the border. They've put steel walls in the tunnels so that no one can cross through. We weren't allowed to take pictures of the tunnel, which was unfortunate b/c it's so cool. We also got to go to an observatory where you can look into North Korea. Which looks a lot like Colorado with the mountains.

We also went to Dorasan Station which is a train station they built when they put in a train track up to Pyongyang. But the North Korean government decided to disallow trains while they were rebuilding it. So it's like a ghost train station because it's set up for international travel and they have all the signs in place, but the trains only go south. If they were allowed to go up into North Korea they could connect to the rest of Asia and Europe, which they really want since transport is really difficult for them right now.

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