First on the tour, we stopped at the Wooden Freedom Bridge, a bridge that connects North and South Korea, over which prisoners of war were exchanged after the Korean War.
This is the now blocked and barricaded entrance to that bridge.
Also nearby was an old train from the Korean War. This is the back of it; the engine is at the front. As you can see, the train is riddled with bullet holes. It was so damaged that it was left to rot somewhere, and the South Koreans found it and brought it to this site to show the destructive power of the war.
Also at this site was a large unity bell. More memorabilia from the Mines of Moria. I will go more into this topic later, but unity was a word I heard alot during this tour. Isn't it ironic? Don't you think?
Next, we stopped at the Dorasan Station. There is train line that goes between North and South Korea, but currently no trains are being sent between the two countries. Apparently, back in 2008, a South Korean lady who was on a tour to the interior of North Korea was shot and killed after she mistakenly stepped out of the safe tour area and into North Korean military area. So, since 2008 no trains have been going between the two countries, and the guided tours into North Korea have stopped as well. But, if trains were running, this train station would be the last South Korean station the train would go through before hitting North Korean territory.
President Bush actually visited the station when it opened in 2002, signing his name on this cement slab here. "May this railroad unite Korean families." Unite again... He has a terrible signature by the way. Is that really a B? It looks like someone's ribbon twirling got out of control.
After the station, we went to an overlook into North Korea itself. The South Korean soldiers were really particular about where we could or could not take pictures. When you walked up to this overlook, you could stand behind this yellow line about 50 feet from the edge to take a picture. You could walk those 50 feet and stare at North Korea, but no pictures allowed. So, the pictures I have are terrible, but it's all I got. The actual view into NK was much better. This is the building just in front of the overlook. Unification eh?
This picture is particularly interesting. See the faint black stick with a flag on top? That is actually a radio destruction tower. It destroys all radio waves, cell phone signals, wifi signals, everything going in or out of NK. Hence why all of the citizens in North Korea live in total media darkness and don't realize they are living in a brainwashed $h*th@le. Pardon my french. These towers are all over NK, plunging it into the pre-digital age.
One difference between NK and SK that was very noticeable from this overlook was the lack of trees in NK. SK was full of rolling hills covered in forests. NK had the hills, but no forests. Looked like a furless cat, and you know those things aren't pretty. Apparently, the majority of trees in NK have been cut down and used as fuel for cooking and heating. Sounds like the stone age to me. In the middle of this pic is the very clear demarcation line. Noooo touchy. No touchy.
Lastly, and most excitingly, we went to the 3rd infiltration tunnel. This was a tunnel dug by NK in the 1970s to orchestrate a sneak attack on SK. This tunnel is one of 4 tunnels found. How many exist in total? Nobody knows! The NKs could spring out of their hand-dug tunnels at any second, invading all of SK.... It actually is very scary when you think about it. Come on, Colorado School of Mines. Where are those geoseismic thumper trucks when you need them!
This is a diagram of the actual tunnel. The majority of it is within SK's side of the DMZ. The three blockades are still on the SK side, and just the tiny left-hand-side tail is in NK. We were allowed to walk all the way to the right most blockade. Once the SKs realized the tunnel existed, it took them a year using a state-of-the-art tunnel drill to reach this tunnel. So how long were the NKs at work with their dynamite and wheelbarrows before SK found this? Yikes, a long time. Shawshank redemption anyone? It would take a man 20 years to dig a tunnel out of there with only a spoon. Yep...
This is the actual tunnel. Spooky! It wasn't tall enough for the average westerner to stand upright, so we had to crouch over the whole time while inside. The height of the tunnel changed randomly throughout, so as you were walking along, you'd hear pop! ... pop! pop! Or the westerners hitting their hard hats on the ceiling because they weren't ducking low enough. Funny enough, when the SKs accused the NKs of building this tunnel, this was the resulting dialogue.
SK: You built a tunnel to sneaky sneak into SK.
NK: No we didn't.
SK: Well, somebody built this tunnel. It didn't magically appear by itself.
NK: You built it.
SK: We built this tunnel to sneaky sneak into our own country? Come on. All of the dynamite holes were drilled from North to South, and the tunnel was sloped, designed to drain collecting water out of the tunnel and into NK. CLEARLY it was you. (So CLEARLY I can't drink from the cup in front of me...)
NK: OK, fine, we built the tunnel. But not to sneaky sneak. It's actually a coal mine. See all of the coal dust we smeared everywhere?
SK: Our peninsula is made entirely of granite. You put that coal dust there.
NK: That's our story, and we're sticking to it.
SK: 0.o
The underlying theme to all of this that I have conveniently ignored until now is this optimism by the SKs of unification. Every site we went to on the tour had the slogan "one day Korea will reunite." It made me daydream about if, when, and how that could really happen. Alot of families were separated during the split, so it makes sense that unification is wanted. However, SK is now a prosperous developed country, and NK is a 3rd world country with 25 million starving people. I'm pretty sure it's not just NK saying you can't leave, but also SK saying you can't come in. How is SK supposed to handle that? They can't just throw open their doors and say, come eat us out of house and home all 25 million of you. But, they can't morally turn people away either.
Also, when will NK get the picture that they need help? When will the people realize what's going on and revolt? Is that how unification is going happen? The people say "this sucks, we want change, RIOT!", the US storms in on the platform of democracy, another war. Hmm, I think NK has nukes and they seem crazy enough to use them, so that might not be the best plan. What is the plan? Does anyone have a plan?
Or will things continue on as they have been for the last 50 years, a conflict knowingly ignored, kind of like China and Taiwan? What do you think?
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