North Korea (the DMZ)

Standing there, sniper ready to split my head in two, and North Korea just meters away, I reflected on how things had ended up like this.

I remembered the excitement and the thrill of racing to the subway from the Seoul airshow, the anxiety as the trains crept through the city, nothing I could do to speed them up and a five o'clock deadline fast approaching. The acute awareness of my own stupidity in not withdrawing cash from the ATM earlier, and knowing that the few minutes (at best) it would take me to find an ATM and get the money could very well be the straw that broke the camel's back. How that fear intensified as I ran past the USO, the place where I needed to buy the tickets, looking for an ATM, and then finally getting the money and back to the USO with just minutes to spare. I distinctly remembered the embarrassment when I lifted my hand from the counter and realized I'd left a sweaty puddle behind. Regardless, I'd bought 5 tickets for a DMZ tour 2 weeks later and the dream was alive.

I'd started a Facebook event and invited tons of people, and tons of people had said they wanted to go. After the typical procrastination period, we finally looked into getting tickets for the 7th and there were only 7 spots open. since the DMZ is the biggest tourist attraction in South Korea. Luckily the 8th-last spot had been snatched up by Ryley, and Paula reserved all the remaining 7 pending payment, so some of us would definitely be going.

That was the thing about the 7th, the reason we decided to leave a bunch of people behind rather than go a different day: Paula. Back in my sophomore year at Wisconsin, I was in a Comm Arts class about the rhetoric of African-American discourse. During spring break, that class took a bus trip to the South, to visit sites and people from the Civil Rights Movement. This was when Hilary and I first met, but at the same time we made a bunch of other friends, one of whom was Paula. Neither Hilary nor I had seen her in quite a while, and she'd been in Korea since August and we still hadn't seen her. She had chosen November 7th as the date for the DMZ, and we wanted to see her so we agreed on that date. If some people had to be trimmed, so be it.

One other thing, the guy Scott who I've mentioned earlier, had sent a message to Chris and Ryley, but not me, saying he was going to the DMZ on November 7th and they could go along. Neither of them ever responded to his message, I don't think, but awkwardly enough our party was comprised of me (who Scott had recently de-friended on Facebook), Hilary and Katie (who had never met him), and of course Chris and Ryley. Not only had he de-friended me but I hadn't actually seen him since late August, the night of Graham's going away party. So it was with a measure of trepidation that we signed up, knowing the inevitable awkwardness, but we wanted to go with Paula.

Back to the DMZ, and me in the sniper's cross-hair.

We stood on the back steps of a magnificent, unused building - the South Korean "Peace House." The original purpose of the Peace House was to serve as a meeting place for families who'd been split across the border. However, North Korea refused, afraid (rightfully so) that if they let their citizens meet their South Korean kin in South Korea, they'd defect. I can't think of a more justified fear. As a result, broken families are only allowed reunions on North Korean ground, where there's a less-than-zero percent chance that anyone will try to defect. Although, Paula's friend Kate related a story to us about a man who had recently "escaped" to North Korea. This guy was working for someone, and they had an argument and he attacked his employer, I don't know all the details but that's the gist, and so he ran away to North Korea. I can't say for sure but I bet prison in South Korea is not as bad as living in the North.

The steps we stood at faced a North Korean building of similar function as the Peace House. From it, North Korean soldiers observed us, and it was where they brought the few North Koreans who took the tour on the other side. That's the gray building in the photo above and the next two below. There's a funny story about that building and why the 3rd floor looks different from the 1st and 2nd. The South Korean Peace House, when first built, was not as tall as it's current incarnation, and when the two old buildings were facing each other, the North decided to add a 3rd story to their building to make it taller than the South's. Well, then the South Korean one was damaged and needed to be rebuilt, and rather than start an arms race for Tallest Building in the DMZ, the South Koreans went through careful planning to make sure when they were finished the two buildings would be exactly the same height. 

I always feel like, somebody's waaaaaaaatchin meeee... A North Korean soldier looks on while in the window on the left another takes pictures of the funny-looking tourists.

Between us and the North Koreans was the actual line of the border itself, and straddling the border were some plain blue conference buildings, for meetings between the two Koreas. Negotiations and armistice violations are all prosecuted in those buildings, with the mediation of Polish, Swiss and Swedish emissaries. Those are the buildings I pointed at. 

Here's our guide, Juarez, and our ROK Army guards, as we observe the blue UN buildings between North and South Korea. Between the buildings you can see a line between gravel and sand, that dark line is the border itself.

Normally, DMZ tourists would get to walk inside the buildings and actually step into North Korea, but with recent swine flu worries I guess they didn't want to put us all in a cramped space so instead we just stood on the steps and stared. The reason we weren't supposed to point is that the North Koreans are constantly watching, and we didn't want to accidentally piss them off. I was probably being aimed at by both North and South Korean snipers. 

This was definitely the best part of the tour.

Our tour guide for this segment was Juarez, an American soldier, and he was both serious and funny with regards to the DMZ, as promised by the USO's website. Quote and sic:

You'll also be able to see the giant flagpole at the North Korean Propaganda Village.  Through-out the tour, the various antecdotes regarding the rivalry between North and South Korea (such as this flagpole) will alleviate the seriousness of the sites.  It will also, however, reinforce the grim reality of the country.

Seriousness alleviated, and grimness reinforced, indeed.

Sadly for us, when we went to see the propaganda village, it was too foggy to see clearly and we could barely make out the giant flagpole in the mist. It was unfortunate for us that we picked such a foggy day, but it didn't impede our enjoyment of the up-close face-off with North Korea, and that being the best part, we were fine with it.

I also inquired of Juarez how many US troops were still stationed at the DMZ, but that information is classified.

The bus had left Seoul around 7:30 that morning, and took us to an area where we changed buses to a "secure" bus which took us the rest of the way to the Peace House. We formed up in 2-column ranks behind our leaders, one for each bus, received a warning that if we were bad we'd have to wait in the car (bus), and marched out to see North Korea. For our safety, South Korean soldiers took up stations along the border, halfway hidden behind the blue buildings, watching the North Korean soldier whose job it was to watch us. Normally, no soldiers are there because both sides have enough cameras constantly watching that to put a person out there is just a waste of time. After asking unanswerable questions and nearly getting shot, we reformed ranks and double-timed it back to the bus.

Since it was still foggy out, they altered our itinerary and sent us first to see the tunnel, rather than the observatory. The tunnel was interesting, in that it was a tunnel dug by North Koreans all the way into the South Korean side of the DMZ, but mostly it was just a tunnel, with rocks for walls, rock floors and rock ceilings. Not much to see at all, and too short for me to stand up straight. Before we went in the tunnel we were shown a video about the DMZ and the hopes for unification. That's one thing South Koreans really like to talk about, unification with the North, even though at this point it seems nigh impossible. The end of the movie featured this quote about the DMZ in regard to the day when the two Koreas finally become one: Until that day comes, the DMZ will live forever. Yep, I'm gonna live forever too... until the day I die.

The 3rd Tunnel. We weren't allowed to take pictures inside the tunnel, but that's ok because this info-graphic is probably just as interesting as the actual tunnel itself, not to mention much less cramped to look at.

Anyways, after the tunnel we had lunch and then it was time to head to the observatory and see the giant flagpole. Or not. The best part of the observatory was the restriction that you could only take pictures inside a certain yellow-lined area, which effectively eliminated your ability to get a photo of North Korea without people, binoculars and walls in the way. People battled this restriction by holding their cameras in the air, or even climbing on someone's shoulders. After another video here and a peek at North Korea through the mist, we were just about finished.

Paula in the foreground and some random guys in the background trying to take pictures of North Korea. I'm just about standing on the yellow line that marked the photography area, and I'm probably happier with this photo than they are with their blurry, tilted photos of fog.

One final stop. Dorasan railway station. There's all sorts of interesting things going on at the DMZ, one of which is the Dorasan railway station, a big station built in the effort to spark reunification or at least inter-Korean interaction, but foiled by the lack of interest and effort on the part of the North. For a time, the train did actually go between the two nations, but now the railway sits unused. All it's good for now is tours and fake passport stamps, that you're not supposed to put on your passport but some people did anyway ;). Until something major happens, it seems like South Korea's hopes for unification are just happy delusions against the sad reality of the separation.

It's the Inter Korean Transit Office.

After getting stamped at the railroad station, it was time to go home. I left the DMZ feeling conflicted. They show you so many things about how North Korea is a terrible country, then they talk so optimistically about how they want to unify, then they talk about the wonderful wildlife in the DMZ that will live forever until reunification. Am I supposed to like the DMZ because it protects us from Communism and harbors awesome wildlife? Why not!?! Am I supposed to hate the DMZ because it represents a terrible split between Korean people and it's very existence is a reminder of the dangers of Kim Jong-il? That too! Alas, I am torn.

Nevertheless, it was a fantastically interesting and enlightening tour, definitely worth the time and money. It's not often you get to visit a place like this, and especially for a foreigner living in South Korea, it's easy to forget what the DMZ reminds you: that you're in a country that is essentially still at war. Especially as an American, I'm so used to thinking of war as something that happens somewhere else, far from home, but the DMZ puts a crack in that.

NOTE: Some of the details in the events narrated here may have been distorted or fabricated for dramatic effect.