DMZ Part 1 of 2

Dear Mom and Dad,  

Okay, this time. I will talk about my personal trip, and then I will talk about some of the stories we heard along the way.  I’ll also try to include some other information that I’ve come across.  I’ll try not to be quite so heavy this time around. Promise!

Olivia in the Ladies only lounge

Christmas lights outside the hotel

My trip to the DMZ was an exercise in contrasts.  I went with my very dear friend Olivia for a two day, one night trip to Seoul and the DMZ over Christmas break.  Neither of us had made any concrete plans to be away for the 1 week break and so since neither of us had been to the DMZ, we started planning.  We wanted to do the full trip, including the trip into the JSA (Joint Security Area) to Panmunjeom, which gives you the opportunity to get to the actual border in the center of the DMZ, and if you are brave enough, you can cross the border into North Korea.  You are inside a building built on the border for the purpose of diplomatic talks between north and south.  One side of the table is in South Korea and the other side is in North Korea.  Outside the building on one side of the building (looking in) are North Korean soldiers, on the other side are South Korean soldiers.  No cameras, with a VERY strict dress code, and neither of us were quite sure we were properly prepared for the dress code, which was fine, since it turned out that the JSA tour was fully booked until January 3.  Which we couldn’t do.

Seoul at night from Lotte hotel

Complementary cake -blueberry cheesecake

So we did the day tour, ( you can only visit the DMZ by organized tour – for obvious reasons) but since we were booking this ourselves and apparently had no clue what we were doing or how things worked with the tour, we decided to make things easy on ourselves (not on our bank accounts though).  The tour bus, the tour groups website said, would pick you up at Lotte Hotel in Seoul, or at your hotel.  Well, Seoul is big… and we had no idea what hotels were acceptable to be picked up at, since you had to apply to be picked up, and we took the easy route.   We stayed the night at Lotte Hotel. 

Cocktail hour

Lotte Hotel is an extremely famous, extremely swanky, extremely expensive 5-star hotel.  One room ran about W400,000 per night ($400).  Just the room.  No dinner, no access to amenities, etc. So we were hic-cupping and gulping over price, when we stumbled onto a sweeter package deal.  For 3 people (we were only 2- but, whatever - we split the costs) we could book a girl’s night party package, for only $100 more.  Since we weren’t going anywhere for the break anyway, hey why not?  Pamper ourselves once in a while.  We’d been saving for a long time and this seemed like a nice little girls’ night trip.   

our room

complementary with our package

Afternoon tea

Room Service!!

SO what did we get?  Ladies only floor, club lounge access, afternoon tea (ohh yuuu-uuu-uu-mmmm! Cookies and cakes and teas and coffee and nibbles and bits - Imagine a happy dance wiggle there).

Access to the swimming pool, fitness center, sauna facilities, free complimentary wine and flowers, along with a polaroid camera and free film (fun pics!)  Cocktail hour - ooohhh the smoked salmon!!  Melt - in - your - mouth!! And the shrimp and fruit and more nibbles and bits! Three course meal – room service.  In room Jacuzzi bath, awesome shower (we were really clean the next day), complementary full breakfast – with real sausage and bacon and scones, and croissants, and pastries and - ooohhhh- the happy dance wiggles! Oh, and did I mention the free $40 cake?  Not to mention great, great, great service (it’s 5 star, they’d better have great service).

 You get out of your taxi (thank goodness we decided not to walk - a little too swanky for mere feet) and the door man holds the door for you, hands off your luggage to the bellhop who holds it hostage for you and helps you to check in. 

 They kept our luggage for us free of charge for the day – after we had to check out.  AND- they booked the tour for us.

  So we left early the next morning on the tour.  You can only visit the DMZ by tour, it is definitely NOT a place you “just go to”.  It takes planning.  And not everyone can go.  Most tourists can go, but most Koreans cannot actually go to the DMZ, at least not on the full JSA tour.  They need special approval.  You also need authorized identification: passport, or in our case our ARC (which was actually better, because it’s issued by Korea)  and contains our visa status.

Freedom Bridge

Freedom Bridge (wooden)

   We piled onto the bus and off we went.  It’s an hour to the first stop along the trip. Imjingak is an old park in Paju that is used for people whose home towns and families are still in the north for certain celebrations and festivities that require a return trip to your traditional home town.  If that happens to be in the North, well obviously you can’t just hop across the border.  It’s the closest you can get to the DMZ without actually being in the DMZ.  There are remains of an old railway used during the war, a memorial ribbon fence and various other memorials.  But most telling, is the Freedom Bridge, across which about 12,000 South Korean POWs were marched during a prisoner exchange with the North.  It is a foot bridge that was built to cross the Imjin river, because the DMZ is so heavily land mined that it is virtually impossible to walk across (there have been exceptions…).   The prisoners were driven to the bridge and walked across to the south.  At this area, there is also an observation platform where you can look out across the DMZ and see just a tantalizing bit into North Korea.  How do you know what you’re looking at is North Korea?  No trees…

Peace Bell

We are the DMZ- Popeyes?  Really?

Checkpoints

Checkpoints

Looking into the DMZ

          It is near here that just this last fall, (2013) South Korean soldiers shot and killed a man trying to swim the river…back to North Korea.

Off in the distance- North Korea

Memorial to separated families

Old Rail line memorial

    We climbed back on the bus and ventured through the checkpoint into the South Korean side of the DMZ (just inside, not to the actual border).  We were told that all of the bridges in the DMZ and the nearby areas outside the DMZ are all rigged with explosives.  In case of invasion by the North, the South will detonate the bridges and over/under passes to slow the North’s military equipment.   Here is where we had our passports checked by South Korean soldiers.  South Koreans spend a mandatory 18 months in the military.  To serve on the DMZ, soldiers must speak both Korean (obviously) and English, and/or either Japanese or Chinese (or another language).  My co-teacher said he spend a good part of his tour of duty on the DMZ, but farther to the east, in the mountains.  He was an officer during the late 70’s or early 80’s.

   They must be (now) also a minimum of 180 cm (5’11”).  And our tour guide claimed, “handsome”.  Well, the soldier was somewhat friendly, young, and claimed he had 2 out of 3, which wasn’t bad.  At the checkpoint we were told to put away our cameras.  No pictures of the checkpoint.  Although we were told at this area, that we could use our discretion, no cameras, no pictures, unless you could get away with it.  Weeeeeell, ok, then….  Not sure about that.

   Then we crossed the Peace Bridge.  This bridge was built and funded by the original founder and owner of Hyundai.  He was actually a refugee from the north! As a very young man, his story goes, he stole his father’s only cow and escaped to the south.  All his life he felt guilty about stealing that cow and even though he never saw his father again, he always thought about him.  SO when he made it big in business (and boy, did he!) He decided he would send cows to North Korea.  But there was no way to get it there.  And so he offered to build the bridge as a gift for the South Korean government (which they were happy to do so).  Well he arranged for a cattle drive of 1,001 cows (that last one was “for his father” I think).  Well, when they got to the bridge, they discovered that all of the cows were pregnant.  And so the Peace Bridge is also called the cow bridge. 

looking into the DMZ

   The bridge is quite wide and lined with Jersey barriers.  There’s no straight route across the bridge, and so the bus swerves and weaves around the barriers to the other side.  It is still an active war zone after all… Which makes me question my sanity sometimes…  We passed into the South Korean side of the DMZ and we were “told” about the 800,000 land mines still “in existence” throughout the DMZ.  That’s down from the original 1,000,000 land mines.  Even so, It is still the most heavily mined area in the world.  The mines are planned so that there is no direct clear route across.  However… 2012, an 18 year boy from the North crossed the DMZ.  We were told that at 18 years old, this boy has three jobs already.  Number 1: he is a student in high school (Korean age is 1-2 years older than international age.  In the west he would be 16-17.)  Number 2:  He is a farmer.  He had to be to survive.  What little the ground will produce, goes on the table.  Whose table, though, that’s another matter.  Number 3, and most frightening for him: he is a soldier. 

Rail memorial-

          The North Korean military has one of the largest militaries in the world.  It is ranked 5^th or 6th, in terms of manpower, firepower, equipment, etc. after China, Russia and the U.S.  The reason?  Everyone signs up for the military.  For everyone, men and women, it is mandatory.  Also, the shortest enlistment term is 10 years.  Many, if not most people, remain in the military.  There are over 1 million active soldiers and up to 10 million reserve forces.  Which, in retrospect is almost half the population of the country (24 million).  After all, it is the most stable form of employment.  And even that is not much.  Many soldiers have to scavenge for their own food and other supplies.  One of the perks: officers are given a house for retirement.  And that is not grand either.

A DMZ checkpoint

Back to the boy soldier. He walked – walked – across the DMZ – at night – unnoticed and knocked on the door of a South Korean barracks asking for asylum.  His reason?  He’d just killed two of his commanding officers, for excessive bullying.  In North Korea.  I can only imagine.  No.  No, actually, I can’t.

Next up:  Excursion Tunnels, Dorasan observatory and station, Propaganda village, Kaeseong industrial complex, flagpole battle, life in the DMZ

Philosophizing on Ideology...A mouthful, a mindful, a mystery

It has been awhile since I’ve sat down to write, and I’m sorry it has taken me so long to write this particular piece.  Since going to the DMZ, I realized I had a lot to think about and process from that visit.  And as time went by (and kept going by…) this account got harder and harder to write.  Not because of memory, although I admit, that has a habit of failing me. Sometimes.  Only sometimes.  I think…

No, it’s more of the idea “Where to start?”  I know I wrote about the history that brought us to the formation of the 38th parallel, but seriously?  Where to start? It’s a dividing line, and it’s not objects we’re talking about, but people.  Living, breathing people.  It’s you.  It’s me.

We often say we don’t understand what “they” can be thinking on the other side of the line, but actually in a way, yes, we can.  We ARE all human, so yes, that could be us on the other side of that 4 kilometer space.  And yes, that could be, and is, us.  We are a product of our environments.  “Ours” happens to be drastically different.  But “we” are not different.

What would you do?  Take away the typical western automatic individualistic reply, “I’d do blah, blah, blah and get away and blah, blah, blah.  And then I’d: blah, blah, blah.”  But reality doesn’t work that way.  That’s delusional to think that we would be the same person as we are now, if we were there.  The environment is different.  Ideas are different.  Ideas are typically hard to shake. 

 For example, (not related to the DMZ): “Where do trees get their size from?”  Ask a large sample of random average people this question.  Very few can give the correct answer.  Even fewer know how to find the correct answer, (very few actually care to find the answer).  And when you tell them the answer, most will look at you cross-eyed and say “You are nuts. Who cares?”  Even if you explain the reason.  How do you change that?  You give them the tools to discover the answer.  And have them prove it for themselves.  Even then there are some who will stubbornly dismiss the evidence and continue on their way.    (The answer is at the bottom  )

The same goes for ideology.  And it is a humanly devastating ideology across that little border.  With all its secrecy, North Korea has been provoking a lot of global interest, which may be both the country’s purpose and its annoyance.

Ok, number one thing to remember when dealing with any information dealing with North Korea:  It’s all about the “Dear Leader”.  All three Kims have been and are still the Dear Leader (yes, I know two of them are dead now but still…Dear Leader).  Technically it is a socialist republic and elections are held.  BUT, in reality it is a totalitarian dictatorship, in every sense of the term.  Even more so than most of the extreme dictatorships we’ve come across.  The people revere the Dear Leader.  

Arirang games -Creative Commons

The Dear Leader: Who created an ideology of “self-reliance” called juche, but is often called kimilsungism (conveniently coined by Kim Jung Il-his son).  Kim Il Sung, remember, is the general appointed by the Soviets to head the northern troops after WW2 and before the Korean War.  He then became the first president of North Korea and basically created the country we know today.  His ideology basically, was that the people are the “masters of their country’s development” and “military-first”.  It stresses the idea of the Korean nation as being number one, and although it had its roots in Marxism, it evolved into a more nationalistic and stringent entity that found its own unique solutions to the problems in Marxism.  Marxism was materialistic at its center.  Kimilsungism claims to have people as its center.  And Kim Il Sung was at the center of the people. 

That’s the theory anyway.  The whole philosophy was that General Kim Il Sung ruled by force of personality and that evolved into the let’s worship him as a deity, endowing him with the title Eternal Leader.  He is the only one of the three North Korean Presidents with this title Eternal Leader.  All three are Dear Leader, but only the first was Eternal Leader.  The Eternal Leader was worshipped as a deity, although North Korea has adopted the Marxist ideology of state atheism, which oddly enough, contradicts the ideas of Juche.  Juche encourages the education and preservation of Korean history and culture.  Koreans have a millennia old tradition of shamanism, Buddhism, and ancestor worship…

The main party (the ONLY party) is the Worker’s Party.  There have been four offices to the Worker’s Party over time:  Chairman of the Central Committee (1946-1966), General Secretary of the Central Committee(1966-1994), General Secretary of the Worker’s Party of Korea(1994-2011), and First Secretary of the Worker’s Party of Korea (2011-).  Technically to be a member of these offices you were elected into the positions. Technically.  But there is a delegated list of preapproved candidates. And the head of the Office is the Party leader.

That wasn’t always the case, though. Let’s just say that at some point in time, when the original Chairman of the Central Committee died, Kim Il Sung replaced him… and then the office was switched to the General Secretary of the Central Committee.  When Kim Jong Il (#1’s son) took over, he became the General Secretary of the Worker’s Party and #3 Kim Jong Un (see the trend in the family names?) took over as the First Secretary of the Worker’s Party. Yes, it’s all rather complicated.  And at this point I encourage you to do your own study…  My head is exploding!

The answer: Air.  Trees get their size (mass) from air.  Photosynthesis, anyone?

Brief Korean History - Chosun dynasty to 1950

Dear Mom and Dad,

                Korean history.  Wow.  Where to start…

                I supposed what most people at home would be interested in is the modern history, although that should in no way dismiss the thousands of years of fascinating history of the Korean peninsula.  However, I understand that what most people outside of Korea know anything about, is a mere spattering of its modern history.  Sadly, we in the West often dismiss history that is not directly related to the West.  Why sadly?  I guess that is a personal opinion, because I am fascinated with history.  The life and times of people are not really so drastically different.  We all eat, sleep, love, marry, have children, work, live.  The rest of living, while it identifies us as unique cultures, is in reality superficial- surface differences, but that is what we see first.  And that is what we, with all of our superficial human nature, take exception to when we are searching for division.  But enough of the personal philosophy!  Woo-hoo, heavy!!

              Back to history.  The Korean peninsula/people have a long (I mean looong) history and so traditions and culture identity runs very deep.  5,000 years deep.  And because of its unique positioning, it is often caught smack-dab in the middle of several major powerful enemies/neutrals/tense-allies at any given time.  It has learned to be wary of its neighbors.  They’ve paid that price over and over and over… Over 1,000 times have they been attacked or invaded by surrounding countries or large marauding bands of pirates etc.  Which works out to be about once every five years or so, if you go by straight statistics.  Obviously, there were times that the invasion lasted longer, and there were long stretches of peace and prosperity.  But there has always been an expectation of “Where’s it coming from next?” 

             So then comes modern day Korea, which we will say for sake of understanding begins at the end of the 1890s.  The previous Chosun dynasty lasted from the 1300’s to 1897.  This was the period of unification for the Korean peninsula.  So, yes, division in Korea is not new or unprecedented, it has just become virtually impossible to move between the states now.  During prior divisions, there was still trade and travel, etc. but the Chosun dynasty was kind of the Golden Era for the Korean peninsula.  At least it may have been in the beginning of that era.   The Korean alphabet, hangul, was created by King Sejong ( a HUGE source of patriotic pride) effectively eliminating illiteracy (and enraging the aristocracy, of course.  Everything enrages them).  Crops produced almost more than people could consume and with very little effort.  Pictures of restaurants show heaping bowls of rice and side dishes for one person that would feed entire families today.   And then 1910 rolled around.

           Remember the 1,000 invasions?  Well, China and even Russia were sometimes the cause.  But usually it was Japan in some form or other.  Previously just before the abrupt end of the Chosun dynasty, there was infighting between Korean peasants and some of the ruling yangban (aristocracy)  which led to Qing (Chinese) intervention, which angered the Japanese ( not necessarily just because of that) and led to the first Sino-Japanese war, between China and Japan.  Most of which was fought in Korea…  All in all, a real big mess.  Not long after the Japanese assassinated the Korean Empress, the Qing admitted defeat giving Korea independence from the Chinese.  Except, Japan gained control of the peninsula, which was both good and bad, since the Russians were being a bother and the Japanese fought them off too in 1905, 7 years after the Chosun dynasty changed its name. Technically it was still the Chosun dynasty but no one called it that any more.  The bad came at the same time and of course later as well.  Whew - complicted, eh?

           When are we getting to the part about the 38^th parallel?  Soon, I promise.  We’ll get there.

Meanwhile, a lot of ‘stuff’ happened, including the assassination of the Japanese Prince Ito, Japan’s Resident-General of Korea, in 1909 which Japan took exception to and then eventually annexed Korea to Japan in 1910.  In short.  A lot of other stuff happened too.

            Now, Korea and Japan have long had serious tensions and animosity over the centuries, and with some very good reasons.  Perhaps we in the West look at it a little lightly, simply because we don’t really know the history.  It’s just not our history, so it doesn’t impact us and some might think it’s funny, that intense dislike and distrust, especially since they are allies now (of a sort).  But here is a little sample of the most recent animosity that lives on very vividly in the memories of the elders here and passed on to their children and grand-children.  

           1910, Japan took full control of Korea.  Yeah, little more than 100 years ago.  Well, they slowly began to create a mini Japan within Korea.  Korean children went to Japanese school.  They learned Japanese in school.  They could be punished for speaking Korean.  Korean adults were pressed into serving the Japanese in homes and even (sometimes) forced into Japanese military service, and foreign affairs, to forward the policies of Japanese rule in Korea.  Koreans were often forced to give up their own Korean names and take on Japanese names.  And then there were the Comfort Women.  Although there is some debate between various nations over this issue, nevertheless, it remains a serious issue. A huge, make no mistake, a HUGE source of Korean anger and hatred toward the Japanese.  Especially in more recent years.  For 35 years, Korean people had to ‘become’ Japanese without ever becoming Japanese, without ever being treated as fully human to their occupiers.  The backlash today:  old Japanese infrastructure is totally abandoned.  Japanese style/supplied housing sits empty and untouched.  Old Japanese bridges are closed off and in disrepair.  That, of course, is not all.

           Then there was World War II, and V-J day (Victory over Japan day) after Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and the signing of Japan’s surrender on September 2, 1945.  This is when the US and its allies first drew a division line at the 38^th parallel, where the US held the southern half and the Soviet Union took over the northern half of the peninsula.  

Wikipedia- Seoul street combat

            1948, Korea failed to hold their free elections between the north and the south (slightly different at that time period. It was not yet North and South).  The north, under the dictates of the Soviet Union established a communist government with General Kim Il-Sung as the leader and the south a democratic (of sorts) government with Syngman Rhee under the protection of the US.    Also important to note:  the Russians pulled out in 1948 and the US pulled out in 1949. China was still fighting its own civil war in China, Stalin didn’t want to engage the US in war while it was cleaning up from the German invasion and Eastern Europe occupation.   This left the 2 fledgling Koreas, still not entirely separated, on their own. Meanwhile, during this period, the whole peninsula was seeing massive widespread poverty.

            Reunification efforts continued for the next couple of years and intensified even just months before the Korean War broke out in June of 1950.  However, negotiations ultimately failed, when Kim Il-Sung ordered his troops to move south and attack the south after convincing China to commit Korean ethnic troops and eventually supplies to support the north regime.  June 25 the north attacked, while the south technically knew that something was happening, but dismissed the possibility.  The south was badly outnumbered, outgunned, out-tanked, out-supplied, out-planed, and over-all just badly under-prepared.  

             And within the first few days they were badly beaten, and unfortunately made some disastrous decisions that led to the abandoning of several military units and killing thousands of civilians along the way.  The south had 95,000 troops before the war started, and within the first few days of battle, they had less 22,000. Eventually, the US joined in the battle in July, using the logic that Japan was in danger and was a key protectorate in the East and could not be put in danger by the encroaching communist forces.

             Long, long story a wee bit shorter.  After severe fighting on both sides of the 38^th parallel and three years of civil war and near defeat for the South and the US several times, along with Chinese forces entering soon after the US entered the fight.  Eventually the battle front stabilized just around the 38^th parallel, about an hour’s car ride north of Seoul, the capital city, which had changed hands at least twice during the war.  The only area of Korea that had not seen northern occupation during the war was the area immediately surrounding the port city of Busan, nearest major city to Japan.   Once the front stabilized the war was pretty much at a stalemate, neither side gaining or loosing much territory and neither really giving ground.   

Wikipedia - Orange northern troops movements, Green southern troops

            Eventually an armistice agreement, cease fire, was agreed upon, and the 38^th parallel became the new dividing line by UN Treaty Council.  And now, this is when it officially became North Korea and South Korea. It was to be a demilitarized zone; troops were to be pulled back 2 kilometers on either side of the border.  And the UN Treaty Council outlined exactly what and who were allowed inside, and when and how.  However, there was no peace treaty. It also effectively trapped people on both sides of the demarcation line who had family or just plain wanted to be on the other side, whichever side they happened to be on. More on all that later.

            For now that brings us up to 1953 on general modern Korean history.  I must admit that I had to do a little bit of research to find out all this information.  And unfortunately for expediency’s sake I resorted to Wikipedia.  I know, not the best source of information, but readily available.  I also included some anecdotal information as well from friends and teachers and other sources here.  If you are interested in anything, I highly recommend doing your own personal study.  It really is very fascinating!! 

            Really!!