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