Demilitarized Zone: The North/South Korean Border

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Today I visited what my guidebook describes as "the weirdest and scariest place on the planet." I don't agree (Israel freaked me out way more) but it was still a pretty sobering experience. Today I visited what is known as the DMZ, or the Demilitarized Zone, which is the set up at the North/South Korean border. Rumor has it, it's the most heavily armed border in the world. I'm not sure I even understand the whole deal as it is quite complicated. Let me start South and explain upwards. The area starts with 2km. of military protected land in South Korea where people are allowed to live and farm. There's even a little town there called "Freedom Town" or something a bit cheesy like that. Because it is "so dangerous" to live there, the farmers are not taxed on their income (they make about 85,000 USD a year) and men get out of doing the otherwise mandatory 2 year military service. There are a lot of Ginseng crops, which take six years to grow and suck up literally all the vitamins, leaving the soil un-usable for the ten years after. After some stretch of land there are two tall fences topped with barbed wire, between them is a ten foot strip of land covered in thousands of land mines, making it the most heavily mined place on earth. This mine/fence set up runs across the whole border, some 241km (150 miles). Continuing forward is some more land and eventually a military camp. There is a strict dress code (which I wasn't aware of) so I ended up having to borrow an icky flannel shirt from the tour's photographer that smelled of what I called "cabin," my tour mates informed me the smell was moth balls. (I guess I'm very Minnesotan.) You have to get your passport checked twice but there's never any physical search or metal detector scan... kinda weird considering the big deal they make out of everything once you get there... such as stand in a single file line, only take pictures when we tell you, don't touch anything... The top rule being don't point at North Korea, the soldiers could mistake your finger for a gun. A little spooky! So then you come to the border, which is simply an area with a whole bunch of buildings in it. In a whole, this area used to be shared by North and South Korea, but then there was a violent incident which the South Koreans refer to as the "Axe Murder," when a North soldier attacked and killed 2 American soldiers with an axe while jointly trimming a tree. The tree was the only one in this shared area. Koreans have a tendancy to be a bit dramatic with words, and called the cutting down of the tree "Operation PAUL BUNYON!" Hahha!!!! After that happened (sometime in the 70's) the area was split down the middle in a straight line, with 7 shared buildings split evenly over it. Political talks and meetings take place in one of these buildings. One of the meetings is when neutral Poland talks about possible offences made by either North or South in the DMZ area. Outside, between the buildings, soldiers from North and South stand face to face. On the Northern side I believe their land situation is similar. They have 2 km of land on their side too and also have a town, but it's a fake one. No one lives there. The South calls it "Propoganda Town." This Northern "town" sports a 130 meter (426 feet) tall flag pole bearing the world's largest flag, weighing 300 kg (660 pounds)!! Interesting experience.

Yesterday Juno and I visited a theme park where there were miniature versions of all the world wonders. Strange, but cool. We also stopped by an old movie set and after went to a Korean baseball game, with Korean cheerleaders and all!! No stunting, just dancing with short shorts... the crowd loved them! Added are a bunch of random pictures from Korea. Tomorrow I'm off to Taipei, Taiwan.

Happy Birthday Dad! Love you!

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Photos

Locust
My favorite photo thus far

Market trouble-maker
This little girl ran up and down the market streets, dragging her little dog behind her all day long!!

BBQ
Korean BBQ consists of meat cooked right in front of you accompanied by a buch of side dishes and sauces wrapped in lettuce leaves. Nummmm!!! (Loud chewing encouraged... means it's tasty!)

American in an Anti-American beef protest
but everyone was still friendly!

Borderline
South Korean soldiers keeping watch over North. White buildings= North, blue buildings= South. We were allowed to go into a blue building and step into North!

The biggest flag in the world!
"While North Korea plays games with their flag, their people strarve," says Lonely Planet.

Comments

[Adam]

Wvvv ..
Ridiculous. Good travel choice, champ.

[Devon]

I have enjoyed reading about your experience in Korea. Andy and I have been there many of times while we lived in Japan. The Korean BBQ is the best!