North Korea

Okay fine, the title is a little deceiving. I recently had to make an impromptu trip to Seoul, South Korea for some Visa paperwork. More information to come in a later blog post on that. Anyway, since I was in Seoul for the weekend, it seemed like a great opportunity to visit the DMZ. The DMZ is the demilitarized zone. It is an area that borders North and South Korea. It is only 2.5 kilometers wide! The actual drive to the DMZ is not much to write about. We got on a bus and drove roughly two hours before coming to a military checkpoint. Two South Korean military members hopped on the bus and checked everyones passports, did a head count, and hopped back off the bus. Our first stop was at "freedom bridge." Apparently, when North Korea released some South Korean prisoners, they crossed this bridge. Also featured at this stop was a train that the United States bombed to cut off the North Korean supplies.

Our second stop was the most fun! Apparently, North Korea started making tunnels to infiltrate South Korea. These tunnels were meant to reach Seoul. Fortunately for South Korea, four of these tunnels were found. We got to venture down into the 3rd tunnel. It was a long way down. Inside the tunnel, you can view the dynamite holes in the walls that are pointed towards Seoul. The cave was very low at some points. I had to crouch down and hunch over as I made my way through the cave. We were not allowed to take pictures inside the tunnel so I had to settle for a very tourist-y photo.

Next, we went to a train station that was not active. The station was built to reconnect families that had been torn apart by the war. However, it will not be active until unification happens. At one point, there were plans to have a train station go from Busan, South Korea all the way to Lisbon, Portugal.

The last stop was very cool as well. We got to go up to an observatory. On the second floor, you can see North Korea, the DMZ area, and South Korea. From the observatory, you could see two small villages. One in South Korea and one in North Korea. These two villages had a small competition to see who could have the highest flag pole. In the end, this small village in North Korea has the second tallest flagpole in the world. After the observatory, we made the trek back to Seoul, Korea.