DMZ Trip

I have so much to say after our trip to the Demilitarized Zone. What an interesting trip and a bizarre, tense situation to be in with the Northern half of your own country. First of all I'll give a bit of background for anyone who is not familiar with the situation. North and South Korea (divided at the 38th parallel...initially intended to designate north and south regions of the country...but not to divide Korea in two) went to war in 1950. The North had taken a communist form of government and was backed by China. The South was fighting against it and had the support of the US along with many other countries in the free world. This would be what we know as the Korean War. The North had conquered much of the country...but the South pushed them back up north. Finally in 1953 with influence of the UN the two sides signed an armistice agreement. An armistice is an agreement to break from the fighting...but it is not a peace treaty and technically the Korean War has not ended. So at this agreement they designated a demarkation line which is a line set at the last point of physical contact between the two sides and it is a line drawn east to west from the East Sea to the Yellow Sea, 155 km. Along this line both forces were required to back up 2000 meters...making a total of 4000 meters between them which is designated as the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ).

We took a tour of the DMZ yesterday (Thursday) which is open to the public. We stopped a few places along the way.

Stop 1: A lookout point on the South Korean side that really wasn't that great. They had a few binoculars you could use to look into North Korea, but there was a designated yellow line that you had to be standing behind in order to take any pictures...and behind the yellow line you could hardly see the top of one of the mountains beyond the wall...so it was pretty pointless.

Stop 2: A brand new train station built to connect the railways from South Korea to North Korea, China, and the Trans Siberian Railway. The station was built 7 years ago...but is hardly used. The railway is connected to North Korea, but it is not used...no cars are allowed to go in or come out of N. Korea. It is more a symbol of unification that South Korea is very big on. They have claimed that it is not the last station in the South...it's the first station into the North. All kinds of symbolism with hope that one day the country will be unified again...but so far there has not been much progress.

Stop 3: Lunch. At a traditional Korean restaurant with two choices for lunch: bulgoki or a vegetarian rice dish that I'm not sure how to spell. I chose bulgoki, "Korean BBQ", supposedly the same as what I had at the restaurant on base. It was nothing like what I had on base though!!! They had a few dishes on the table that I'm not sure what they were. Some were kimchi (pickled cabbage mixed with many different things), noodle combinations, I think some was squid, a version of cole slaw??, watermelon, and other various things. I tried a few of them (including the squid...not knowing that's what it was)...but didn't really fall in love with anything! They brought our steamed rice in a little pot and then brought our meat. I spent a majority of my time attempting to get any of the food in my mouth because the only utensils provided were metal chopsticks and a spoon! I'm useless with chopsticks...I try and try, but have such trouble getting them to close correctly in order to pick anything up. But I wasn't going to be THAT PERSON who asks for a fork...that would be lame! Actually I wouldn't be surprised if they didn't have a fork...so I sucked it up. Taylor was excellent with the chopsticks because he has had 8 months of practice. He said the first 3 months were rough...but none the less I was impressed. So basically...I didn't really love the traditional Korean meal I had here :( but I'm willing to try again, anyway...on to the next stop.

Stop 4: We stopped at Tunnel #3 which is a tunnel dug by the North Koreans in attempt to infiltrate into the South. The tunnel was found in 1978 by the South Koreans. They had received information in 1974 that the North Koreans were digging tunnels so the S. Koreans dug blow holes in the ground and filled them with water. Finally one day someone noticed one of the blow holes shooting water after the N.Koreans had blasted dynamite below it as they were digging the tunnels. This is how they discovered where the tunnels were located. When the N. Koreans realized they had been discovered, they painted all the walls of the tunnels with coal and swore up and down that it was an old coal mine they were shutting down. Clearly with a bit of geography research the S. Koreans knew there was no possibility of coal in the region and this was another like the N. Koreans continued to tell.

So we were able to go down in the tunnel which is 350 meters underground (and quite a steep incline) and then we were able to walk through the tunnel for about a thousand meters before it is blocked off at the end. And by walk I mean crouch over and duck because it was a Korean size tunnel...and I'm not a Korean size person!! It is all rock on the inside and very moist and drips lots of water. The walk out of the tunnel was tough...it's so steep and long. All you hear is heavy breathing as everyone is trucking out! They have seats set up along exit so you can stop and rest as you're walking back up to the top. I did the tunnel by myself because Taylor had already seen it once and he said he wasn't about to do that hike again...so he waited with my sunglasses while I did the trek! Anyway, it was very interesting.

Stop 5: And my favorite stop of the tour. We went on to Camp Bonifas which is a UN base located about 1-2 km from the DMZ. The base is primarily run by the Republic of Korea (ROK) soldiers who do a 2 year tour on base. The ROK is the South Korean military. Only about 3% of the troops on base are American Army. Their assignment is a year tour (similar to Taylor's unaccompanied year tour). When we got on base we went in to a room and had a debriefing, which was pretty much an explanation of background information about why we were in this situation with N. Korea and the history of events that have gone on here. We then also signed a waiver that pretty much said this can be a potentially dangerous area and they will not be held responsible if something happens in the DMZ.

Within the DMZ there is an area called the Joint Securities Area. Within this area there are buildings built for talks with N. Korea. This area is situated right along the demarkation line, literally marked within the area with a cement line that travels all the way down the middle of the buildings. There are about 5 one room buildings built right on top of the demarkation line that can be used by both sides and are generally used for UN talks with North Korea. We were allowed to go in the building used by the UN...it's a small little room with doors on both sides...so we technically were in North Korea because we walked across to the North Korean side of the building (which is probably a total of 50 feet long...small buildings). Outside the UN building on both sides are two large buildings with stairs leading up to the entrance. We stood on the South Korean side and there was no one but one stern looking guard staring right back on the N. Korean side. The two buildings are probably 200 yards apart. There were about 6 ROK soldiers standing guard in the area, but the Army Staff Sergeant leading our tour said they only stand guard during tours, due to the cameras it is not necessary for someone to be on guard 24 hours a day in the area. On the building above us there was about 11 cameras aimed at the North keeping surveillance. I have pictures from this scene that I'll post on the next post. The sergeant said, feel free to take pictures because you better believe they're taking pictures of you too! They have their cameras working!

My last part of this post will just be interesting tidbits that I learned along the trip.

1) There are two villages that actually live within the DMZ. One is the N. Korean village named by the ROK as Propaganda Village because of propaganda that was blasted from speakers within the village for 6-10 hours a day when the village was inhabited. It is now pretty much vacant except for about 30 people who live in one building and their job is to maintain the vacant buildings within the community. I think the point of it is so that N. Korea has a "presence" in the DMZ.

The other village is a farming community from S. Korea who were displaced during the war when their village became the DMZ. It is aptly named Freedom Village. In order to live there you must have been a resident of the village pre-war or a second generation of a resident during the war. There are currently only about 215 residents. Men are currently not allowed to marry into the village, but women are allowed to marry in. The mayor is currently trying to change that because he has 3 daughters who he would lose if the rule is not changed. The village is based around farming: rice, ginseng, and soy beans are the 3 main crops in S. Korea. Each person in the village has farmland from which the government has promised to purchase the produce grown. The village is tax free and the people are probably making around $85000 USD each on the crops they are able to sell to the the government. There is only an elementary school in the village, but the government will pay for the children to attend any high school and any college in the country. There currently are only 12 students in the school and 7 teachers. The residents do well for themselves there and are well taken care of by the government...but they live under very stressful and tense conditions within the DMZ. Everyone in the village is required to be within the guarded gates of the village by dark every day and are required to be within their houses with all doors and windows locked by midnight every night! Many of the residents of the village live there about 250 days a year during farming season and also have an apartment in Seoul for the other portion of the year.

2) Freedom Village built a flagpole 50 meters high to display the S. Korean flag...not to be out done, the N. Koreans quickly constructed a flagpole in Propaganda Village, 150 meters high with a flag 31 meters long. It weighs 600 lbs when it is dry!

3) The last documented incidence of violence in the DMZ was in 1984 when the N. Koreans were giving a tour to a group of Soviets and a man took off running for the demarcation line in an attempt to defect. Fire fight broke out and 3 N. Koreans were killed and 2 US soldiers. The man made it safely across the line.

4) When asked how realistic the threat of N. Korea advancing over the DMZ with personnel as opposed to a nuclear or missle attack, the Army sergeant said the N. Koreans have 75% of their military posted at the DMZ, approximately 690,000 people. The threat is still considered very high.

5) A couple years ago when the President of S. Korea and President Bush were having talks in Washington two soldiers from the Korean People's Army (KPA), the N. Korean military, went into the building with UN talks in the Joint Security Area of the DMZ and blew their nose with the American Flag and the S. Korean flag displayed in the building. All flags are now encased in glass so none of them can be defaced again.

6) On the border right outside the DMZ, on the South Korean side, they have tank walls set up on both sides of the road about 5ft wide and 20 ft long sitting on cement blocks with holes in them ready for dynamite to be put in. The walls would then be blown up and the blocks would fall into the road preventing any tanks from getting through. Beyond the tank walls the wooded area along the DMZ is filled with land mines...over 2 million mines are located in the area. Before you get to any of those defenses there is a huge fence topped with c-wire that runs the length of the DMZ. There are painted stones stuck in the fences if the stones are displaced it warns them of tampering with the fence.

7) We went by The Bridge of No Return. When the sides signed an armistice they agreed to return captives and POW. It is called Big Switch, Little Switch. The KPA returned 18000 POW and the ROK returned 30000. The prisoners had the option to go back if they wanted to, but once they crossed the bridge either way, they were not allowed to go back...hence the name The Bridge of No Return.

8) The N. Koreans have a large tower visible from some of the look out posts which is a scrambler...it scrambles all television, satellite, and radio waves from the South so the N. Korean citizens have no access to information from S. Korea. It does not scramble information they send out...it is only concerned with what comes into the country.

9) When a couple of the US soldiers in the 60's or 70's (we can't remember the date) attempted to cut down a large tree on the DMZ that was blocking the view between guard post 1 and 3 within the Joint Security Area, the soldiers were axed to death by about 20 KPA soldiers. At that time both sides were allowed to build guard posts and the N. Koreans had built 4 on the S. Korean side of the demarkation line within the DMZ...while the South built none on the Northern side. The guard posts are pretty much lookout areas. With 4 N. Korean guard posts and limited visibility between the two S. Korean guard posts in the southern area...it was not a safe situation, the tree HAD to come down. The second time they went in to take it down it cost approximately 90 million dollars to cut down the tree. They had a Carrier strike group off the coast, fighter jets flying patrols over the area, and all of the Korean Peninsula on alert along with the soldiers they sent in to cut the tree down...needless to say, they were successful with no protest from the North Koreans.

So it was a very interesting trip with so much information. It's a very tense situation that you can really feel when you're standing at the demarcation line looking at the North Korean side. I'm sure there was a lot more information I didn't even include. I'll post pictures a bit later, they're not even loaded on the computer yet and they take a bit to upload and I've already been working on this for awhile so I'm going to take a break now! Check back later for the pictures :)

Take care!!