Cultural Chameleon, even at 176 and blonde

The Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) is, like so many things with Communist countries, the peak of irony.  It is, in fact, one of the most militarized places on the earth, loaded with landmines, and everyone pointing their gun at the other guy.

Friday, May 1st, the 3 of us, all Americans, made our way to Camp Kim – USO office in downtown Seoul. This was the starting point for the USO day tour to the DMZ – the demarcation between Communist North and Democratic South Korea.

Mine is Bigger than Yours

It was fascinating to hear how North and South continually try to one-up each other and how tense relations have been between the two sides.  In one example, it took 3days of negotiations to figure out under what conditions a rock that was inadvertently kicked from the South Korean side to the North side could be returned.

The North has the Propaganda Village which plays recordings of Kim Jung Il touting his own praises to no one, as the village is empty, but it does have a 150M flagpole which is much higher than the South’s.  On the South’s side is Freedom Village where people do actually live and are some of the richest in the entire country, almost completely paid for by the government.  There is a factory run by South using North workers but the details on this seemed a bit hazy.

The Joint Security Area: Blue are UN buildings, grey are N. Korean

We walked through North Korean spy/invasion tunnels, which were found after a North Korea defector told S. Korea about them. We heard about the South’s grand plan to make the DMZ into a wildlife sanctuary after reunification–already many species of birds and mammals have found refuge there. We saw the train that runs into North Korea and will someday link the capitals.

But the most exciting part of the day was when we got to go into North Korea! They certainly like to play up the drama on these trips, including making us sign a waiver that read:

1) The visit to the Joint Security Area at Panmunjom will entail entry into a hostile area and possibility of injury or death as a direct result of enemy action. …

2) Visitors must comply with the following instructions: …

c. Fraternization, including speaking or any association with personnel from the Korean People’s Army/Chinese People’s Volunteers (KPA/CPV) side, is strictly prohibited.

d. Visitors will not point, make gestures or expressions which could be used by the North Korean side as propaganda material against the United Nations Command.   [Italics/Bold added for emphasis]

The Chinese part threw me.  Do they seriously still have Chinese soldiers defending North Korea?

While the drama and the threat were sure played up with ‘yes, you can take pictures here, no you can’t take pictures there, don’t piss off the North Koreans, try not to get captured by the North Koreans,’ when actually standing in North Korea, 20yards from a North Korean soldier, everything seemed calm and normal.  But still a bit ominous as the South Korean guards were quite intimidating and every soldier, both American and Korean, had at least a handgun on him.

After seeing this, I’m even more intrigued by the possibility of being one of 300 Americans per year who are allowed to go on an organized tour departing from Beijing to cross into North Korea along its northern border.

Loading image

Click anywhere to cancel

Popularity: unranked [?]