DMZ or bust!

When I found out the whole family was coming to visit I booked us all on a USO tour to the DMZ.  We started off the day very early so we could get down the hill to catch a taxi by 7:30am (the bus departed from Camp Kim over near the military base at 9am but traffic here is unpredictable).  Today traffic was good and our taxi driver drove fast so we made it before 8.  Oh well, more time to sit in the cushy recliners at the USO and watch a cheesy movie on the Armed Forces Network tv.


As 9am approached and more tour participants filled the room I saw two of my students with their families.  It's always an interesting situation to see kids outside of school, I wonder what they thought when they saw me with my family...yep, Miss James does exist outside of Seoul Foreign School!  It was about an hour ride North to the DMZ.  Our first stop was the Third Tunnel where we learned more about the DMZ and the current situation between North and South Korea (and where I ran into my 3rd student and her family on the same tour).

Daniel and I on the "tassel bus" to the DMZ.

Mom and dad on the "tassel bus" too!

Woohoo!  We're at the DMZ--here's proof!

Daniel, in a state of laziness, is letting me take the responsibility of holding up the world.

Doesn't this make you want to join the ROK army?

Dad and I after making the hike to the first barrier of the third tunnel and back.  Thank God we had those helmets or we both would have left with a concussion!

Crazy totem like statues!

These are Daniel's photos from our first stop...

"You really feel safe when the first thing you see is a guard tower in the distance."

"That is one giant ball."  Note:  This is what you see when you walk into the restroom area.

Self explanatory...

"Obviously if one of these is flying at you that is not good."

"That is a very big gun."

"Not the first or second tunnel..."  By the way, the South Korean military predicts that there are another 16 undiscovered tunnels somewhere that provide a route for people and artillery to get from the North to the South.  I could have done without that knowledge.

"Random happy deer fountain in a not so happy place."

After the third tunnel we got back on the bus and drove up to the Dora Observatory.  On a clear day you can see for up to 25 kilometers into North Korea.  Unfortunately, today was not a clear day but we could still make out some key landmarks--like the GIANT North Korean flag that flies in the propaganda village, the highway that transports people and goods to an industrial park in the North, and the two farming villages (one in the North and one in the South known as the Freedom Village).

The camouflage observatory building.

You're never far from a pagoda.

Here's a picture Daniel took (from behind the NO PHOTO LINE mind you) of some of the lovely tourists like us looking out into North Korea.

We stopped at the Transit Authority for a lunch break and learned a little more about the 800 workers who work at the Industrial Complex in North Korea.  Before each shift every worker must store ALL of their personal belongings in a locker at the Transit building.  That means no newspapers, magazines, cell phones, wallets...you name it, the North Koreans have banned it from crossing the border.  Four times per day the highway is opened to transport goods and workers.  Other than that, the border is closed tight between the two countries.

The last toll checkpoint in South Korea.

 From here we headed off to the US Military portion of the DMZ tour at Panmunjeom.  We were taken first for a briefing at Camp Bonifas by two US army men who gave a presentation about the Joint Security Area that were going to visit and to talk about the proper behavior when we were in the presence of the North Korean military.  We were asked to leave all of our bags behind and could take only our passports and cameras (we didn't want to give the North Koreans any sort of opportunity to point the finger at us for carrying propaganda).  Our group was the first to enter one of the buildings in the JSA where high ranking officials from the North and South meet.  Officially the room is halfway in the North and halfway in the South, but is guarded on the inside during tours by two ROK soldiers.  yes folks, my family has officially traveled to North Korea.  Photography was strictly monitored during this portion of the tour and we were not allowed to photograph anything in the South (although we could take as many pictures of the North as we wanted).  As we were listening to our guide we were being closely watched by a North Korean soldier--it was a bit eerie knowing that the North Koreans were so nearby.  Earlier in the day I was talking to one of my students and she commented about how a tour like this really reminds you of how close we are to North Korea even though we tend not to think about most of the time.

Some of the folks on our tour standing in North Korea.  One of them happens to be my student and his family! 

A very emotionless ROK soldier.

You don't want to mess with these guys.  Every ROK soldier stationed here holds a black belt in some form of martial arts.

A South Korean guard stationed here to protect us.  Notice he is only halfway exposed--this stance is supposed to make him a more difficult target should the North Korea soldiers decide to shoot at him.

Our guide reminding us NOT to point or gesture toward the North!

The white posts in the background are the markers of the military demarcation line and stretch the full length of the North/South border.

The dividing line between the North and the South--dirt in the North, gravel in the South.

Wave to the nice North Korean soldier!

Our US tour guide.  Notice the special arm band he wears showing that he  has JSA clearance.

A panorama of the North Korean side...plus mom and dad's heads.

The propaganda village was built to make life in North Korea look inviting but I'm not fooled by this facade.  Life in North Korea is anything but inviting--I'd use adjectives like horrific, oppressive, and tragic.

See the flagpole over in the North Korean propaganda village?  It holds a 600 pound, 30 meter long flag!

Staring out into North Korea.

Me with two of my lovely former students!

The "Bridge of No Return" built across the military demarcation line.  Anyone want to find out what happens if you try to cross into North Korea?  I think not!

The last stop on our tour after leaving Camp Bonifas was the Dorasan Train Station.  The place is like a ghost town since no trains can go beyond this point into the North.  At one point in time it was possible to take a train from North to South and visa-versa but some hostile acts have changed this and now the station stands empty a good majority of the time.  It was really a sad sight to see, but the South Koreans are hopeful that someday this station will be busy moving people and goods once again sometime in the near future.

Unlike the very serious guards at the JSA, these guys were ready to ham it up whenever they saw a camera!

These tracks lead all the way to the North Korean capital Pyeongyang.

Which direction would you go?

I think Daniel is about done with pictures for the day!

We reached the end of our tour so back to Seoul we go.

Most of Daniel's photos from the JSA look identical to mine but he was able to snap a picture of this monument built in honor of two men who were killed in an axe massacre by the North Koreans during an attempted tree trimming operation.  There was a giant poplar tree that obstructed the view between two guard posts that was being pruned when several North Korean soldiers attacked.  The tree was removed a day after the massacre with the help of a full military safety detail involving more than 500 men, planes, helicopters, and a battle ship that was battle ready.  Shortly after the incident it was decided that the North would remove its observation posts from the South side of the demarcation line (the South never built any in the North).  This physical boundary is still fully enforced today as part of the armistice treaty signed over sixty years ago...technically the North and South are still at war.
  

It was a long and very eventful day, but we couldn't wrap things up without a bit more excitement.  Before coming back to campus we stopped at Pizza School to grab a few pizzas.  We grabbed another cab back to campus with our hot pizzas and bailed out at my apartment building.  Before we walked in the door of the apartment Daniel realized his iPod touch was gone--he had lost it in the taxi.  Sad day:(. Although I didn't have a lot of faith that he would get his iPod back, I did comment that the people here are very honest and if there was any sort of ID on the iPod it was possible it could be returned.  Less than thirty minutes later I got a call from a colleague asking about a taxi at the guard pagoda.  Low and behold the taxi driver had discovered the iPod, realized it belonged to someone in my group, and drove back to SFS to return the iPod to Daniel (thankfully it said Daniel James in the iPod contacts list).  Daniel could not have been happier and he dashed down to the guard pagoda to reclaim the iPod!  Never in a million years would that iPod have been returned had we been in a big city in the States...this is just another reason why I really like Seoul!