Come with me to the DMZ
A once-in-a-lifetime excursion to the most forbidden place on Earth
Something you may not know about my husband Beau is the depth of his fascination with North Korea.
Perhaps because he grew up as a child in the U.S.S.R. (yes, before it was Russia) and Czechoslovakia (yes, when it was still called that); perhaps because of his family’s legacy of resisting communism and oppression; perhaps because of his engineer’s brain that he applies to mostly everything in life. Whatever the reason, he’ll happily read, watch, and listen to anything on the status of this anomalous country and the experiences of its people.
So, when we found our way to South Korea, there was pretty much no chance we wouldn’t get as close as we could* to experiencing North Korea. A few days after the erroneous text alert and the failed satellite launch, we took a guided tour to the DMZ (that’s the Demilitarized Zone).
There are only a few options to visit the DMZ as a tourist, and they all involve a group tour (big bus and lanyards and all.) We had an amusing conversation while sitting on the bus in which we honestly couldn’t remember if we’ve ever done a group bus tour type experience in our 20+ years of traveling together. We’re pretty sure this was the first time. It’s just not our typical style.
The two options (usually) are a tour of the DMZ area, including Imjingak Park, the Freedom Bridge, the Third Infiltration Tunnel, and the DMZ Exhibition Hall; and a longer tour that includes the JSA (home to the famous blue houses and what most westerners likely associate with the DMZ.) Due to some combination of residual Covid protocols, joint military exercises, and the general level of tension at the time (that satellite launch…), JSA tours were not available. So, we found ourselves on a big red bus on our way to the 38th parallel.
We started with a visit at the Imjingak Park. Notable were the amusement park rides (our guide explained that separated families could come here to enjoy a day with happy children, while being proximal to those still in the North); the Bridge of Freedom (pictured below) which South Koreans crossed to return from North Korea after the signing of the Armistice Agreement, and the Mangbaedan memorial (also pictured below), where displaced people whose hometowns are located within North Korea visit in order to honor and remember family in North Korea as a sign of respect during cultural events such as New Years and Chuseok (the Korean Mid Autumn Festival). Our guide spoke eloquently of the Korean Broadcasting System’s show Finding Dispersed Families. Wikipedia tells us that this was “a broadcast that ran a total of 453 hours and 45 minutes over 138 days as KBS was inundated with requests for help to re-connect individuals with their lost family members. As a result, 53,000 people were featured on air, uniting 10,000 families over its course.” (Our recollection of the guide’s commentary was that the show ran for longer than the time noted in Wikipedia, but I’m not able to accurately fact-check that.) One of the memorial statues played this famous theme song, which our guide noted would still bring up emotional responses to this day.
After Imjingak, we proceeded through the security checkpoint and up a (VERY steep and winding) hill to the Dora Observatory. From here, you can view (both with the eye and with telescopes) a North Korean propaganda village situated in the DMZ, as well as the city of Kaesong. You can also view the Flagpoles:
In the 1980s, the South Korean government built a 99.8 m (327 ft) flag pole in Daeseong-dong, which flies a South Korean flag weighing 130 kilograms (287 pounds). In what some have called the "flagpole war," the North Korean government responded by building the 160 m (525 ft) Panmunjeom flagpole in Kijŏng-dong, only 1.2 km (0.7 mi) west of the border with South Korea. It flies a 270 kg (595 lb) flag of North Korea. In 2014, the Panmunjeom flagpole was the fourth tallest in the world, after the Jeddah Flagpole in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, at 170 m (558 ft), the Dushanbe Flagpole in Dushanbe, Tajikistan, at 165 m (541 ft) and the pole at the National Flag Square in Baku, Azerbaijan, which is 162 m (531 ft).
Apparently, the latest North Korean flag is so large, it will barely move even with high winds.
The final stop of our tour was the Third Infiltration Tunnel (also known as the “Third Tunnel of Aggression”). We weren’t able to take photos within the tunnel, but I’ve found a few courtesy of the internet. Suffice to say, it was DEEP and much steeper than expected. At the end of the tunnel, we came to a concrete blockade (installed by South Korea) only 170 meters (around 560 feet) from North Korea. That’s pretty darn close, for the record.
We learned a lot about the people who still live within the DMZ and the various perks they enjoy: Villagers are classed as Republic of Korea citizens, but are exempt from paying tax and other civic requirements such as military service.1 The restricted area within the actual lines of control has also become a wildlife refuge: Wikipedia tells us that “there are over 6,000 species of animals and plants in the DMZ, including over 100 endangered animal species of the 267 in Korea, as well as many endangered plant species. These animals include the endangered red-crowned crane (a staple of Asian art), the white-naped crane, critically endangered Korean fox and Asiatic black bear, and, potentially, the extremely rare Siberian tiger, Amur leopard, and [where the lines extend into the ocean] endangered marine species such as western gray whale. Ecologists have identified some 2,900 plant species, 70 types of mammals and 320 kinds of birds within the narrow buffer zone.”
We thoroughly enjoyed our tour to the DMZ and gained some new knowledge and insight into this turbulent corner of the globe.
*Yes, there are apparently tours from China that take westerners to/into the country. As former military/government people, there was approximately zero chance I was willing to try that option.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Korean_Demilitarized_Zone#Villages
I was particularly fascinated that people would choose to live in the DMZ area along with all the wildlife, flora and fauna that is thriving. Historically, what an experience that must have been for you both to step on this land, visit and hear the guide's commentary on the DMZ area!