DMZ

On Thursday morning we woke up at 4:30am to catch the first subway to Namyoung station in Seoul. We walked a few minutes before finding the U.S. military base Camp Kim, where our USO tour was departing from. We took a bus for about 2 1/2 hours until we reached the JSA (Joint Security Area). We listened to a brief history of the DMZ from a U.S. soldier before going into a room and actually stepping into North Korea.

One of the stories that stood out was the 1976 Axe Murder Incident. As the story goes, a tree was blocking the view from the southern side of the JSA into North Korea. A group of U.S. and South Korean soldiers went to trim it, and were met by some North Korean soldiers warning them against cutting the tree (something along the lines of, 'Kim Il Sung personally planted and nurtured this tree'). The trimming was to continue until more of the North's soldiers came with weapons and injured almost the whole group of U.S. and South Korean military personnel. Some of the North's men picked up the axes meant to chop the tree down, and killed a U.S. captain and a lieutenant. This lead to "Operation Paul Bunyan" to finally remove the tree 3 days later. Here is the Axe Murder Monument:Here is the room we went into, where all of the talks are held:

Here is the border between North and South. I am standing on the Northern side of the border at this point.

Here is a North Korean soldier in the distance starring at us with binoculars. The South Korean soldiers in this area stand in a very intimidating stance of Taekwondo nicknamed 'ROK ready' position.

Here is a view of the tallest flagpole in the world in Kijong-dong, North Korea. At an estimated 600 pounds, this flag usually doesn't get enough wind to fly:
This is called the "Bridge of No Return." In 1953 when the Korean War came to a close, people were given the choice to cross this bridge into the North or South and never return again.

Next, we entered the "3rd Infiltration Tunnel." This is a tunnel built by North Korea that would have allowed the North's soldiers to be in Seoul within an hour. It was discovered in 1978, and it is believed that there are still more undiscovered tunnels. The South Korean government frequently drills all over to find more tunnels like the four that have been discovered so far.

After walking through the tunnel, we went to an observation deck where there are many coin-operated binoculars to look into North Korea in the distance.
Next was probably the most touching part of the tour. We went to Dorasan train station. This station was built so that if and when North and South Korea reunify, trains from this station will go into the North's capital, Pyeongyang. The train will even be equipped to go through many key cities in the world, all the way to London.
Going to the DMZ was a very unique, informative experience. It was definitely bizarre and full of propaganda (from all sides), but definitely worth seeing.