Korea 2006

today I took a tour up to the DMZ. I learned so much today. First (and I’m totally embarassed to be admitting this and if my high school history teacher was reading this he’d probably think he sucks, sorry Mr. Marino!) I had no recollection that Korea was divided after WWII. I guess I just always thought the North decided to break off from the South or something. Nope. Russia and the U.S. got together drew a line and said Russia you get the North, United States you get the South. And so it was. Dividing countless families along the way. I couldn’t ever understand why it was such a tragic thing, now I get it.

We went to the top of an observation hill that gave a pretty darn good look at the MDL (military demarcation line, the actual line that was drawn). From the top we could see the sister observation tower in North Korea. We could see Kasang and the big North Korean flag flying above and could see Panmunjom with the big South Korean flag flying. Our tour guide said that a few years ago there used to be hundreds of propaganda billboards on both sides, but since relations are warming up they both decided to take the billboards down. I was bummed, it would have been cool to see them.

We saw the train station where a few years ago folks from the South got to go to the North and be reunited with their families. We saw the bridge that once was the only way to get into North Korea. It is closed now since there is a highway that has been built which will take you there.

The most chilling part of the day (literally and figuratively) was the 3rd tunnel. Throughout the years the North Korean army has been digging tunnels as a way to infiltrate South Korea and attack. The first tunnel was discovered in 1974, the lastest tunnel was discovered in 1990. We went into the 3rd tunnel discovered, which at the time of discovery was only 52km (32 miles) away from Seoul. The North Korean army had the capability of moving 30,000 armed troops AN HOUR through this tunnel. If the tunnel hadn’t ever been discovered, who knows what would have happened. It was pretty freaky.

Slightly more disturbing, and a sign of the threat South Korea has lived with is the fact that along this highway you take to get to the DMZ and eventually into North Korea there are a few innocent looking billboards which cross over the highway. They simply look like crosswalks with ads on them. They are actually full of explosives and in the event that North Korea does invade South Korea the explosives will be detonated therefore closing off the main route into Seoul and thwarting the North Korean army for a little while at least. Also, any of the regular highways crossing over this road on the outskirts of Seoul have the same set up. Crazy, crazy stuff.

All in all it was a good day. Like I said, I learned so much and got to see a special part of the world and history.

I don’t know if I will have time to write tomorrow. If not then I will probably write a few more times upon my return and will post a link for pictures once I get them uploaded!

thanks for all of the comments and for reading!!

This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 23rd, 2006 at 4:19 pm and is filed under week 3. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.