DMZ

The demilitarized zone: A stretch of land across the middle of Korea that seperates the North and South. Unfortunately, these pictures won't suffice in sharing the experience of seeing the DMZ. Korea is unique in that it's the only country that remains split in the middle and, technically, is still at war. The tour started early in the morning and we were briefed about the seriousness of what we're going to see. Our tour guide made it very clear that unauthorized picture taking could get us in BIG trouble. Both sides are still paranoid about spies. We watched a movie that showed both the sadness of the DMZ and also the beauty of it. This stretch of land hasn't been touched by humans in over 50 years. Because of this, the DMZ has become an ecological phenomonon. The movie used the symbolism of birds flying between the two countries, saying that the dream of unification is still alive. I believe this. Unfortunately, the economic situation between the two countries is so drastically unbalanced that unification would be very complicated even beyond the political rammifications. We saw the tunnels that North Korea built in the 70s in hopes of invading the South. The tunnels were big enough to fit tanks, trucks, and up to 10,000 soldiers. Thankfully, the South discovered them before the North could put the tunnels to use. Now, North Korea is upset that the South is making tourist money off their tunnels and they want to be paid too. Funny. After the tunnels, we went to the Dora observation tower which offers a breathtaking view of the peaceful, un-industrialized land between North and South Korea. Again we were briefed. This time by a General who stressed, through a heavy accent, that we can only take pictures behind the yellow line. But, the yellow line is so far from the wall, that you cannot see anything above the wall. Completely useless so I didn't even take any pictures there. Just the mental kind. After that we went to the train station bordering North Korea. This was built only a couple years ago in hopes of unification. If Korea is every united, this train station will take Koreans across the other side. Also, right now S Koreans have to fly to China, Russia, Europe, etc. If united, this train will travel through to China and Koreans could go across the world by train. If, if, if, if, if, let's just say Koreans aren't holding their breath.