A Visit to the North

On a rainy Saturday in June I awoke at 5:45am and made my way to the USO in Seoul. At 7:30 I was on a bus to the northern most part of South Korea, the demilitarized zone (DMZ). On the bus, we had a cheerful Korean tour guide who introduced himself as a retired bank manager named Young. He was a volunteer for the USO's DMZ tour. Young talked us through the hour and 30 min bus ride by making jokes and telling us what we were barely seeing out the windows due to the rain.

While driving we passed miles of barbed wire fencing and guard towers that lined the Imjin river. The weather was very foggy and it rained continually, so our visibility was very limited. Young told us that the guard towers are manned 24 hours a day and if anyone is seen in the river they are immediately shot. We drove until we came upon a military check point where they looked at our pass ports and continued to the JSA or Joint Security Area of the United Nations.

At the JSA we were to have a short briefing and watch a quick history of the DMZ. This presentation was to be carried out by a PVC Hauck, a caricature of the United States army. He wore a camouflage uniform and looked like a life sized GI Joe. We all sat down in the small auditorium and signed wavers saying that we were in a known hostile area. We were all given blue guest passes to wear on our left collar, and then we listened to PVC Hauck explain the slide show.

I understand that giving a slide show about the DMZ to 150 tourists isn't usually what you think of when you set out to be in the army, but this guy presented the information like he was an auctioneer at a county fair ground. He spoke so fast that my brain felt like scrambled eggs when he had finished. I felt bad for anyone who English was not their first language.

The slide show was really well done, and told a brief but very informative history of the early and current hostilities between the North and the South. I was surprised to hear that North Koreans have on several occasions ran over the boarder and started battles with the troops in the South. On one specific occasion on August 18, 1976, soldiers were trying to cut down a big poplar tree that blocked their view of the north. With out warning 8 KPA (Korea People's Army) soldiers ran over and attacked the men with axes. 2 United States military men were killed that day.

After the slide show we met PVC Hauck's buddy who was just as typical and and sported some very dark sunglasses, even though it was raining, and we were inside the whole time. He told us to behave ourselves, not make any gestures, and keep with the group as we went on with the tour. The North Koreans would be watching our every move. We were told that both sides were video recorded 24 hours a day, and they take whatever they can to use as propaganda. We were told especially not to point.

We arrived at a fancy looking glass and grey brick building and told to stand in 2 single file lines on a staircase. There, ROK (Republic of Korea) soldiers stood at attention on either side of us. We were told to go outside. Directly in front of us stood a large 3 story grey building and one North Korean soldier looking straight at us through binoculars. At this site, there were 5 buildings. The first one on the far left was said to be the former polish and Czech republic building, but now is out of use since they are not communist nations anymore. Then, there were 3 blue buildings which were UN buildings used for different talks and exercises. Last was another grey and silver communist building belonging to the North Koreans to the far right.

At each of the blue UN buildings there was a ROK soldier standing half guarded by the structure. His nose was bisected by the corner of the building and looked like it was actually touching the blue facade. Someone asked why they stood that way and Private Hauck responded that it was so if the North started shooting they could find quick cover yet still keep a constant eye on the them. There were also several more ROK soldiers just walking around. These soldiers spent their whole shift just staring at each other.

At one point a second Northern Soldier came out and had a chat with the guy holding the binoculars. He then borrowed them, looked at us and returned inside. It was a surreal vision into a strange and unknown twilight zone. The fact that it was rainy definitely added to the creepy ambiance.

We were then able to go into a building which sat both on the North and the South. This is where talks between the nations took place. There was a long table with many chairs at the intersection point of the North and South with a UN flag on it. We were actually able to stand on the side that belonged to North Korea. There were 2 ROK soldiers standing in the room with us. One guarding the back door to the North and one standing at the end of the long table. We were able to get some pictures with them, but told not to touch them because they would touch us back. I can truthfully say that I stood in North Korea for a total of 4 minutes and survived.

In the building there was a plaque of different flags on the wall from all of the nationalities that the building deals with. There used to be regular flags that sat on the tables. We were told that when former president Bush was having talks with the North, 2 KPA soldiers busted into the building, took the United states and the South Korean flags and destroyed them. From then on, they replaced the flags with smaller ones under a glass frame.

Next we were off to "look out tower #3". We stood outside in the rain while Sargent Sunglasses told us about the Propaganda village in the distance. First, he said that the North Korean flag that we were looking at was flying from the tallest flag pole in the world. The pole is 160 meters tall and the flag itself has a dry weight of 600lbs. We were lucky to see the flag because they take it down in the rain due to the fact that it can't stand it's own weight when wet.

Surrounding the flag pole was the propaganda village named Kijong-dong. This "village" is made up of empty buildings and only a couple of North Korean Soldiers live/patrol there. The buildings have nothing inside them but a couple loud speakers to announce the wonders of communism and how great their leader is. Currently, the village has no electricity, but when it did, each building had a single light bulb at the top. Due to the buildings being large facades with no floors in them, the light would be bright at the top and very dim at the bottom. It was like something from a story book.

Next, we were able to buy lunch at the only restaurant in the DMZ which apparently only sold 2 things. Boulgogi and Bi-bim-bop. Boulgogi is stewed beef and bi-bim bop is just veggies and rice with hot pepper sauce. Of course true to Korean tradition we were presented with many side dishes. Lunch was uneventful, but we all relished in the fact that this restaurant must be making a killing off of all the tours that come through.

After lunch, we were off to the observatory. This was the biggest let down of the trip because in theory we were supposed to be able to see quite a bit into North Korea, but due to the weather we only saw grey. We were at a hill top where, on a good day, we could see a REAL North Korean village as well as the pretend one.

So, finally we moved on and arrived at "tunnel #3". Young was now our tour guide again and he informed us that at least 6 tunnels running from the North in the direction of Seoul have been found. The tunnel we would be able to enter today was found in 1978 and the most recent one had been found in 1982. These tunnels were 75 meters underground and were built to have over 300,000 North Korea soldiers in Seoul within an hour. We were told that there are probably several if not many more tunnels that have not been discovered yet.

We went down a beautifully manicured and padded walk way to the actual tunnel. They even had a train system to take people down who were unable to walk. Then, we went into the original tunnel area which was quite claustrophobic and creepy. At the end of the tunnel we were able to see one of the 3 barricades that were placed to divide the tunnel. In between the barricades were mines. We then turned around and headed back the same way which we came.

We returned to the bus and started the journey back to the USO office in Seoul. Weather aside, it was a great and worthwhile trip. It's easy to read the news papers and briefly think about how crazy and isolated North Korea is, but actually looking at a North Korean Soldier, and trying to wrap your head around how hostile the situation is between the 2 countries is quite dis concerning. It's amazing to me how much South Korea just wants to be reunited with the North. They want to put the past aside and they talk about reunification all the time. To them, it is a painful and unnecessary separation. South Korea looks at themselves as one peninsula, not 2 countries. Keeping true to the Korean way of life, they look at their community and culture as a whole, rather than in individual terms. Families are still families, and as a culture, they still consider themselves a unit. In this era of individuality and broken families, I think that is a wonderful thing.