South (and a little North) Korean Saturday morning recap

Saturday I woke up bright (actually it was still dark) and early just after 5:00 am. I had to be at the USO by 7 am for a tour to the DMZ. The subway here in Seoul is a very efficient way to travel but it still takes time to get across this very sprawling city. I had an easy time navigating the subway but had a little trouble finding the right exit and almost missed my tour. Thankfully I made it...just in time.

The tour I took was run by the USO. We drove about an hour north of Seoul to the demilitarized zone (DMZ) between North and South Korea. It is established at the ceasefire line of the Korean War. I've seen quite a bit on the news about North Korea and the communist society. It certainly was quite different experiencing it first hand. On the drive up we drove on the Free Highway - it runs along the border between North and South Korea. The border itself is divided by the Imjingang River. All along the river is a fence with barbed wire and armed guards. This picture isn't too clear because we were driving but thought it'd give you an idea:

After arriving in the Joint Security Area (JSA) we headed to Camp Bonifas. It is a military base with both South Korean and American troops. A US MP boarded our bus and checked all of our passports before allowing us to enter the base. After entering the base we had to sign a waiver and were briefed on how the history and how to act at the actual JSA zone. On the way to the JSA we passed through a few interesting areas where we weren't allowed to take pictures. The main thing that stuck out is that the area is covered in land mines and there are notices indicating such. This is nothing I have ever seen before.

We arrived at Panmunjom and entered the Freedom Building. This is a building on the South side where there are sometimes reunions between South and North Korean family members. We passed through the building and outside this is what we saw:

The blue buildings are the UN shared buildings that straddle the border between North and South Korea. The big building on the other side is the North Korean building. If you double-click on the picture you can see a North Korean guard on the first level one window to the left of the sign. He stood out there the entire time we were there and the South Korean guards stood and stared back at him. Here is a close-up (not great) of the guard:

The US MP stood and talked to us about the buildings all while being watched by the North Koreans. The multi-story building in the background is the main monitoring building for the North Koreans. According to the MP we were being heavily watched and recorded during the tour...weird.This is the security on the South Korean side:

We were able to go into one of the blue UN buildings. There were no North Korean guards but there were two South Korean guards inside the building. This is a picture taken with me standing in North Korea. The paved side is North Korea and the gravel side is South Korea.

I never felt unsafe while I was there but it was certainly weird being watched...especially by a known communist country. This is a picture taken inside the UN building. The left side is South Korea and the right side is North Korea. The microphones in the middle are the line separating the two and they also record 24 hours a day.

The South Korean guards stand at attention like that all of the time.

If you double-click on this photo you can see the North Korean soldier staring at us through binoculars...like I said, we were being watched all of the time we were there:

After we left the UN zone we went out to lunch at a local Korean restaurant. We also toured an area where you can get the closest to North Korea without going on the JSA tour. You aren't allowed to take photos there but it was cool to stand and look out at it. At this location there was a beautiful Buddhist temple:

The last stop was to the 3rd Tunnel. It is a tunnel that the North Koreans dug and it runs 1,635m in length and is 73m underground. We weren't able to take photos but it was fun to walk through. In this park I was able to get some nice view of autumn. The weather is really cool and I am loving it...it'll be tough to get back to the temperatures in Singapore. A few final pictures from yesterday morning: