The DMZ winds 155 miles across the Korean Peninsula stretching from the Han River to the East Coast. It's devoid of people which makes it one of the most unnatural nature preserve. Peace and high tension coexist here on a daily basis. Only military are allowed here. I was very pleased to get this opportunity. I can't even begin to tell you how surreal this place really is. The quietness can be deafening. It's both fascinating and scary at the same time.This is the only place in the world where enemies stand face to face in peace and high alert every single day. Since the axe murder of 1976 (I'll get to that later), security guards are forbidden to cross over to the opposing side's area. There were many rules we had to follow while touring this site. Here are some pictures.
I'm standing on the South Korean side. North Korea is to my back. On a daily basis there are five ROK (Republic of Korea) soldiers that stand at the ready. These guys do not move! They are South Korea's finest and each hold many degrees. That makes them pretty smart! Oh our tour guide told us they know English too, and that they were probably listing to everything being said.
This white building in a long line of blue ones housed the North Koreans for a while. Our guide said that the soldiers could be seen stepping out and making neck slashing motions toward the ROK Guards as well as "the finger". It became known as the monkey house.
There are always two guards on the North Korean side. The first one you can see. He kept looking at us. The other is behind the white curtain looking thing in the window. It was one of the few places they would let us take photos. Our guide said that we were allowed to take photos of them beacuse more than likely they were taking photos of us.
Again these ROK Soldiers do not move. They keep half their body behind the building as a way to protect themselves. They also do this in case they see something on the other side that might look suspicious. They will lift their concealed hand (in this case his right one) to show that something doesn't look right on the other side.
This is inside the Military Armistice Commission (MAC).This building has housed secretary's meetings, joint duty officer's meetings, and general meetings for observation of the Armistice Agreement since its signing.
I'm actually standing in North Korea in this picture. There are always two ROK soldiers that stay in this building during the day. Our guide told us that there use to only be one. There is a door behind the ROK soldier that leads to the North Korean side. At night the door has to be locked, and the one soldier went to lock it on this night. There were a few North Korean soldiers standing on the other side waiting for him to start locking, and they opened the door and pulled him into North Korea. The ROK guard was able to fight his way back and was not harmed. After that incident the South Korean government put two guards inside. One will hold on to the corner of the wall behind us with one hand and have a gun in the other while the second guard holds on to him with one hand and locks the door with the other. Talk about being cautious.
There will be more to come on the DMZ...stay tuned!
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