Where North Korea Meets South Korea: Stories from the DMZ (Demilitarized Zone)

We finally made it to the DMZ, the buffer zone between South and North Korea! Here are some photos, background, and stories.

My two large takeaways from this trip were:

1) Looking at the world map, I'm acutely aware of how close Seoul is to North Korea. Learning that North Korea could easily launch mortars into my location just south of Seoul creates a much more acute awareness, as well as a very sobering one. It is highly unlikely that this will happen, but I have a higher respect for the weapons mankind has created.

2) The 70 years of history between the Korean War and now are quite unfathomable to me, having only known comfort and relative peace as it exists today. I can't imagine the mandatory curfews and head counts of mere decades ago, let alone the tension that accompanied them. I can't imagine seeing my family one day, and then being separated from them without warning the very next day, divided by land mines and violent political tensions. The very least I can do is learn and remember. Reunification is a controversial topic, moreso than I'd ever realized. Many people would love peace and to rejoin the two Koreas so friends and family can be together again, but in reality, the political and economical divides between the two nations resemble a single, most human flaw that shall be momentous to eventually overcome.

We woke up at 5:30 AM to make our 7:45 departure time, so here's the sunrise, which we were lucky to catch from the Seoul subway.

The most touristy sight of the whole area, besides the few stalls selling DMZ hats, shirts, pieces of barbed wire, and other memorabilia.

At a few places around Korea, you'll find these statues, "the Statue of Peace toward the Reunification of Korea." They symbolize the victims of sexual slavery who were forced into service by the Japanese military during the Asia-Pacific War. The statue at Imjingak represents the "comfort women" who were not able to return to the North due to the division of Korea's national borders.

Messages of peace intertwined with fence and barbed wire

A Korean War-era train riddled with bullet holes. Here's an excerpt from the history plaque:

"This steam locomotive is a symbol of the tragic history of the division of North and South Korea, having been left in the DMZ after being bombed and derailed during the Korean War.

"According to the testimony by the train driver (Han Joon-gi, born in 1927) at that time (31 December 1950), the train, while on its way from Kaeseong to Pyeongyang to deliver war materials, due to the intervention of the Chinese People's Volunteer Army, was going backwards from Hanpo Station in Pyeongsan, Hwanghae Province. By the time it reached Jangdan station, the train was destroyed.

"More than 1,020 bullet holes on the train and its bent wheels show the cruel situation at the time."

This is a memorial at the foot of the Freedom Bridge, where nearly 13,000 Korean POWs crossed by foot to return to South Korea. Now the barb-wired fence is covered with multi-lingual messages of peace and reunification, flags, rings of armbands from the nearby tourist gondola, and columns of paper cranes.

Here are a couple "illegal" photos my friend took from inside the Third Tunnel, which was constructed by North Korea for the purpose of invading South Korea. There have been four discovered tunnels total (so far)! At the end of the public tunnel, there's a rusty, hobbit-sized door to the right behind the gal (which you can't see here, but just take my word for it lol), and you can also see the little "window" under all the "Do Not Enter" signs in the middle of the photo here. Peering through that little window is eerie because you can see beyond into the "other side" of the tunnel. Imagining coming out the other side is scary. Given all the signs and the big ol' swirly barbed wire twirl (pictured a little here) gives you the clear idea that you really shouldn't go any farther.

Even though it was about 40 degrees F outside, it was nice and warm and humid in this makeshift tunnel. It was a great workout, too, as it curves up rather sharply, which was purposely done to allow water to flow backward.

It's hard to see here, of course, but this tunnel is LONG. It actually spans a length of 1,635 meters, but only 255 meters are open to the public. We were caught between imagining tunneling a mile's length through the underground and imagining North Korean troops invading with full equipment and weaponry through this dark, long tunnel.

Not yours!

A view from Dora Observatory into the restricted buffer zone and, of course, into the land of North Korea! There were a bunch of tourist binoculars (you know, the big, metal ones) to peek through. A bunch of the following pictures were taken by sticking my phone camera into the peephole.

A North Korean guard post. We could see the guard walking around!

A view into one of the towns in North Korea. We watched people walking and biking around the road (the main forms of transportation in NK).

My first pic of the Korean "flag war." There are two flags on either side of this buffer zone: one on the North Korean side and the other on the South Korean side. For years, North and South Korea have been competing to see who can have the taller flag. Currently, NK is winning, as you can see by the humongous flag pictured here. Though, I will admit, the flag seemed to be struggling to actually wave from so high lol

Here's the south Korean flag waving, referenced in the "flag war" description in the previous photo. Hey, it's shorter, but it seems to do its flag job better!

This isn't in the DMZ, but I just wanted to add this photo from Gamaksan, a nice little mountain with a beautiful suspension bridge. It's located close to the border, and we spent a good amount of time on this mountain with a North Korean defector named Lily, who was kind enough to participate in a Q&A with us.

Lily and her parents had moved into her paternal grandmother's home when she was young. Her father died, and her mother decided to escape to South Korea. Her grandmother, however, thought it was too dangerous for Lily to leave and refused to let her go. Lily's mother managed to escape and later sent for Lily.

Lily shared that it costs about $2,000 USD for each North Korean defector to leave. In Lily's case, it cost $10,000. She's very fortunate that her family is wealthy, but it didn't make it any easier to leave. She first had to escape to a staging area in China, where (I think she said) hundreds(?) other hopeful North Koreans wait to head for a new home. When it was her time to leave, she had to cross an overflowing river, water up to her face, which was especially terrifying because she doesn't know how to swim.

The first night, she realized that she could continue to cross and potentially drown, or turn around and risk not having another chance, for a while, at least. She turned around.

The next day, she tried again and successfully crossed. She received fake credentials, and that was the first of many new IDs. She told us she had to enter seven countries within five days, taking all manners of transportation to eventually get into South Korea, where she was reunited with her mom.

She doesn't think reunification is possible under North Korea's leadership, but she wishes she could show her friends around Seoul. There are parts of North Korea that she misses, like her family, friends, and the fresh food. Similar to the USA, there's a lot of processed food in South Korea, and it took her a while to get used to it.

There are transitional programs for North Korean defectors where they learn about essentials of South Korean life, like going about everyday life, taxes, language, etc. North and South Korean language are surprisingly very different in accent and vocabulary. English has made its way into the Korean language (there's a lot of "Konglish," especially after the Korean War, in which the USA and UN had a great influence on the country), whereas English is nonexistent in North Korea. Imagine living in a country that's entirely closed off, where you rarely ever leave your town (not even for vacation), where your life is confined to your immediate vicinity and the people there. You know nothing of the outside world; in fact, propaganda tells you that the rest of the world is in shambles and that life in your country is the best there is.

Then, you leave your country for an open, modern one, and suddenly you're exposed to technology, languages, and foods you never knew existed. Imagine how overwhelming and exciting and scary it would be. You're a full-grown adult, but you have to start over, support yourself, and survive in this great, big world you hadn't known existed, hadn't known the scale of.

Lily spoke to us mostly in Korean, but she's learning English and was able to communicate a good amount with it. She's attending university, having been living in South Korea for about five years now. It was very kind and brave of her to share her story with us! She's had a tough journey, one that many have quit in order to return to North Korea when times got really tough, but she's sticking with it, pushing forward, has an adorable little dog, a foodie hobby, and seems genuinely happy.