How to spend two days in Seoul, Korea? I chose to spend one day -- nearly half my time -- visiting the Demilitarized Zone at the border of North Korea.
United Nations military boarded our tourist bus in Panmunjom and rode with us into the Joint Security Area. After several passport checks and re-checks, we pulled into the parking lot of an attractive visitors' building positioned just a few feet south of the border line between the two countries. We were briefed on the rules before being led out the back to face the North Korean border. Nothing in your hands except a camera. No raising your arms or pointing your fingers. No pictures looking back in the southerly direction you just came from.
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| United Nations Soldiers Facing the South Korean Visitors' Center. White Building in the Distance is in North Korea. Blue Buildings Straddle the Military Demarcation Line. North Korea is in the Distance and South Korea is in the Foreground. |
When outside on the terrace of the visitors' building, we were allowed to take pictures of the buildings and guards in North Korea (who were staring at us through binoculars).
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| North Korean Soldier Peering at Us through Binoculars |
After a few minutes, we were led into a building that serves as a conference room which straddles the border. Half of the building is in North Korea and half is in South Korea. When one country uses the conference room, they lock the access doors from the inside and then unlock them when they leave. (Kind of like sharing a bathroom between two bedrooms, but with much higher stakes).
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| Inside the Central Blue Conference Room Building |
A few United Nations guards are posted around and inside the conference room. The guards allow photos but don't relax their stance at attention.
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| North Korean Side of the Conference Room |
There are periodic skirmishes, as we had been told, requiring strict observation of the rules. In 1976, North Korean border guards barged across the border and axe-murdered an American officer who was trimming a tree on the South Korean side. The trees' branches had grown to block the view from their own guard post and the officer had climbed a ladder to lop off the obstructing growth. North Korean guards grabbed the axe and killed the tree-trimmer and another officer before security could stop them.
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| Site Where Panmunjeom Tree-Trimming Axe-Murder Incident Occurred in 1976 |
Although the trip takes a full day (7:30 AM to 5:30 PM) and used up a large chunk of precious time, it was one of the best things I did. Coincidentally, as I was planning my trip, two articles were published advising how to spend 48 Hours in Korea -- one from National Geographic Traveler and the other from Reuters. Both plans suggested filling both days by visiting markets, palaces, museums and restaurants. Puzzled by the curious omission of the major world hot spot, I looked into what a non-military, non-official, regular person might see at the DMZ. Both the USO and a private company offer tours to the DMZ. Both require advance reservations with passport information and are sticklers on limited headcount and disqualifications of certain nationalities. I chose the private company from convenience, as the USO tour meets at their office, which was across the city from my hotel. The drive from central Seoul to the area near the border takes about an hour and a half. My fellow travelers were an interesting bunch. I was the only American and was joined by a Brazilian woman, a Finnish man, a German man and a Pakistani man.
During the ride, our South Korean guide offered his perspective on his culture, such as why he prefers his Samsung oversized smartphone to the iPhone, that he is like most Koreans who prefer to eat beef stew with rice for breakfast, and that like most guys he knows, he would rather tune up the engine of his car on Saturdays than do the long list of chores his wife gives him.
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| South Korean Guide, Explaining Why Samsung Smart Phone is Better Than iPhone |
Several attractions supplement the visit to the border line. One of the highlights is travel down into a tunnel that was discovered running under the DMZ from the North. Tunnel tours show visitors the black paint that was poorly applied in a failed attempt to disguise the passageway as a coal mine. In a separate area, there is an observation platform with timed binoculars to allow a broad vista of the DMZ. Through the binoculars, you can see the Propaganda Village, an empty display set up for viewing from the south, but devoid of real residents. Pathetic.
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Viewing Station at Dorasan Observatory, the Northernmost Observatory in
the South |
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| No Cameras Beyond the Yellow Line at the Viewing Station. Coin-Operated Binoculars Only. |
The DMZ is a swath of four miles of land surrounding the 38th parallel. It is a no-man's land. The DMZ is 155 miles long and bisects the peninsula from sea to sea, from the Yellow Sea on the west to the East Sea on the east, cutting South Korea off from Asia and effectively making it an island. The DMZ is outlined by barbed wire and the earth is peppered with land mines. In the nearly sixty years since the July 27, 1953 cease fire, people have not used the land in the DMZ, and it has become an accidental wildlife refuge. It is rich with plants, birds and wildlife. In the visitors' center, there is a beautiful exhibit on the ecology of the DMZ.
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| Bird on Barbed Wire in the DMZ, photo of a photo at exhibit by Jeon, Young Jae, DMZ Documentarian |
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| Wild Boar in the DMZ, photo of a photo at exhibit by Jeon, Young Jae, DMZ Documentarian |
The attractions around the DMZ are set up to service tourists, with large parking lots for buses, snack stands and souvenir shops. The further away from the border line, the more Disneyesque they become. There is a pastel pink and blue sculpture with cutesy flowers, prime for posing as evidence of a visit to the DMZ. Despite the touristy trappings around the edge, I found the visit sobering and sad. When I looked through the coin-operated binoculars, I could see the bare mountainsides where the North Koreans had stripped their land of all trees, in desperation for fuel and food, when an estimated 20-30% of the people starved to death. It is quite a contrast to the super-tech South Koreans, well fed, well-heeled, enjoying life and keen on posing for tourist pics.
