DMZ: the 38th parallel

one of those ‘things to do’

north korea has been closed down to visitors. so the dmz is as close as you can get, safely, for the time being. we’ve heard recently that north korea might open up again in a couple of months. but one of our teachers is leaving in a couple of weeks. . . so i kinda organized for a group of us to go with the USO tour. is was recommended by another teacher who went with them a couple years ago. i would recommend it as well. i’m not sure what the other dmz tours do, but this one was really informative. i sort of expected it to be a little boring, but i was pleasantly surprised at how much i liked it.

i made reservations a couple of weeks ago for three of my coworkers, my friend jess, and myself. jess came up friday night from jeoun-ju and stayed with me.

side note- i was supposed to have a couch by this time. i could use somewhere to sit, but i also wanted it for would be couch surfers. it hasn’t worked out for me just yet, so this week i picked up an air mattress. so, for those would be couch surfers. . .i don’t have a couch yet, but i think i can make your sleep somewhat comfortable.

the one real catch of the tour was that we needed to be at camp kim to catch the bus by 7am. that meant a pretty early morning train for us. jess and i tried to get to sleep at ten, but we ended up talking and catching up till about 11:30. so then we tried to sleep. . . but it just wasn’t happening for me. i think i finally fell asleep around 12:30. i had several nightmares about missing the train, missing the bus, and one violent dream about beating someone up in order to get to take a shower on time. guess there was a little anxiety kicking around in my brain.

we caught the 5:17 train to seoul. the trains move a little faster in the morning, so we probably could’ve gotten the 5:30 one, but we had a decent amount of time to grab a coffee and such before we signed in at the USO.

camp kim-
there were tons of posters announcing the rent tour that trevor will be coming through with in the next couple of weeks. i don’t care much to see the show, but some of my friends are really excited about it. i think it’ll be cool to see trevor.

we signed in sometime around 7:30 with a group of about 90 other people.

the bus ride was about an hour and a half. we were told that due to construction we wouldn’t be able to see check point 3. at check point three there had been an axe murder incident and it’s the site of ‘the bridge of no return’. gotta say, that was a bit of a bummer. .. . but we heard the story and saw pictures of the axe murder incident. ‘the bridge of no return’- which is the only bridge between north and south korea, would’ve made for a good picture. . . but not this time around.

our tour guide made things interesting. her english was really good, but she had an interesting way of saying things every once in a while that left us in stitches.

she talked about a lot of the propaganda that the north koreans used and would come to an ending point by saying, “and that’s how you know, communists are liars!”

she went on to explain some of the controversies and incidents that have taken place. the russian defector that ran across the sunken garden. ‘it’s a real hot topic, hot potato.’

there was a tree that was cut down (part of the axe murder incident) that the north koreans tried to say had special significance to their heritage, something about how it had been planted by a past ruler. after cutting it down the rings showed that it wasn’t the right age to have been planted by that ruler and therefore, “communists are liars!”

the original attempt to cut down the tree ended up in the axe murders. the north korean soldiers (kpa- korean people’s army) used the jsa’s (joint security area) own axes to attack and kill a couple of jsa officers. after that the both sides were ready for retaliation and the jsa launched operation paul bunyan to successfully cut down the tree.

camp bonifas-
anyway- our first stop was camp bonifas. this is the base camp for the united nations command security force- joint security area. 400 meters south of the southern boundary of the dmz. we are swtiched to different buses and our new ‘tour guides’ are officers of the jsa. we had a debriefing slide show, signed waivers, and received ID tags. basically we were under their care/ protection, and we were asked not to engage in any communication with the kpa soldiers. it had been a fairly light affair till we were ordered to pass our waivers and pens to the middle. it was the first harsh tone we heard all day and i saw a lot of people sit up straighter in their chairs. it was jarring, and rightly so. later, our jsa officer guides were more congenial with us, but there was always an air of tension.

panmunjoem-
from camp bonifas we bused into the dmz which is just 2 km north and south of the military demarcation line. . then into panmunjeom. we were quickly walked through the freedom house before lining up to visit conference row. there are a series of small bunkers that actually cross the line of demarcation and host talks between the north and south. between the buildings are slabs of concrete that mark the line between north and south, and inside that line is continued with two microphones on the conference table.

inside the bunker we got a good idea of the rok soldier. i didn’t see exactly what happened, but as we filed in a girl toward the front moved a little too close to the rok soldier and the door. i heard a small scream and saw people moving back from the rok soldier. i guess the rok soldier made an intimidating move to hold the crowd back. that’s when the jsa soldier said, ‘oh yeah, forgot to tell you. don’t get too close to them. trust me, he was being just being polite.’

the jsa soldiers work alongside the south korean (rok- republic of korea) soldiers. while the jsa soldiers talked to us and relayed stories and answered questions. . . the rok soldiers on duty moved around us or stood in tae kwon do ready stance (1. Chest facing forward. 2. Tight fists at belt level, about two fist-widths away from your abdomen, and one fist-width apart from each other. 3. Feet one shoulder-width apart lined up parallel to the target. 4. Toes on both feet pointed forward toward the target. 5. Knees straight (but not locked). 6. Back straight, shoulders back, head up, and eyes looking straight ahead. in fight ready position.)

the jsa soldier told us that in addition to their stance, their sunglasses were worn for intimidation. i heard a small voice from the crowd say, ‘it’s working.’

there was a rattling noise that also accompanied the rok soldiers. apparently it is a historic bit where something in their pants? rattles as they move so possibly, it sounds like there are many more of them approaching.

while in the conference room the jsa guy pointed out that half of us were standing in south korea and half in north korea. later we all had a chance to mill about, and yeah, i stood in north korea for a while. the whole group of us walked about on the north korean side and the jsa officer said it was the first time the whole group walked into north korea. there were some small flags represented. the jsa guy said that they had been encased in plastic because they had seen the kpa soldiers wiping their boots and blowing their nose with the south korean and american flags.

later we waited on the stairs of the freedom house while the other half of the group went into the conference room. we could see kpa soldiers at a distance watching us with a telescope from their building.

we went back to camp bonifas to get back into our buses. the jsa guy pointed to a sculpture that was supposed to depict two hands holding one another, and then threw in a shrug and said, ‘i don’t see it.’

once entering the dmz we couldn’t take pictures, until we were at the freedom house. i don’t totally understand why, but i think it might be that on the off chance we were undercover, working for north korea, we could send this pictures back and they could see how the southern side was fortified. there were fields of land mines and walls erected on roads to stop tanks. it definitely added to the gravity.

it was such a bizarre feeling. there were ridiculous stories and congenial soldiers. it’s an amazing opportunity to stand between two countries that are technically still at war. . . and yet, i kinda wondered if we should be allowed to do so. . . or if the healthiest thing is to stand there and feel how silly and scary the whole thing is.

we had a korean lunch before continuing. our tour guide announced that ‘pleasure comes to you after you eat, . . . if you are hungry. so enjoy your lunch.’ choice of bulgogi, or bimbimbap. we walked through a tourist shop and mingled about. a former co-worker and friend of jess’s from jeon-ju was also on the tour which seemed a pleasant surprise. he brought a big bag of chocolate on the bus and shared with a handful of us, so he seems to me to be a decent guy. :)

obervation tower-
our second major stop was an observation tower. at a distance we could see kijong-dong, a north korean town located inside the dmz. it’s mostly known as ‘propaganda village’ due to the extensive loud speaker system that blasts the praises of north korea and it’s leader. a closer look shows that the building aren’t inhabited. . . they are just shells and some people are sent around to keep up the appearance of the town. what’s interesting about it is it’s flag.

there’s a south korean town in the dmz as well. taesong-dong is a farming village also known as ‘freedom village’, that we passed. the people that live there are able to make a lot of money because they have access to a large amount of farming land and they aren’t taxed. . . but they are constantly under guard and have very strict curfews to ensure their safety. they have a large south korean flag flying high over the town.

not to be outdone, the north korean ‘propaganda village’ flies a 600 pound flag on the worlds tallest flagpole.

it’s kinda funny, and kinda sad, how all these incredibly complex international disputes emerge and play out in childish pissing contests.

we could only take pictures from the observation deck from behind a yellow line that would ensure a poor view. people tried to get around it a bit by standing on stools and climbing onto each other’s shoulders. the rok soldiers that were a little more laid back here just instructed the people to stop and said, ‘yeah, nice try. that’s not allowed either.’

tunnel #3-
our last stop was to tunnel #3. south korea has found 4 tunnels that north korea has tried to dig, supposedly on their way to seoul. tunnel three is about 490 feet below ground and about 5,200 feet long. the slope down to see the tunnel is rough. . . and long. it was so nice and cool inside though. i think i might have been the only person that could walk through the tunnel without ducking at all. (correction, the only adult foreigner.) we all wore hard hats, and i didn’t scrape rock once with mine. with bruce bent over in front of me, and natalie ducking behind me, i skipped through the tunnel. it was also nice and cool down there. i don’t agree with these north koreans.. . . but their deep short tunnels made me feel pretty much on top of the world.

the ride back was mostly about napping.

we were back in camp kim by 2:30. (i’m not usually heading into seoul until that time of day!) so we did some shopping in itaewon. we showed jessica, the new teacher, the foreign food marts, the english book store, i bought some more dvd’s from my ‘dvd boyfriend’. natalie and bruce had to skip away, but camille joined jess, jessica, and me for dinner. we finished off with coldstone, since it wasn’t blistering hot, i could handle the rich ice cream. mmmm, chocolate and peanut butter shake.

home by 7:30pm. . . . for an early bedtime. :)