Rok and blossoms...

“The Bible tells us to love our neighbors, and also to love our enemies; probably because generally they are the same people.” 

― G.K. Chesterton

     This quote could not be a more perfect fit for the topic of this blog post.  This weekend I was able to visit the DMZ or Demilitarized zone between North Korea and South Korea.  This 4 km wide border dividing the North and South is the most heavily fortified border in the world.  So if we are talking about neighbors and enemies, the Republic of Korea (RoK or South Korea) and Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK or North Korea) check both boxes.  

In case you don't remember your history lessons or just never learned about Korea or the Korean war here is a short video to explain:

If you don't want to watch the video here is a quick synopsis:

Before WWII Japan occupied Korea, when Japan surrendered in 1945 all of its territories were taken away.  Because the Korean government had been completely wiped out by the Japanese occupation, the United Nations gave the North half of the Korean peninsula to the Soviet Union to help set up a government and the South half to the US to set up a government.  During this time the two sides were divided at the 38th parallel. 

  This was never meant to be a border and the plan was to reunify the two. However while a president was democratically elected in South Korea and dictator was put in power in North Korea.  After the US helped with the South Korean election they left.  The North seeing that the South no longer had the US' protection decided to try and control the whole peninsula.  They made it to the very bottom of the peninsula before the US came back to offer aid.

  Then the South and the US were able to push the North back almost to the Chinese border.  Unfortunately this is when China decided to become involved. 

With the help of the Chinese, the North was able to push back the South once again to around the 38th parallel, the original border line set up by the United nations. In July of 1953, the North and South signed an armistice agreement.  This was not a peace treaty only a cease-fire, technically North and South are still at war. The Armistice line is the current border today.  

The armistice agreement created a border between the two countries called the Military Demarcation line or MDL.  It also stipulated that each country must pull their soldiers back 2 km on each side from the MDL, which created a 4km or (2.5 mile) stretch of no man's land between the two.  

So after all that history this is the place that I was able to visit today.  My tour started off with a tour of the 3rd infiltration tunnel.  

We couldn't take pictures in the real tunnel so they built this beautiful fake tunnel to take pictures with.  The 3rd infiltration tunnel was found in 1978.  This tunnel is 1 mile long and was dug 240 feet below the surface.  The tunnel was designed to allow 30,000 North Korean troops through the tunnel per hour to launch a surprise attack on Seoul.   When the tunnel was found, the North explained the tunnel by saying it was part of a coal mine.  

 Lest you forget, these lovely land mine signs are everywhere.

We then went to the Dora Observatory.  Unfortunately we couldn't see anything because of fog.  On a clear day North Korea could be seen from here. 

Korea loves their cartoons.  This is a very serious army base in the most militarized border in the world, but they decided their sign should have a cartoon lion on it.   

We then went to Dorasan Station.  Dorasan station was built and set up so that if tomorrow the border was to open trains could start running between the two immediately.  If trains ever do run from the South into the North again it would be possible to ride a train from Seoul all the way to London.  

They really like positive slogans here.  This one reads: "Not the last station from the South, But the first station toward the North." 

 Apparently Germany thought giving South Korea a part of the Berlin wall would be encouragement? 

And the US thought gifting a train that used to go between East and West Germany would do the same thing? 

This is the part we all came for! These blue buildings were built by the United Nations.  This is the only place where North and South soldiers come face to face everyday.  Every tour group also has an American soldier escort.   

The grey building you see in the back is North Korea!  All the soldiers you see by the buildings are South Korean soldiers.  There was one North Korean soldier up on the steps of the grey building, and many others hidden in the grey buildings on the right side. 

 We were able to enter one of the blue buildings.  The conference table in the middle of the room is placed exactly on the border, so when North and South hold talks they do not need to even leave their perspective countries.  So this picture was taken from North Korea.  Yes, I was able to cross the line into the North!

 Our tour guide told us that the soldiers who are at the JSA must be over 5'10 and are the most attractive in the South Korean army as another scare tactic to the North Koreans.  I can tell you that the height limit definitely limited the pool to choose from.

 This is our "we're in North Korea" selfie. 

There are microphones directly in the middle of the table that record 24 hours a day. 

The last stop on our tour was the bride of no return. This bridge crosses the MDL.  Before 1976 the bridge was used to return prisoners to each side.  There were three major switches here the first in 1953 called the Little Switch saw 605 prisoners returned to the South and 6,030 returned to the North. The second in called Operation Big Switch saw 13,000 prisoners returned to the South and 89,000 returned to the North over a 6 month period.  The last time the bridge was used was to return the crew of the USS Pueblo in 1968.    

 It was a really cool day.  I never really learned about the Korean War in school, so it is very interesting to learn about it now.  

This week Korea's cherry blossoms bloomed so I enjoyed a nice walk home enjoying the gorgeous blooms.