Peeking into North Korea (Cheorwon, South Korea)

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(Day 191 on the road)Cheorwon, about 2 hours north-east of Seoul and right at the border with North Korea, is very much off the beaten path for western tourists. It is one of the few points in the country where you can get a glimpse into the North Korean territory through the famous Demilitarised Zone (DMZ), and take a walk through one of the tunnels North Korea had dug in preparation of a possible invasion of the south.

I arrived in Dongsan, a part of Cheorwon, in the late afternoon by bus from Seoul. It took me a while to find a place to sleep, and in the end I settled for a very grim place at the edge of town. But I didn't mind at all as it fitted its surroundings perfectly: The town had a very border-kind of feel to it, barren, rough and not pretty at all. Soldiers could be seen everywhere in town, and the closer I got to the actual DMZ the next day, the heavier their presence grew. After a nice dinner of bibimbap in the company of mostly very young looking soldiers and their girlfriends I had a walk around town and then called it an early night.

The next morning, I was at the tourist information in Goseokjeong at 0900h. Somebody had told me that they organise free tours of the tunnel and the DMZ. As it turned out, this tour requires you to have your own car, which of course I didn't. However, it took me only a short while to find two guys that was nice enough to take me along in their car. They were actually Japanese tourists who were in a holiday in South Korea for three (!) long days, and with my recent visit to Japan we had something to talk about right away and got along very well.

The first stop on the tour was the Second Tunnel of Aggression, which penetrates South Korea territory by 1.1 km. This tunnel was discovered by South Korean soldiers in March 1975 when they heard an underground explosion, caused by the dynamite used by North Korea to dig the tunnel. Surprisingly, North Korea denied all accusations, and claimed first that it was the South who drilled it (proved to be false by the direction of the dynamite blast-holes) and later claimed that it was a coaling mine (though there is no coal at all in the area). Walking in the tunnel is pretty scary once you realise how close you are to North Korea and how deep underground you are (50-160 meters). No pictures where allowed inside the actual tunnel, but I managed to take a short video walking along, which is pretty "atmospheric".

The second stop on the tour was at the Cheorwon Peace Observatory, situated right at the border of the DMZ. It allows great views into North Korea, and you can spot a propaganda village on the other side and some North Korean military outposts on the hills on the other side of the DMZ. The DMZ is about 4 km wide and completely uninhabited since the end of the Korean war in 1953, now a haven for wildlife including some endangered species.

The next stop was a ruin of a building that was used by North Korea before and during the war as torture prison. The building was in use for five years and so notorious at the time that people said "Anyone who goes in there never comes out intact". Now it stands in ruins as a reminder of the past and presents a gruesome sight. The last stop was a memorial at the site of the bloodiest battle of the Korean war, the Battle of White Horse at the hill of the same name in 1952. After China had come to North Korea's aid in the war, the hill was the place of a bitter fight that lasted for ten days, changed hands 24 times during the time, and caused the loss of 13.000 Chinese and 500 South Korean lives.

After this absorbing tour, I made my way back to Seoul, now keen to actually set a foot into North Korean territory at the Joint Security Area about 40 km north of Seoul.

Next stop: The DMZ north of Seoul (Joint Security Area, Korea).



To view my photos, have a look at pictures.beiske.com. And to read the full account of my journey, have a look at the complete book about my trip at Amazon (and most other online book shops).

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