Thursday, June 19, 2008

This was a very difficult day because I woke up feeling sick and nauseous but since I knew we were going to the DMZ (de-militarized zone), I forced myself up. As we were taking the bus out of Seoul and towards the DMZ, the city landscape faded away to more of a rural background. It was nice to see more of the Hun River and the curvy terrain as we left the city. Our tour guide, Pansy, told us how there were around 22 bridges over the Hun River! Also, rent in southern Seoul is around 600 won, while it only costs 300 won in northern Seoul.

Along the highway, the Korean government had put up a lot of barbed wire to keep out North Koreans who swim down the river to escape.

Right outside the DMZ in South Korea, the government put up bridges filled with dynamite. That way, in case the north decides to invade, the government can blow up the bridge and hold them off for about an hour. We saw this bridge on our way toward the DMZ.

As we entered the DMZ, I saw truck after truck of Korean soldiers being let into the DMZ. Though there is no active combat, the soldiers guard different vantage points of the DMZ (and even the more tourist-y spots such as the observatory). Then we drove along the unification bridge, which is the entrance point of the DMZ, and I saw many ride paddies along the side. We drove along national road number one, which will be the first road to North Korea if the peninsula ever unifies. The day was really hazy and foggy, and the misty weather gave the DMZ a creepier look.

Many decades ago, the dates are still uncertain, North Korea decided to invade South Korean, and it chose to dig tunnels to get from one side to the other. The South Korean government has found four tunnels in all, but many citizens believe there to be more than 20. One tunnel, the third tunnel, is the most famous since it was the closest one to Seoul. The North Korean government hoped to use the tunnels to enter Seoul and assassinate the emperor, who would have lived in the palace we had seen the previous day.

The third tunnel has now been converted to a tourist destination, so we were able to put on helmets and walk through it. The climb down was fairly steep, and it took us 250 metres below the surface. As I got further down, the air got colder, and when I finally reached the end of the walkway, all I could see around me was dark gray rock. The North Koreans used dynamite to make the tunnel and it was approximately 5 feet wide. I am only 5 feet 5 inches, and I could barely walk through the tunnel without ducking my head. It was amazing to see this tunnel and see the yellow marks where the dynamite had been placed. Large portions of the tunnel were also painted black because the North Koreans claimed they were building the tunnel to find coal, which is impossible in that particular region of the land, since they were over the border.

The South Korean government only found out about the tunnel because they bore holes into the ground on suspicion of a North Korean attack, and one day they saw water squirting out of a hole. That hole lay directly above where the North Koreans were laying and blowing up their dynamite, and when the South Korean government discovered them, the North Koreans ran back across the border and plugged up the tunnel. Since they were scared about another potential invasion, the South Korean government set up three blockades so the North would never be able to get back in.

The tunnel was dark and damp, and I was astounded by how much the North really wanted to get into the South that they actually resorted to digging a tunnel. It was amazing to see the first blockade, but the thing that really took my breath away was peering through the window of the first blockade and seeing the second blockade. It literally gave me chills to look through the window and see the darkness, which I could feel symbolize the North side. The South Korean government used to have a soldier patrolling in between the first and second blockade in the tunnel to make sure the North didn’t try to invade again, but they took that position out a couple years back.

We then took the bus to the cultural observatory where we would be able to see North Korea. No joke, there was a terrace with viewing things where we could look out into North Korea. It was really hazy, even more symbolism about the North, so we couldn’t really see but I couldn’t believe that just a couple hundred metres away was North Korea. Never did I believe that I would actually be able to one day see North Korea. It was just an amazing experience, and for that small amount of time, I did not even care that I was sick; I was just so excited and in disbelief that I had seen North Korea. After that, I wondered a lot about what people on that side were doing and whether they knew that there were tourists staring and peering at them.

We got back on the bus and went to the train station that, if/when the North and South reunite, will connect the two countries. It was a beautiful station and apparently really clean, I couldn’t go because I was too sick, but I saw the large cargo station beside it that would, in the future, store and hold goods that the two countries would exchange with one another. It was a little eerie because the train station and the cargo station were both fully built and looked like they could be operational, but they weren’t. It was as if there was a “pause” over the area and time was frozen, but if the North and South decided to reunite, the two would be ready to roll in an instant.

**please note: there were a lot of areas in the DMZ where we were not allowed to take pictures, thus the lack of pictures, and also I was sick and quite incapable of taking many pictures