Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) tour: zeldalee13

zeldalee13

Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) tour

Nov 02, 2008 12:07

Arrive at the USO by 7:00 a.m.

Saturday morning @ 6:30 a.m. and the subway is already crowded.

United Service Organizations (USO)

Camp Kim gate

Tour bus

Jules & I on the bus by 7:20 a.m. DON'T BE LATE!

Farms inside the Freedom Village

Farmers living inside the DMZ live under constant guard and have a strict curfew. However, they have access to 5x more land than the average Korean farmer and are exempt from paying taxes. However, you must be related to a currently landed resident in order to live there (women can marry in, but men cannot).

The road to Panmunjom

Barbed wire along "Freedom Road" also called "Unification Road" that runs from Seoul to Panmunjom

Camp Bonifas gate

Our busses

We had to switch from the USO Tour bus to a United Nations Command bus

Ballinger Hall

PowerPoint

Freedom House

Basically a big beautiful empty building.

JSA

After passing through Freedom House we exit onto the steps leading to the heart of the Joint Security Area. The blue buildings are where high level diplomatic talks take place. These buildings actually straddle the border. See that raised bit of concrete running between the blue buildings about halfway in? That's the border.

North Korean guard shack

North Korean guard tower

North Korean guard

Cameras mounted on Freedom House

I crossed the border

Inside the Military Armistice Commission building, where high level diplomatic talks are held. The building straddles the border, so while inside the safety of the building I crossed into North Korea.

Another big beautiful empty building

Pagoda at Freedom House

Border marker

The 38th Parallel

Small white posts and rusted signs in English & Hanguel (on the south-facing side) and Chinese and Hanguel (on the north-) mark the 38th parallel. The line is not technically a border but a Military Demarcation Line (MDL) due to the fact that an armistice (a cease-fire) rather than a peace agreement was signed by the two countries.

Propaganda Village, North Korea

The North Korean flag flies in Propaganda Village. According to my US Army tour guide Juarez, Propaganda Village is not actually populated, unlike Freedom Village, South Korea. Until an agreement was signed, loudspeakers in the village were used to broadcast communist messages.

North Korean guard tower

Technological standoff

In front of the wilds of the DMZ

Bridge of No Return

It doesn't look anything like the one from James Bond "Die Another Day"?!
This bridge crosses the MDL and was used for the last POW exchange before the formal establishment of the DMZ. The name is derived from the fact that at the end of the war, POWs were given the choice to remain in the country where they were detained or cross over to their home country. The decision was irrevocable; if they chose to cross the bridge could never return.