Torrential yet shy of monsoon, that’s where I’d place the rain we awoke to. If it were a Saturday morning in Gwangju, we could laze in bed with books and hot coffee. Alas, we had plans, and those plans required us to be up at 6:00 AM regardless of foreseeable misery.
Alex went off in search of water and carbs to kick start our day while I poured (no pun intended) over maps and guidebooks. Our tour company picked us up from the hotel, and by 8:00 we began our bouncy journey into the countryside cradling the 38th parallel.
The first stop on the tour is the farthest north one can travel in the western corridor before requiring military permission, Imjin-gak Park. The Imjin River borders North Korea a few miles to the west. It winds peacefully around the small park, though close observation finds it draped with nets to discourage underwater infiltrations by spies and assassins.
The pain of separation is palpable here in the family graffiti that climbs a barbed-wire fence at the end of the Freedom Bridge. Remnants of war linger beside present efforts for reunification. Next to a newly built train bridge, which abruptly ends at the opposite shore, stand the cement support pillars of a vehicular bridge bombed during the conflict. The barbed wire and netting, the bridge’s end and bridges bombed, and the young soldiers standing post with their K1 rifles were hefty reminders that all is not said and done here. Not by a long shot.
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| Freedom Bridge |
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| Freedom Bridge (detail) |
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| Freedom Bridge (detail) |
After clearing a checkpoint where an armed soldier enters the bus to check every passport, the bus driver had his skills tested on a bridge scattered with roadblocks. As the bus wove back and forth the vegetation grew taller and taller, and it was here we learned that no one enters the brush. Hundreds of thousands of landmines were scattered by aircraft through the entire area as a protective provision, and now undisturbed they occasionally kill or maim a passing deer while in the past farmers had died. We saw explosives built into arches over the roads, which are to be detonated should a Northern advance commence, and it was here, under the thick bamboo growth that national pain and pride coexist in the beaded sweat of South Korean military police. Many of the enlisted consider it a great honor to serve in the DMZ, some even moved to tears. While the world at the mention of North Korea has visions of oppression and evil, the South sees the suffering of countrymen and families. The dividing lines are not simply an ideology they are an actuality that keep mothers from their children, brothers from brothers, husbands from wives.
In the same sense, however, the threat is real and the south under no circumstance will allow for reunification under dictatorship. South Korean understanding, appreciation and use of democracy has been a re-education for this American girl, I can tell you that. Based on my experiences, observations, and study here, I can tell you that should war come to this peninsula, again, that the seas on all sides will run red. It would be like nothing the world has ever seen, and I would be proud to fight alongside them.
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| Looking North, where bridges end. |
The third infiltration tunnel was discovered in 1974 as it entered the southern half of the DMZ. Should the tunnel have reached completion, a point just north of Seoul, an estimated 30,000 armed men per hour could have made their way into the capitol. As we descended the 73 meters below ground, the air became dank and musty. The faint sound of trickling water echoed off the encroaching walls, and our hardhats scraped the ceiling’s jagged rocks. On all sides, controlled blasts had inched the tunnel forward, and those points were now outlined in yellow spray paint. About a third of a mile into the tunnel a military guard post ends your excursion because you are now standing almost directly below the actual demarcation line.
There are many interesting details about the tunnel from the angle it was dug at, to the painted walls and the North’s insistence that it was dug by the South.
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| observing the NK from a distance |
After the tunnel we were taken to the Dora Observation Post, where you can view North Korea and snaps some photos if you like (from one step behind a specified line, of course, this is a military installation). Our final stop was the Dorasan Train Station, where one day the south hopes to extend it’s tracks through the north and become a transcontinental railway. It’s an interesting yet touristy stop, but Alex and I did get our passports stamped to prove we’d come so far.
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| Passport stamped at, what may someday become, a transcontinental rail station. |
Maybe one day we’ll return and take that train to Pyeongyang, but for now I'd settle for some dry socks and a little
peace.
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