Natalie and I had been looking forward to this day for YEARS - the day we went to the DMZ to see North Korea. And it rained. ALL DAY. And we did not get to see North Korea.
It absolutely poured for most of the day. The streets of Gangnam were quiet as we walked to the subway very early in the morning.
But it was fun to see Jin from BTS on the screen in the subway station!
The subway was pretty empty at the early hour - we had to be in Myeongdong by 7 am!
Ugh, this doesn't look good for our day!
There were so many buses that they couldn't fit all of them along the street, so we had to wait a bit for others to move out, and for ours to arrive. While we waited, we went into 7-11 for some snacks and to get out of the rain.
Our first stop was Imjingak Park, which is a peace park that covers the history of the Korean War and the separation of North and South Korea. Here, you are about 4.5 miles away from the actual border between North and South Korea. People have posted many colorful ribbons praying for family members left behind.
The Bridge of Freedom was named so because in 1953, 12,773 Korean and UN forces who became POWs crossed this bridge back to freedom. You used to be able to walk on the bridge, but it's closed now.
Natalie took a nice picture of the Freedom Bridge. Freedom Bridge connects with the rail line (on the other side of the water here.) The sign here said, "Two railroad bridges on the Gyeongui Line originally spanned the Imjingang River side-by-side. Both were destroyed by bombing; only the piers remained. To enable exchange of prisoners of war, the west bridge was rebuilt as a temporary structure over the original piers. The repatriates were taken to Freedom Bridge by trucks and they crossed the bridge on foot."
Another pretty picture of the Freedom Bridge through the blooming trees.
Our guide Julie told us the story (in the pouring rain) of the young girls who were comfort women for the Japanese military during World War II. Around 200,000 Asian women acted as comfort women during the war, and most of them were Korean. Fewer than 50 are still alive, and have never been issued a formal apology or received any reparations.
You can also visit the Mangbaedan, which is a permanent altar that faces toward North Korea, that replaced a temporary altar which had been constructed by refugees that had fled North Korea's Communist Party (as well as the Soviet Union). The refugees had fled, leaving behind parents, grandparents, and other relatives and friends. Every year on Chuseok (Korean Thanksgiving) and New Year's Day, those who fled join their friends and neighbors to bow toward North Korea and pray for the welfare of those left behind.
There is also a monument nearby dedicated to the separated families.
The Imjingang rail bridge and the Peace Train are incredibly powerful examples of the terror of the Korean War.
The story behind this train is fascinating. Han Joon-gi, the locomotive driver who was only 23 years old at the time, was driving the train from Gaeseong to Pyeongyang and delivering supplies to United Nations troops. He got as far as Hanpo station when he encountered the Chinese People's Volunteer Army. He couldn't turn around, so he just started backing the train up in reverse.
Once he got to Jangdan station, which is roughly where it sits now, he was stopped by US troops who put over a thousand bullets in his train (he and his crew were able to get off the train prior to them doing this!) Apparently the Americans didn't want the train falling into the hands of the North Koreans, so they just destroyed it instead. Note: There isn't anything on the signage surrounding the train that mentions the Americans involvement because the Americans are allies and they didn't want to shatter relations over this.
They're watching you!!!
There are various lines that make up the DMZ -- they exist as safety controls to keep both North and South Koreans (and tourists I suppose!) out of the area. Along the entirety of the DMZ, there is only one place that you can cross the first line, the Civilian Control Line without permission or a passport check, and that's here at the Imjingak Peace Park.
Naturally, there is a small fee to do this, but of course Natalie and I wanted to cross the line unchecked so we paid the fee and went in!
The CCL is approximately 10 kilometers wide (give or take in some areas, it does fluctuate) and this line separates civilian communities from the MDL, or the military demarcation line, which is the actual border between North and South Korea. Here we are only about 130 miles from Pyongyang, the capital of North Korea.
"Bullet marks show how horrible the Korean war was."
What the inside of the train might have looked like. Have a seat and reflect!
You can see the yellow line on the ground ahead of me (in the distance). That is the CCL, and I'm on the other side of it, closer to North Korea!
Did I take a picture in every bathroom that I went in around South Korea? Probably. In this particular toilet at Imjingak, I was able to throw toilet paper in the toilet. Not always the case in other areas!
Goodbye, Imjingak. What an informative stop!
Our next stop was one of the Civilian Control Lines where we actually had to stop at and show our passports. I tried to sneak a picture, but all I got was a picture of Julie and her rain soaked pants!
All of these pictures are so hard to see through rainy windows (where the camera focused on the rain drops rather than the object in the distance) but even here, you can tell there are a lot of road blocks at the CCL.
Julie also told us the great story of how the Unification Bridge is also known as Cow Bridge. If you squint, you can see a brown cow statue on the other side of the bridge here. Chung Ju-yung was the founder of Hyundai who fled North Korea after selling one of his father's cows for 70 won. He went to South Korea with that money and built a huge corporation. Sixty six years later in 1998, he returned to the border twice with a total of 1,001 cows. 1,000 for the people of North Korea, and 1 to repay his father.
Julie shared this picture with us- this is what the Cow from the Cow Bridge looks like when it's not pouring rain!
After we left the CCL and crossed the Cow Bridge, and we were on our way to the Dora Observatory, we passed this South-North Korea checkpoint which was used in some of the scenes (without actors) in Crash Landing on You, which is our FAVORITE K-Drama ever!
Thankfully our tour guide had her own pictures of everything that didn't come from the rainy window of a bus! She sent these to us at the end of the day- and more to come!
At the Dora Observatory, you park in the parking lot where the old observatory building is. You have to walk up a big hill which we did - in the pouring rain - to reach the new, very modern observatory.
When we got up there, we were not allowed to take any pictures of North Korea but it didn't matter anyway. We did not see ANYTHING from the large observatory windows. It was totally socked in by clouds and rain. We watched a video about what we might see outside, and they talked about the Joint Security Area, which is currently off limits to foreigners because of the American idiot who ran across the border into NK a couple of summers ago. Natalie and I hope that it's reopened and that we can visit someday because here, you really ARE stepping into North Korea! Half of the this blue conference room is in South Korea and the other half is in North Korea.
I mentioned before that Julie had some pictures on her phone that she texted us and I am able to share them here since we couldn't see a thing from the Observatory!
If you go upstairs to the actual observatory, this is what you would see of North Korea on a clear day. There are several towns and lots of mountains and farm lands.
The outside observatory also has binocular viewers so you can get a better look at the surrounding North Korean area. This is the Kaesong Industrial Complex, where in the early 2000s, South Korean manufacturing companies came in to start producing electronic and home goods (ie: rice cookers) while capitalizing on the cheap North Korean labor rates. It closed in 2016 when the North started its nuclear testing, but South Korea left all of the equipment behind. Although NK isn't supposed to be using the factories, they apparently are illegally doing so.
The city of Kaesong was the capital of the Koryo dynasty back between 918 and 1392. The city itself actually sits on the other side of the hills that you see above, and there's evidence of civilizations here since at least somewhere between 3600-3000 BC. It's unfortunate that they won't let the rest of the world see all of their historic sites!
In the foreground, you can see the agricultural fields. Agriculture makes up 22% of North Korea's GDP (and 47% of it's workforce) by growing things like soybeans, corn and rice.
On the South Korean side, there is a 328 foot flagpole that flies a 287 pound South Korean flag that was hoisted in Daeseong-dong back in the 1980s. Daeseong-dong sits VERY close to the MDL, and has only about 225 residents - but you can't just move here because you want to. You have to either have lived her prior to the war, or be the descendent of someone who lived here. There are checkpoints all around the little city.
When South Korea put up their flagpole in Daeseong-dong, the North Koreans said, "We can beat that!" and raised a 525 foot flagpole with a flag that weighs 595 pounds! It's the 7th highest flagpole in the world - although it's the tallest supported (ie: not free standing) flagpole in the world! It sits in Kijong-dong, which is a fake propaganda village built by the North Koreans back in the 1950s to encourage South Koreans to come back. "Hey look how great our housing is!" Meanwhile, the buildings don't have doors or windows or anything on the inside! Apparently there are some lights in the buildings, but they're all on timers and no one lives there.
If we are looking at North Korea, they were definitely looking back at us from their watch towers. THIS one is actually the last watch tower in South Korea, so hopefully their eyes are looking in the other direction!
More views of the Kaesong Industrial Complex area.
This is the JSA! I am crushed that we couldn't go there. I hope they open it up to civilians again soon. Apparently government officials and executives could resume visits in May of this year, so maybe we will be able to visit someday!
More watchtowers along the North and South Korean border.
Alas, we could not see anything in North Korea with our own eyes, so we got back on the bus and drove up to the Third Tunnel of Aggression. On the way there, we crossed a blue line, which was the actual beginning of the DMZ. We had already crossed the CCL (Civilian Control Line) but now we were crossing into the actual DMZ which is the roughly 2 kilometer zone on either size of the MDL, or Military Demarcation Line, which is the real border. The Armistice Agreement established these lines and areas when it was signed on July 27, 1953. This agreement "paused" the war - but there has been no treaty, and therefore the war has never officially ended.
Since we couldn't take photos in the Third Tunnel of Aggression, aka, the Third Infiltration Tunnel, this map will have to do! We did not, of course, get to the MDL. But you do get pretty close when you go deep into the Third Tunnel of Aggression. It's NOT for the faint of heart. The space is very cramped, fairly crowded (although people were very patient down there) and you need to wear a hard hat because even if you're my height, you will still bonk your head on the granite walls or ceiling.
In September of 1974, a North Korean defector alerted the South Koreans to the fact that this tunnel existed. It was pretty clear that it, and the other three tunnels that have been discovered were meant as a tool for invasion, although that was vehemently denied by the North Korean government.
When you arrive at the Third Tunnel, you wait in line for them to get a helmet and walk down the long (and very steep, about 11% grade) path that was built so that they could get from the surface down to the actual tunnel. That's on the far right side of the above photo. You then walk through the Lower Platform which is where the tunnel widens a bit before narrowing and becoming the infiltration tunnel.
As it says above, "The third tunnel is arch shaped and 1,635 in total length. It lies 73 meters beneath the surface, and is 2 meters in height and 2 meters in width." I have seen it's 6 and a half feet by almost 7 feet in other documents, but this comes straight from the horses mouth.
From the MDL, it runs 435 meters into South Korea, of which you can walk up to 265 meters - putting you at only 170 meters, or about 558 feet from North Korea.
At the end of the tunnel, there are three blockades that were put in place by South Korea between them and the MDL. As a visitor, we got to walk up to the third (or the southern most) blockade. You can see inside a hole to the second blockade.
After Natalie emerged from the Third Tunnel (I let her go at her own pace), she wanted to show all of the fake coal marks she had on her hand. When you're down in the tunnel, you can see where the North Koreans smeared black coloring (??? We aren't sure what it actually is!) all over the rock walls in order to "convince" the South Koreans that they were mining for coal. Only... it's well known that there are no coal mines in this area so it was clearly for show. Some people say it's leftover from the explosions that were done to create the tunnel and some say the North Koreans put the black soot from those dynamite explosions on the walls to disguise this as a coal mine, although petrologically, it's very clearly made of granite.
They're literally everywhere. Even at the DMZ among the Hershey Bars and the Crunky Crunch Chocolate.
Just me and Nat with a couple of plastic soldiers at the Third Infiltration Tunnel.
Don't be fooled, it was still raining when we took this iconic DMZ photo!
This is the fake coal smeared on my hand from the Third Tunnel.
You can see the Dora Observatory from the parking lot of the Third Tunnel. We also heard some of the propaganda being blasted - although we couldn't make out what it was, so we weren't sure if it was North or South Korean!
Just hoping I don't get some kind of hand cancer from this later in life.
Lunch was next at the Local Unification Village Restaurant in Tongilchon-gil, and it was surprisingly good, despite the bland look of it!
After we ate, Natalie and I explored the Unification Village park across the street.
Look at all of the pretty hydrangeas!
The Unification Village doesn't forget.
Pretty cherry blossoms up close.
Nat and I went back into the souvenir store in the Unification Village and I pondered purchasing this 20kg bag of DMZ rice for Todd. But I decided against it. Natalie's phone for scale.
And I didn't get a picture of it, but Natalie and I bought a small thing of soybean ice cream to try - we took one bite and threw it in the trash! HA! I guess that's not our thing! It tasted like bland peanut butter.
After we got a couple of little souvenirs in the Unification Village, we hopped on the bus and drove to the Majang Reservoir Suspension Bridge. But of course, it was still raining. The green man on the street sign reminded me of Germany!
Driving through the villages of Paju on our way to Majang Lake.
And once we got there... OH MY WORD!!!!! Look at this view! What? Are you kidding me?
I mean, I still am using an umbrella but the rain lightened up considerably by this point.
The view was just stunning, and one of our tour-mates exclaimed it looked even more beautiful and haunting with the clouds up over the mountains. So true.
The 220 foot bridge has beautiful views of Majanjo, and is the longest freestanding suspension bridge in South Korea! Superlative, check! (Note: Many people say the Gamaksan Suspension Bridge is longer, but since I love superlatives, I'm going to choose to believe I walked across the longest one!)
The views from the bridge were just stunning (see the dam in the distance?) even though the bridge was a bit wobbly. Plus, I almost had to run across it since I'm terrified of heights and of flipping my phone over the bridge and into the lake.
Speaking of that- this kiddo is only wearing one earring because while she was crossing the bridge, her umbrella caught her earring and flipped it into the water! My worst fears have come true! Ok ok... the earring was a cheapo that she bought online but we laughed at how it would spend eternity at the bottom of a South Korean lake!
Once you reach the other side of the bridge, you can take a leisurely stroll around the lake and walk toward the dam. You really can see how long this bridge is!
The rain thankfully (!?) kept a lot of tourists away - people say this bridge can get pretty crowded but it really wasn't on this particular day.
I feel like the power lines in the distance are killing the vibe here.
Wicked cool clouds among the hills southeast of Majang Reservoir.
Do not over the fence! (Which brought up the "Can Poland into space?" joke from the mid 20-teens).
This is just so beautiful - mid to late April is definitely the best time of year to visit South Korea! I know the rain was terrible today, but in our 10 or so days there, we only had two days of rain!
We spotted a small waterfall on our way around the Majang Reservoir!
And of course, as we walked over the dam and down the stairs to the parking lot to meet the bus to go back to Seoul, the clouds parted and the skies partially cleared at the very end of our day.
This is a nicely maintained dam! (I'm such a nerd!)
But these stairs went on FOREVER. This dam is actually a hydroelectric dam so it's really high!
It was super unfortunate that the rain stopped at the end of our day. We drove back to Myeongdong where we decided to walk around the area again. We spotted a bunch of plastic surgery places - maybe there weren't as many as some other countries (Turkey and Poland, I'm looking at you!) but these offices are EVERYWHERE in Seoul.
Also everywhere? BTS. I miss you, Yoongi.
And with BTS, of course, comes BT21. Shooky is causing all kinds of problems up there!
Myeongdong was once again bright and bustling.
Ok, ok... we will take ONE more trip to the Line Friends store!
Naturally, we had to stop and say hello to Brachio. He's so cute and he was SO soft. Natalie definitely bought the biggest Brachio they had and promised to cram him into her suitcase (good thing we brought a third suitcase!) and take him back to the US!
I already am, BT21 characters. I already am.
Good evening, Jungkook. Please come home safely and resume being my bias, mmmkay?
It was a SUPER long day, so before the sun even set, we headed back to the hotel in Gangnam. I promise to get back to the DMZ one of these days - hopefully the JSA will be open and the day will be sunny and bright!
Until next time, DMZ!
