just a little background on the situation for those who don't know, after the north and south koreans signed a cease fire ending the violence of the korean war, they established the DMZ which runs along the 38th parallel in order to create a "buffer zone" between the 2 countries. this strip of land is 4km wide with each country getting 2km up to the actual border. it is riddled with land mines and mostly uninhabited.
my tour started off with a trip to the dora observatory. from here we could see the actual line seperating the countries and a "propoganda town" in North Korea. this town literally was built to make the north koreans look good. noone lived there until recently and they also project literal propoganda over loud speakers for up to 10 hours a day. the town is complete with a 600 pound north korean flag waving higher than the equally as huge south korean flag right over the border. the tension here is very obvious.
after the observatory we went to the third tunnel. this is where i started to realize how crazy north korea actually is. the third tunnel is one of 4 tunnels that has been discovered leading from north korea, under the DMZ, and into south korea. these tunnels are beleived to be part of a plan to surprise attack seoul. the third tunnel can fit 30,000 troops an hour through it and lies only 52km north of downtown seoul. there are many other tunnels beleived to exist. the third tunnel tour was like going into a mine. we had to wear hard hats and we went 200m underground. the north koreans had smeared coal all over the walls of the tunnel as a way to say they were just mining for coal, not trying to invade.
after the third tunnel we headed to the highlight of the trip, the JSA. the JSA stands for the Joint Security Area and it is in Panmunjom, Korea. The JSA is the location at which the cease-fire between the two countries was signed. before entering the JSA we were breifed by US soliders and had to sign a waiver in case of any "enemy hostile acts". This waiver was no joke, as we learned of stories such as the Axe Murder Incident. The JSA is an area that is run by both countries and the guards literally stand "face to face with their enemy everyday".
We got to the JSA and as soon as we walked outside everyone became dead silent. Across the way we spotted a north korean solider wip out his binoculars and start watching us. We were standing facing 5 small buildings, 3 were blue and 2 were silver. the blue ones mean they belonged to the UN and the silver meant they belonged to the KPA (north).
We got to go into one of the blue buildings ( the one with the door open to the left) which was the building where the cease-fire was signed. the building lies right on the border between the countries and we got to walk over the acutal border and stand in north korea. inside the US solider told us many stories about how the north koreans try and mess with them. for instance, they go into their own buildings that straddle the line and open the curtains and flick off tourists/soliders and do the motion like they are slitting their throats. we were told to ignore them and definitely not acknowledge their presence, but they didn't do anything of that sort while we were there. They also told a story about how when Bush came to visit the DMZ the KPA soliders walked into the blue building and took an american flag and started polishing their shoes with it and wiping their noses with the south korean one. there are also scuff marks on one of the tables in a UN building due to a female KPA(north) dancing on it.Only people with foreign passports are allowed into the JSA because they are scared of what koreans might do when put in this tense and emotional area. therefore, i felt very lucky we were allowed to go here.
Overall, the tour was crazy, and awesome. I'm really glad I got to go see the JSA and experience the insane tension that exists there. The korean situation is very unfortunate and unfortunately there seems to be no end in sight.
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