Asian Invasion: Day 7 - Into the Jaws of Communism

Greetings from the free country of South Korea. Today I have spent time approaching, and eventually crossing into Communist North Korea, and, no, I did not attempt defection. Democracy and Capitalism have been great friends of mine, and I much prefer them to their red cousin. This morning, we set off to see the Korean De-militarized Zone at the 38th Parallel which separates the North from the South. The DMZ was established after the Armistice agreement, signed in 1953 by Kim
il-Sung and the S. Korean president after the Korean war. Today we first visited the area called the JSA, or Joint-Security Area, which can be seen in the picture of the blue buildings.


Buildings in blue are S. Korean, and the silver buildings are N. Korean, and the building named T-2 is the building where Armistice talks and formal meetings of N & S are held. Security inside the JSA is on perpetual high alert, as can be seen in the above picture of the N. Korean guard. We were able to enter T-2 and step across into Communist country. For today, we got to go red. When inside this area, we were not allowed to communicate in anyway, verbal or non-verbal, to the N. Koreans, as those actions could potentially be used as propaganda. When N. Koreans are within their safe-houses, we are are told, they, however, will guesture, taunt, and demean American military and visitors from the safety of their territory. Along with this childish interaction, the N. Koreans also have a superiority complex to always be bigger and better than the South.

At the JSA, the building on the southern side, called the Freedom Center, had been renovated and another level was added. Upon seeing this addition, the North added a layer to their building to be sure that it was taller. The U.N. quickly prohibited any further additions, in order to prevent a sky-scraper construction war at the JSA. Also, in the picture to the left, you can see the N. Korean village within the DMZ that is named "Propaganda Village", due to the loud speakers that used to play Northern propaganda convincing S. Koreans to defect. On the other side of the line, the S. Korean village is named "Freedom Village", and during the year that the Olympics were in Korea, a giant Korean flag was donated and sent to this village. To match this huge flagpole, the N. Koreans built the tallest flagpole in the world (as seen on the left), and it now holds a 31 meter long flag. Wow, really?.... come on guys, just let it go.

Leaving the JSA behind, our bus then went to visit the set of tunnels dug by the North in order to infiltrate the South. These tunnels were built after the creation of the DMZ and upon completion, would have allowed the passage of 35,000 troops to Seoul (the Southern capital) in one hour. We were able to walk down to the end of one of the tunnels where it had been blocked by the South upon its discovery. It is unbelievable how active the conflict is, even to today. I have always seen the DMZ as an out-dated fued that has mostly passed, similar to the Cold War. The oppression and division remain today. For those of you who are not intrigued by the subject of history and wars, you have my apologies. There was nothing else to write about today, as this trip took us from 6 am until about 4:45 pm, and then we just ate. But for all of you who love Kazakstan, at the end of our tour, since we made good time back to the origin, our guide said "it was great success!" I think I about cried. My best wishes go out to those at CWJ playing hard. I miss you guys and hope the retreat is fun and rewarding. Tomorrow, we are off to East Asia...

More pictures at picasaweb.google.com/nate.tilley/Asiatrip

nate.