International Incident?

September 28, 2010

I escaped the North Koreans! How auspicious that I visited the day that Kim Jong-un was appointed general. Heading to the DMZ was an interesting experience. The highlight was seeing a North Korean soldier eyeing us through his binoculars!

I did the tour with the USO and we first hit the Third Tunnel. There are four tunnels that SK has uncovered and more are expected. A NK tunnel surveyor defected to SK in the 1970s and informed SK that the tunnels existed. Once a tunnel was discovered the SK pumped water into it and left it in one for 3 years. In some areas the water never filled the tunnel. One tunnel had some water shoot out because the NK had dynamited in the tunnel. The North Koreans have denied they built the tunnels instead saying SK built it to invade the North. They also painted some of the granite black to claim it was a coal mine. So sneaky! We had to wear hard hats in the tunnel and it was one of those fortunate times that I’m so short. There was a rhapsody of hard hat pings as people would hit the ceiling.

There was a sculpture symbolizing the hope of reunification and I feel like in the US we always hear (or at least think) that all Koreans want reunification. I spoke with our young guide thought and she said it’s a generational thing. That those who are separated from family or lived through the Korean War want reunification, but NK is an intangible imaginary country in the minds of the younger generation because they cannot visit it and there is no transparency. She said for the younger people the thought of unification mostly brings anxiety as they just focus on how hard the transition will be. For them SK is so prosperous and the reunification is a threat to that. This point of view makes sense, but I had been under the impression that Koreans looked forward to reunification. The US sure does, but we don’t have anything to lose really.

We headed to the northern most railroad station in SK and it is eerily new and clean, but empty. Trains from the south can stop at the station, but there are no trains north. This and other buildings are just standing at the ready for unification.

The DMZ (Demilitarized Zone) is 2 kilometers wide on either side of the Line of Demarcation. A positive indirect effect of the DMZ is that wildlife has flourished here and there is hope that the area will be protected even after reunification. We went to the Joint Security Area overseen by the UN (using SK and US troops) and stared down the North Koreans – well one. I’m sure there were many eyes on us, but only one guard was outside. He walked along a bit to get different views of us. We were allowed to take as many pictures as we wanted of the north side and the SK & US troops right at the line, but we could not take many of the JSA area. We also went into a smaller building where the two sides sometimes meet. The audio recorders on the table are actually on the demarcation line! So once I walked to the other side of the table I was in North Korea!!! We were told we could take pictures with the SK soldier, but not to touch him – so you can see I was a bit anxious. :)

I had a slight insight into being in the military as we were ordered how to form lines, told regulations and spoken to in rapid monotone language. I was very surprised thought that we never had to go through security screening. There was just one part where we couldn’t bring our bags with us. This seemed a bit insecure and made me nervous that it would be easy to wreck havoc there.

The bridge is called the Bridge of No Return because it was last used to exchange POWs after the Korean War. I’ve included a picture of the NK flag which they made to “beat” the size of the SK flag. It weighs 600 pounds!

So I might not have set off an international incident, but I did have a moment of fame in Seoul. Last night I was interviewed by an American (actually went to a rival school of where I taught) who is a radio DJ. He interviewed me about a rivalry I’ve felt. I took me awhile to decide, but I talked about my sister and our heated card games and such. It played while I was on the tour today, but he’s supposed to send me a copy.

I’ve also included for the foodies out there another picture of street food I bought. It’s a fish flavored fried doughy thing (sorry I can’t give a better description). It was pretty good and shockingly there was no chili sauce!

Off to Gyeongju tomorrow...