Our Saturday morning started at 5:00AM so that we could get ready and take the subway to Camp Kim where our tour would depart. There is a strict dresscode (business casual, no sweats, jeans that are faded or have holes, sandals, tank tops etc.). There are many tour companies that run tours to the DMZ and other stops in the area. It took us just over an hour to get from Camp Kim in Seoul to our first stop: the Joint Security Area (JSA). The JSA is located in the UN owned buffer zone between North and South Korea. It runs for two kilometers on each side of the official border line between the North and South. Foreign citizens are the only ones allowed inside the JSA (we originally wanted to go on this tour with one of our Korean friends but found out he was not allowed to go). Apparently they are worried that a South Korean citizen might try to cross the border (I know, I don't get it either).
Once inside the JSA our bus stopped at Camp Bonifas where a United States soldier took over our tour. We were given a short briefing on the history of the JSA- how it was created right after the war by the United Nations and is still owned by them today and a few incidents that have happened in the JSA since it was established. We were also told about the strict guidelines we would need to follow while on the tour- only take pictures when we were told its okay and only of the things we are told we can, no pointing, shouting, or gesturing of any kind towards North Korea or any North Korean soldier, etc. We also had to sign a declaration saying we would follow these rules or be removed from the tour and that we knew we were entering what could be a dangerous area, etc. We also learned about what it takes to be stationed in the JSA. For a US soldier you must have high aptitude and a completely clean military and civilian record. For a South Korean soldier you must have a high aptitude, be fluent in two languages, have a college degree and be a master at both Taekwondo and Judo. The DMZ has the largest military presence of any border and is the only place in the world where a soldier must look his enemy in the face day after day without action. Once the briefing was done we got on a different bus, one specific to run tours within the JSA, driven by a South Korean soldier and led by the US soldier. We were not allowed to take pictures in this area for security reasons but will try to describe a few things we saw. There are big things that look like barricades with concrete slabs on top on the sides of the road in one spot. These barricade looking things are rigged with explosives so that if the North ever decided to cross the line in a large group the explosives could be triggered by someone on the south side and the concrete slabs would fall and block the road. In addition to the barbed wire surrounding almost every open space, the fields are also filled with land mines. These things would all make an attack on South Korea extremely difficult to pull off.
Our next stop was the MAC Building. Just outside the MAC Building we got our first view of North Korea. We were strictly told to not go down the steps but could take pictures of everything that was in front of us (North Korea). Since we were being closely monitored by North Korea's video cameras and soldiers, the US soldier told us it would only be polite to return the favor and take pictures of them. We were able to see a North Korean soldier standing on the steps of their own building about 100 meters in front of us. He would often look into his binoculars at us then duck behind a pillar. We thought he was hiding from us but our guide said there were more soldiers inside the building, as well as a phone on the other side of the pillar and he was communicating with them. Apparently the North Korean soldiers really like their binoculars. The US soldier told us about how there have been several times he is giving a tour to someone important (like the White House staff a couple months ago) and gets even closer to the North Korean soldiers. Sometimes there will be only a sheet of glass a few feet separating them but the North Korean soldier will still be using his binoculars to look at him.
Looking at North Korea's building. The North Korean soldier is looking through his binoculars on the middle left of the building.
Once our time was up for taking pictures of the North Korean soldier staring at us and hiding from us, we got into a single file line and got to go down the steps we told not to go down earlier. We walked into a small building located right on the official Demarcation Line (the official border). This is the conference room used for peace talks between the North and UN countries. Half of the conference room is in South Korea. The other half is in North Korea. Yes, we can officially say we went to North Korea. Inside the conference room were a few tables and chairs and one UN flag. There used to be one North Korean flag and one South Korean flag but both countries continued to bring in a bigger and bigger flag. Soon things got out of hand and the flags barely fit inside the room. So they (meaning the UN) decided that only one small UN flag would be allowed in the conference room. There was a microphone on the table that records everything ever said in the conference room (including us) and is monitored by the UN and North Korea. There were two South Korean soldier inside the conference room and a door leading out the other way. If you were to step through that door you would be in North Korea and could not get back. That's why the South Korean soldiers are there guarding the door (like I said they are Judo masters). Many years ago an incident occurred where North Korean soldiers waited on the other side of the door and when a South Korean soldier went to lock the door (it is secured by two deadbolts) they rushed in and tried to pull him into North Korea. After that several soldiers had to make a human chain through the conference room whenever the door needed to be locked or unlocked.
I'm standing in North Korea. This was as close to the South Korean soldiers as you could stand before they might practice their Judo.
After we left the conference room we got back on the bus and went to Checkpoint 3. Here you are surrounded by North Korea on three sides. This was also the place where Eric got a little too excited about being able to see a North Korean truck driving on the road and pointed it out to me by literally pointing. Don't worry I grabbed his arm before anyone noticed (except probably the North Korean cameras that were constantly monitoring us). From this viewpoint you can see the North Korean flag pole. It is 160 meters tall and the flag weighs 600 pounds. As you can imagine we did not see it flying. It takes 35 people to raise and lower it. It was created shortly after South Korea put up a flag pole that was 130 meters tall. North Korea seems to really enjoy having their things always be bigger and better. In the same area as the flag pole in North Korea is "Propaganda Village." This is a small area made up of empty buildings. Many of them don't even have real doors or windows. The exterior features are simply painted on them. Inside they are hollow buildings with four walls and a roof, not tall buildings with many floors. Since these are the only supposed civilian buildings and homes that can be seen in North Korea by the outside public they want to make you think their whole country is full of nice homes and buildings. Near the flag pole is a large radio tour that used to send out propaganda messages 6-12 hours a day. Most of them contained messages about how great Kim Jong Il was.
The large North Korean flag pole and Propaganda Village
On our way back to Camp Bonifas where our JSA tour would end we passed the sight of the 1976 axe murder incident. Some US and South Korean soldiers went to cut down a large poplar tree that was blocking part of their view from a checkpoint. They were met by many North Korean soldiers who told them they could not cut down the tree because Kim Il Sung himself planted it (mind you Kim Il Sung would only be 100 years old this year and this was a very, very large tree). The soldiers from the South agreed to only trim it but North Korea did not like this either so a scuffle began, the North Korean soldiers took the axes and murdered two US officers (Arthur Bonifas was one hence Camp Bonifas). According to the North the attack was of course started by the US "hoodlums." Three days later the US and South Korea launched operation Paul Bunyan in which they had dozens of armed soldiers with chainsaws cut down the tree while helicopters and military planes swarmed over head and a US navy vessel waited with more soldiers and equipment ready for combat if necessary.
This is the site of the Axe Murder and the circle is the size of the tree when it was cut down.
Along the road there are also small white boxes that can be seen. These boxes contain a telephone and instructions for North Korean defectors. When someone defects successfully in the area they are able to use a phone to call Camp Bonifas at which time soldiers will rush to pick them up and welcome them to freedom with open arms. A side note on defectors: The South Korean government, and maybe the UN as well, gives them a lot of aid right after they defect. They are given a place to live, help finding a job and monetary support for the first few months. Once they successfully cross the line there is nothing North Korea can do to them. Unfortunately, there is much they can do to the family they likely leave behind.
Once our tour in the JSA was finished we got back on the tour bus with our regular tour guide and went to a tunnel. North Korea at one time built many tunnels from their side to the South, one defector told the South Korean government there was 20. South Korea has located four of them and one of them is open to the public. We were not allowed to take pictures but we were able to go down inside of it and walk it to a certain point. It is very narrow with a low ceiling (glad we wore helmets!) and getting down to it (and especially back up) is not easy as it is very steep. When the tunnel was first discovered the UN asked North Korea why they had done it. North Korea said they were mining coal. Before it was discovered they had conveniently painted over the granite with coal dust. However, it is still very clearly granite and not coal so no one bought that story. We were also able to go to the Dora Observatory where, on a clear day, you can get a very good view of North Korea. Today it was overcast and we did not get good pictures because there is a line you must stand behind to take pictures. We did get a good view for ourselves when we walked all the way to the end, but couldn't take pictures close enough.
Our last stop was a Dorasan Station. This is a train station that was built with the intent to have a train that ran to Pyongyang in North Korea, as well as even farther, all the way through North Korea, China and all the way to Europe. Unfortunately, shortly before it was finished North Korea took back their agreement to let trains pass through and stop in their country and today a very nice train station and train tracks sit completely empty. This is the closest train station to North Korea and everyone hopes that one day it will be in full operation.
Here we are standing on the train tracks at Dorasan Station.
This concluded our tour but we were so glad we did it. It was such an experience to be so close to North Korea and technically even standing inside of it for a few minutes! North Korea is a very sad place. From what we have learned about it it is not just a communist country but a cult. Their people are brainwashed from the day they are born about the Eternal President Kim Il Sung. How night and day revolve around him and he is to be worshiped forever. Their people are barely clothed and starving but they are confident the Great Leader's family will provide. They know little or nothing about the outside world, only what their own country's propaganda tells them. It is a very sad place and it seems like all of the South Koreans are hoping for the day the Korean peninsula is reunited again so that their suffering can cease. One time one of the questions a group of my students had to answer for homework was "If you were the president of South Korea what would you do first?" All of them had written down something about achieving reunification with the North and South. Even the children here see the value in reunification.
Well like I warned you in the beginning this was a very long post! But we couldn't wait to tell about our trip North and many pictures will be posted to our Shutterfly page very shortly.
No comments:
Post a Comment