“Do Not Stop Walking for Any Reason”

Even to take a picture.

Those words suddenly become a lot more serious when you remember that you signed a waiver warning that the USA cannot guarantee that you will not be shot and killed while visiting the Demilitarized Zone between North and South Korea.

We are being led around by a Kentucky golden boy who does not remove his sunglasses, even when the lights are turned off inside.   All of the other soldiers are ROK (Republic of Korea).  Like golden boy, these soldiers were definitely selected for looks.  I asked another soldier if he had ever served at Panmunjom (the only place in the DMZ that North and South Korean soldiers stare at each other from five feet away).  He laughed at the idea.  He said he didn’t look intimidating enough.  And now I understand why.  The guys at the DMZ tower over our buddies (remember, all males must serve a minimum two year term, so most of our buddies were also army men) and they are built.  They stand at “ROK Ready” position, one which looks extremely intimidating and is a Taekwondo ready position.   And they spend their days staring at North Korean soldiers.  Who stare back at them.

The North Korean side puts their best foot forward too.  But for North Korea, that involves ensuring that your soldiers are well fed.  And when your average height is only 5’ 2”, it is a little hard to compare.  We can only see one man, whose face is obscured by binoculars. 

We are standing in two lines, staring at North Korean soil.  We are separated by a cement line in a gravel lawn.  Golden boy points to a gray building to our right and tells us that it may be taking our picture.  Gray buildings belong to DPRK, while blue were UN.  Behind us is the ROK welcoming house.  So welcoming, that we are not allowed to take pictures of it.  But we can take picture of the DPRK’s welcoming house.  The two houses are the same height to ease tension. 

And tensions are high.  Panmunjom was originally an area in which NK and SK forces could move freely.  But in the 1980s NK soldiers (sorry, “military police”) murdered some SK soldiers with axes as they attempted to prune a tall poplar tree.  After that, it was decided that the demarcation line should be more strictly enforced.

We go into the second UN building, one that straddles the Demarcation Line (the official boarder).  The room is used for negotiations about minor things, such as the fact that the NK soldiers are not wearing their military police badges.  Or how big of a flag they can fly.  That particular meeting took 11 hours, as both sides brought in bigger and bigger flags.  Under the watchful eye of the ROK soldiers (oops, sorry, “military police”) we are allowed to walk on the NK side of the room.

Situated between electric fences, mine fields, and tank walls is the little town of Tae Sung Dong.  The only people allowed to live there are people who lived in the valley before the war.  Or women who have married into the village.  The residents, in exchange for farming a war zone, are tax and military exempt, and farm plots of land 5 times larger than most SK farmers.  It makes for a fairly wealthy community.  I just hope for their sake that war never breaks out again.

On the plus side, the DMZ has become a nature preserve in which many rare species can be found.  If unification ever does occur, I hope they preserve that area.

There is an equivalent town on the NK side, called Kijong-dong, The city used to project propaganda from a loud speaker at all hours.  Once, a SK soldier actually fell for the propaganda, and defected to the north.  Upon reaching the village, he realized that the buildings were hollow shells with painted on doors.  So he came back to the south.  Or so the story goes.  It is probably true.  But the fact of the matter is that SK wages just as heavy of a propaganda war are NK.  I have seen it first hand at the war museum.  I am not saying that I don’t think NK is a pretty miserable place.  But this trip has taught me to be cautious about accepting information at face value.

A few days before, I had visited the Korean War museum.  It was amazingly informative.  The Korean War is something that schools only touch to talk about Domino policy.  But it is a very complicated issue.  It also set off a chain of events, without which you would not have your Samsung Phone or your LG TV (yes, those are both Korean companies).  And no, the US did not come in and immediately save South Korea.  The US left south Korea unprepared for war, then came in themselves unprepared for war (there was the mindset in the US that if we have an atom bomb, we don’t need tanks…Big big mistake). It was only after the UN forces arrive and MacArthur organized a surprise invasion of Incheon that the tide of the war changed.  But while the American view of the Korean war is sadly lacking, the Korean view is not completely unbiased either.  The Koreans are intensely proud of their independence, and ability to do things on their own.  So there is a lot of South Korean propaganda in the museum. But I guess it is their history.  They have the right to tell it as they wish.  And for a country that lacks a really strong sense of historical identity, the Korean War is something that they can be somewhat proud about.

In the 1970s, to get around the fences and mines and walls, NK started to tunnel under the DMZ.  Defectors from the north informed the south of potentially 16 tunnels.  ROK has found four.  NK denies that they made them.  The entrance is outside of the DMZ.  We visit tunnel number three.  There are a lot of Chinese tourists here.  Chinese tourists are not allowed in the DMZ, for security reasons.

If they want, they can visit it from the NK side.  I doubt that happens very often.

I know what you are wondering.  Or at least, I hope you are wondering.  Is there actually any risk of war breaking out? That depends on who you ask. Our buddies are pretty sure that nothing will ever happen.  But there are gas masks in every subway station, just in case.

Andrea