DMZ & JSA

Asia » South Korea » Panmunjom
July 19th 2014

Published: August 29th 2014

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Zephyr

JSA

A day trip to one of the scariest places on earth! So excited! I went to the DMZ area during my first stint in Korea, however I went on the cheap tour for about 40,000 won, so we couldn't go to the JSA. I was gutted last time, as the tour was good, but definitely lacking. So I finally signed up to do the proper tour with the USO, the US military. The early start had always put me off, however they have recently introduced a tour that starts at a more respectable time on a Saturday. So we decided we would do the tour, however when we were all trying to sort out our schedules, we realised that we could only do the early starting tour. The others stayed in a hotel close to Camp Kim, which houses the USO tour office, but me trying to save some pennies, stayed at home.

I had to get up at the totally ungodly hour of 4 am. It was rough. I doubled checked a million times that I had my passport, needed for the tour, and I was out the door, not long after half four. Because it's so early the

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buses weren't running, so I had to walk round to the bus stop for the bus that would take me to Seoul Station, normally I'm too lazy to walk and take the bus round to save time, however that was not an option. I managed to get round to the bus stop in 20 minutes. Oh my god, despite being so early in the morning, it was so hot and humid. The sweat was pouring off me as I waited for the bus. The bus turned up around 5:10 and the journey to Seoul Station was quick and painless. I was there by six o'clock. I had plenty of time, so I headed to Maccy D's to get some breakfast. It was heaving. It was so funny to see all the people passed out asleep at their tables after their all nighters. I had to eat my hash brown and sausage egg muffin outside in the station because MacDonald's was so busy. The hot coffee made me sweat even more.

I took the subway to Samgakji and followed the instructions to reach Camp Kim and the USO office. I did a detour to find a store to buy some

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Bacchus, it's a Korean energy drink, but I couldn't find a convenience store in the area. The instructions to get to Camp Kim were great and it's very easy to find. The others were already there an they ha checked in, so I went and did it. I passed the dress code, thank god. The USO has a very strict dress code, but they can lend you clothes so that you meet the requirements. I think the reason for the strict dress code is because if we go dressed like plebs, we would be used as propaganda in the North. Basically, they would say look at those scruff in the South dressed in flip-flops and ripped jeans.

We left from the USO office at 7:30. We drove for about an hour north towards Panmunjom. There is a special checkpoint for civilians heading to this area, but we sailed through because of the tour. We arrived at Camp Bonifas and a member of the military personnel came aboard our bus and checked all our names off on a list, while we showed him our passports or military id. Then we headed in to a building, it was like a lecture

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theater and souvenir shop. We entered the lecture theater along with another bus load of tourists, a lot of them looked like students. We were given disclaimers to sign, basically telling us what we could and couldn't do, how to identify North Korean military personnel, and that it is not the US military's fault if we get killed on the trip, lovely lighthearted reading. Then we were shown a brief presentation, it lasted about ten minutes. It was quite informative, detailing briefly the Korean war, the armistice, and how the JSA (Joint Security Area) has evolved since the end of the war, the Kim Dynasty, and the troops that look after the area. The guy doing the briefing must be new and still in training, as he messed up a couple of times. All the soldiers seemed to be from the south of the USA.

We had to change buses and it was a short drive to the Freedom House. The Freedom House is South's propaganda palace, facing the Demarcation line. The Freedom House was rebuilt in 2005, I think, it was rebuilt (or originally built, I forget which) to host the family reunions between family members in the

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North an South separated by the war. However, the North Koreans won't let the reunions take place in the South. Scared the people will defect, no doubt. We entered the Freedom Hose and we were told to line up in our two groups, each group in two columns on either side of the staircase. The atmosphere was a bit tense. Once we were all lined up we were taken outside. The other group were lead into one of the blue conference rooms, while we were left standing on the steps outside. This was it! I was facing North Korea! The military guide explained what all the different buildings were and when he forgot what building was what, a guy shouted from the balcony in the Freedom House what the buildings were. Our poor guide bless him, getting corrected in front of everyone by one of the soldiers from the Neutral Nations Supervisory Committee. The Neutral Nations Supervisory Committee was established by the Korean Armistice Agreement, which was signed on 27th July 1953. It is part of the mechanism for regulating the relations between the DPRK and the ROK. The nations elidgible to be part of the committee is any nation

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that did not participate in the Korean War. The UN Command chose Switzerland and Sweden, and the Korean People's Amrny and the Chinese People's Army chose Czechoslovakia and Poland. Since the fall of communism in Europe, only Switzerland and now make up the Neutral Nations Supervisory Committee.

I can't remember what all the buildings were. I think that there were five buildings in total. I think some of the buildings were used by the Neutral Nation Supervisory Committee. The main building is the MAC Conference Room, which we would enter in a short while. Also, I think the next building was the UNC Joint Duty Office. Our guide told us a bit about the building on the end, which is officially called the KPA Recreation Room. However the US and ROK troops have nicknamed the building 'The Monkey House', as the North Korean soldiers in there would part the curtains and make rude and threatening gestures through the window. This took place during the time of the MAC Conferences.

The other group exited the conference hall and it was our turn to enter. The room is quite small and pretty cramped there is a tour group in it.

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There were two South Korean soldiers in the building, just standing there looking menacing. They stand in a modified taekwondo stance wearing sunglasses to intimidate the North Korean soldiers. We have about ten minutes in the conference hall, it was a bit rushed as the rooms is small and everyone wants their photo taken with the soldiers. If you look out of the window, you can see the cement blocks that divide the Joint Security Area into North and South Korea. Technically, now, I've been to North Korea. When we were in the conference building, the atmosphere was a little tense, our guide also said that the North Korean soldiers had come down to see what we were doing. I rushed to the window, hoping to get a glance at one close up, but I didn't see any. I was gutted. Our soldier guide also said that if they entered they conference room, we would be leaving immediately. That would have been exciting and petrifying at the same time.

We left the conference building and headed back through the Freedom House and onto the bus. I was surprised as I was expecting the bus to drive off in the

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direction that we had come in, but it didn't we drove round the front in between the Freedom House and the conference huts. It felt kind of like an FU North Korea! We then drove to what I think was the Peace Pagoda (actually I don't think it was), where we could look out over the JSA. The area was so lush and green, but hazy due to the pollution smog. We could see the North Korean propaganda village of Kijong-dong in the distance. It was hard to get photos because I'm so short and all the other taller people were in the way. Kijong-dong is called a propaganda village, as it is meant to show how amazing North Korea is, with fancy apartment blocks, but it is all fake, nobody lives there. The buildings aren't real and have the doors and windows painted on them. Our military guide was telling us they know this because of the lights in the buildings, they fade as the building goes down, proving that they have no floors, and are only the outer shells. There is also the huge, 160 metre high flagpole, proudly flying the flag of the DPRK. The North and

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the South had a bit of a pissing contest erecting larger and higher flagpoles. It's safe to say the North won that one. The North Korean flag also weights a ridiculous amount, it's so heavy, I'm surprised it can fly.

We also passed the spot, stopping briefly, but not getting out of the bus to see where the axe murder incident took place on the 18th August 1976, when North Korean soldiers killed two US army officers, who had been part of a work detail to cut down a poplar tree in the JSA. There is now a plaque to commemorate the soldiers. We stopped briefly at the Bridge of No Return, where prisoners of war decided which side they wanted to go to. It's a pretty unassuming place, and doesn't feel like anything dramatic happened there, but it did. We drove back to Camp Bonifas, passed the farmers farming in their fields. The farmers are protected by the farmers. They have a tough life, living in the DMZ, but they make good money, I think it was around $80,000 - $100,000 a year, and they are exempt from doing military service. Men, who marry into the families of

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the DMZ farmers cannot reside there, but women, who do can. I think, once men choose to leave they cannot return to live in the village. It was so quiet and peaceful, hard to believe, where we were. Back at Camp Bonifas, we had about 15 minutes to peruse the gift shop. I got some postcards, but there was loads of North Korean paraphernalia, if you wished to buy it.

We drove to Dorisan station, next. This is the last train station in South Korea. I had been here on my previous tour. We went inside the station and took some photos of the departure and arrival board. The others went to stamp their passports with the stamps that are available. However times have changed, while I was able to stamp my passport four years ago, you are not allowed to anymore. There is a clerk keeping control over the stamps and not letting you put them anywhere near your passport, spoilsport! We paid the 500 won fee and headed out to the platform. When I was here last time, there was a train that we could board for a bit and take pictures on. However now there is

JSA - Looking to the North

the DMZ train, a special tourist train that goes from Seoul to Dorisan station. The train was waiting at the station, but we weren't able to board it. I tried to take a photo of a soldier on the platform and he gave me the X, what a killjoy! Something I noticed in the station, that I hadn't noticed last time I was here, was the security and passport control room, they were locked up due to lack of use. There ain't been a train north for a long time. Still, I took a sneaky photo of the place.

We headed over to another building near the station for lunch. We had opted for the bulgogi, it was either bulgogi or bibimbap. It cost 10,000 won and was self serve. There were some canny side dishes, so I piled my tray high. The food was okay, generic cafeteria food. There were loads of ROK military service boys in there having a feed, too. After lunch we wandered over to the coffee machine and had a crappy shot of caffeine. We headed out to the bus and drove to our next destination, Dora Observatory. We headed up to the viewing

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platform, but due to the fog/smog, we couldn't see anything. We didn't linger very long on the observatory platform, the views were better last time I came. We headed over to the little temple, pagoda thing that was in the observatory's grounds. We also had a quick look in the gift shop, but there wasn't really anything of interest. On the bus, we drove to our final stop for the day, the Third Tunnel.

We arrived at the tunnel and were ushered into the museum first. We sat in the auditorium and watched a video about the finding of the tunnels an general anti North propaganda. The auditorium was tiny for two bus loads of people and we ended up sitting on the floor. We then headed over to the tunnel. We had to lock our cameras in a locker and don a hard hat. The walk down the tunnel was not too bad, although the floor was quite wet in places. The first part was really wide, this is where the South have built access to the tunnel. The main part of the tunnel is a lot smaller. We wandered through it to the end, where there is

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The concrete slab in the middle is the marker between North and South Korea.

a room you can look into. Apparently there is a soldier stationed in there, I heard this both times I visited the tunnel, but on both occasions I couldn't see him. We wandered back up the tunnel, I must be fitter than last time, as it didn't feel too bad to walk back up. We then went back to the museum to red the stuff we didn't have time to earlier.

Back on the bus, we headed back to Seoul, the traffic was amazing and we got back really quick, so we headed over to Seoul Station and wandered around Namdaemoon market and the restored gate. Around six, when we were feeling hungry again, we headed over to Noryangjin fish market to get some dinner. We had salmon sashimi, it was delicious and we also got some sannakji, which I've been wanting to try for ages. Sannakji is live squid, what they do is they chop up the squid when it is still alive and you eat it as it is dying, so it still wriggles about. I realise that I made this sound totally unappetising, but it's something mad to try, if you visit Korea.

At the

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market you wander around the stalls and pick the fish or crustaceans that you want to eat, you can haggle if you want. When we were buying the squid,we asked them for a restaurant. Around the edge of the market there are lots of small restaurants and, I think, different stalls are affiliated with different restaurants. The ajumma from the stall shouted across to the woman from the restaurant and she took us down to the basement to her restaurant there. The restaurant I went to the last time was really nice, this one wasn't. We sat outside in the alleyway, it was wet, dirty and very atmospheric, perfect! We ordered beer and the woman whisked our squid away to prepare it (i.e. chop it up), she returned it in a bowl swimming in sesame oil, with a basket of leaves and carrots, and some dipping sauces. I didn't realise that the sannakji was served in sesame oil, I love sesame oil and it made the task of eating wriggling squid a lot easier. The squid was pretty bland and I chewed it a lot before swallowing it, if it's not fully crushed the suckers could attach themselves to your