We had breakfast with Favid and Elizabeth before they caught the train back to their town and we packed up and headed to the airport.
Wagon wheel snack in Korea
Before I wrap up Korea, I want to relay a story David told me. In the US we hear about the movie “The Interview” and how it upset North Korea. That was minor in South Korea compared to a recent incident that we heard Little to nothing about in the US.
First some background. On the DMZ tour we learned there is the Kaesong industrial complex just north of the DMZ that about 120 South Korean companies invest in. They get cheap labor from over 50,000 NK workers to build their products while NK gets the economic boost. This was one of the purposes of the railway link I mentioned in a previous post, to ship the goods south from the complex. They have to use trucks now since the railway is closed.
Anyway David told us that the North Koreans love wagon wheel snack cakes, Choco-pies, or Orion pies as they are called in China. Basically marshmallow between two cookies covered in chocolate. They love them so much that when they work overtime in the factory complex they accept payment in wagon wheels instead of money. They got so popular that they became black market currency and NK banned them.
The incident started when certain nongovernmental groups in South Korea started sending boxes of wagon wheels over the DMZ with balloons, with anti-NK government propaganda in them, knowing that the NK citizens wouldn't be able to resist picking up a box of wagon wheels. This resulted in the NK soldiers trying to shoot down the balloons. The South Koreans seeing the North Koreans shooting, started to return fire. Thus a shoot out almost started over wagon wheels. Luckily cooler heads prevailed.
Anyway we made it back to our apartment in Beijing without incident.
Seoul is only a two hour flight from Beijing. Neither of us had been to Korea and we both wanted to go, so we booked a flight. This will be a short but full trip. We arrived Wednesday night and just took a taxi to our hotel and checked in. The hotel is located near Myeongdong which is a good central location in Seoul.
Thursday we had booked a DMZ+JSA tour. The DMZ is the demilitarized zone between North and South Korea and the JSA is the joint security area, which straddles the border and is guarded by both North and South Korean troops.
We went to three sites along the DMZ border. First the Dorasan train station. The station is the last stop on the railroad that links North and South Korea. Unfortunately since 2007 NK no longer accepts rail traffic, so the train only goes south. There is a fairly significant military presence there.
Soldiers on the left, tourists on the right
After the train station we went to the Third Infiltration Tunnel. It is called that because it was the third tunnel discovered being dug underneath the DMZ from NK. It was discovered in 1978. Unfortunately they had a strict no photo policy inside the tunnel. It is 73 meters deep and through solid rock. We had to wear hard hats and it is a good thing because we both hit our heads on the low cieling. We were able to go as far as the first barricade beyond which the tunnel is supposedly mined.
Tunnel down to the 3rd Infiltration tunnel
Bonus picture below.
Not a picture of the tunnel, this is the Thurston Lava tube from Hawaii 🙂
After the tunnel we went to the Dorasan observation post which is on a small mountain had has a good view across the DMZ to NK. Unfortunately it was not a clear day so you couldn't see much detail.
Finally we went to the JSA. We stopped at Camp Bonifas before the DMZ where an armed US soldier from the United Nations JSA Battalion checked our passports (we had to send scans of our passports 3 days ahead to be cleared for entry). After we entered we had to sign a form saying we understood and would follow the rules, such as no pointing, waving or gesturing, no leaving the group, no communicating with NK personnel, etc. Then there was a short presentation on the history of the Korean War and JSA.
Since the JSA is on the border, you actually go through part of the DMZ to get there. We switched buses and drove into the DMZ with our army escort. Again we were not allowed pictures but before the DMZ there is a tank wall, a mine field and electrified razor wire.
JSA
The picture above needs some explanation. The blue buildings are UN buildings and the grey buildings are NK buildings. You can see our US army guide just above the shoulder of the guy in the red shirt. The soldiers with the white band on their helmets are South Korean, and they are standing rigidly motionless. Between the two UN buildings in the center you can see some gravel, then a line, then concrete. That line is the border between NK and SK. He's hard to see but there is a NK guard In the door way of the larger NK building in the distance. The middle UN building with the open door is where negotiations are sometimes held.
Yanmei is on the right side of the South Korean soldier, which means she is officially in North Korea. Technically I guess that makes it two bonus countries.
Me in North Korea. The flag and recording devices in the middle of the conference table mark the border.
For me this was one of the most interesting days of the trip so far. Really good tour and there is a lot of stuff I left out too. This is not something we are used to in North America. There is a lot of history and still a lot of tension behind everything that is going on here.
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