To go to the DMZ, you must go in a tour group. It’s pretty expensive but, it’s definitely worth the money to go. Once you get past the first security check point, you really felt the atmosphere change. Signs were everywhere warning you about land mines (in Korean), gates and fences were everywhere. I didn’t feel like I was in danger at any point during the tour, but it was definitely a tense atmosphere.
We had three parts to the tour with each third having lighter and lighter restrictions. It was about an hour bus ride out to the DMZ from Seoul. When we arrived, a US soldier boarded the bus, gave us a short briefing, and brought us into a building for a short presentation and to sign a waver. From there, we boarded another bus and with the soldier as our guide, went out to the Freedom House and conference road. The Freedom house was meant as a place for North and South Koreans to enjoy together, but since the borders are tightly sealed the building just stands there. When on the rare occasion North Korean and South Korean families can meet, they do use the Freedom House. Otherwise, it’s just a vacant building. Conference road, is a string of buildings; three blue and three grey with watch towers on each side. The blue buildings belong to South Korea and the grey buildings belong to North Korea. There’s a line about halfway through the buildings representing the line diving North and South Korea. If you cross that line, you technically leave the country. South Korea uses their buildings to hold meetings with countries who are providing aid and sometimes meetings between the two countries. Security in this area is tight. We didn’t see many guards but we were reassured that many guards could see us from both sides. We didn’t see any North Korean soldiers out but we were guaranteed that they were watching us so we had to be sure not to make any gestures toward them otherwise they’ll fire at us. We were told because of the North Korean soldier who defected last November, security on their end has tightened immensely.
After Conference Road and the Freedom House, we were taken back to where we had a short briefing, said goodbye to our soldier guide and went to Dorasan Station. Dorasan Station is the last train station in South Korea before you enter North Korea. It stands as a sign of hope of reunification for the Korean people. Hopefully one day they can use the line between the two countries. It’s also part of the Trans Eurasian Railway which is a train line that would connect as far as France to Korea. The only thing stopping that train from reach South Korea is North Korea. So for now the the train runs until Mongolia (I think).
After the train station, it was lunch time, which was nothing special. It was cafeteria style that was shared with the Korean Army. From there, we went to a look out point. We were able to see the border between North and South Korea. A very pretty view and you almost forget that past the tree line is a dangerous country. North Korea got rid of their trees in case people try to defect they have no where to hide but South Korea has kept their trees. After the lookout point, we went to the 3rd infiltration tunnel. There’s supposedly about 20 tunnels North Korean dug to invade South Korea. So far less than 10 have been found and they aren’t sure if there even anymore. North Korea’s goal was to dig the tunnel all the way to Seoul. An Engineer on the North Korean side thought this wasn’t right, escaped to South Korea and told the plans to the government and helped them find the tunnels. We were able to go into the third tunnel and look at what the North Koreans did. We stayed on South Korea’s side and there were several barriers at the end point (for us) at the border. The tunnels were small so you had to wear a helmet and the walls were covered in coal dust which North Korea painted on to use the excuse they were mining for coal. However, you can also see the holes where they stuck pieces on dynamite. After the tunnel, it was time to head back to Seoul.
Going back to the DMZ, it really hit me how real this war is between the two countries. I learned so much I’m still processing the information. Overall, my heart really aches for South Korea and I really hope that one day the people of the two countries can be reunited.
It was an exciting weekend filled with lots of action. With classes not in session I find myself think about the trip and waiting for the next one. Which will be happening in a week when I come home and actually stay home longer than a couple of days!
