Blog Entry X The Demilitarized Zone (DMZ)

The war that wasn't... but really was!

The DMZ

We woke up to hear the wind pushing the rain against our hotel window. Somehow it all seemed fitting because today we were heading 55 kilometers north to the Korean Demilitarized Zone or DMZ. Cutting a swath 4 km wide and 248 km long across the Korean Peninsula, the DMZ has the dubious honour of being the largest remaining scar on the peninsula of this first-ever and yet still-unresolved conflict of the Cold War.

A Proxy War

It was here that the heightened state of tension between world's new super powers, the Soviet Union and the United States first flared into a horrific armed conflict, leaving over 6 million soldiers and civilians dead. And yet, for the purposes of the U.N., this war was categorized as a “police action”. And the United States' first signed armistice without victory.

Vietnam and Germany's divisive borders have long since disappeared leaving the 38^th parallel, that line of demarcation between the two Koreas, as the last of its kind in the world. Although the 1953 cease fire agreement ended the armed conflict, it was no peace accord. Today each of the two Koreas still face each other armed and ready. Conceivably, the fighting could resume at any time.

Off we go!

Each day of our stay here has served as a reminder of the on-going threat. Yesterday's headlines in Seoul reported North Korea's new leader, Kim Jong Un, visiting his front-line troops on the contested border. Today, the papers published the North's latest threat to “punish” Seoul. Truly surprising to us is the nonchalant attitude of the people here. It's as if nothing happened. Good or bad, too many years of mostly empty threats may have Seoul's population treating the issue like a pesky mosquito.

Without breakfast and but with passports in hand, we climbed into a cold damp little bus and set course for the DMZ, the most heavily armed border in the world, that's just an hour north of here. The DMZ... that 4 km-wide powder keg, where one million North Korean, 600,000 South Korean and 37,000 American soldiers dance a tangled, complicated, and certainly deadly pas de deux.

Two Koreas: One, a beehive! The other. a desert!

Were one to look at any night-time satellite shot of the two Koreas, the stark difference between the two brother nations would be frightfully apparent. The shape of the South would pop out, entirely illuminated by electric light. Sadly, Kim Jong Un's fiefdom would appear as a strange black mass, the victim of economic stagnation and desolation. Like in the photo, any other comparison of the two resource-poor countries, be they economic or social, would be just as stark. It's almost a case of one peninsula, two planets.

Is it an elephant in the room, or just Humpty Dumpty?

Surprisingly, one good thing has come out of all this.  Koreas' DMZ is the peninsula's largest wild life sanctuary.  It is curious though how its existence is symbolic of the faint hope of reunification. 

An unexpected plus: The DMZ has become a huge game

reserve.  It is said that there may even be Asiatigers.

Many here in the South have become pragmatic. They astronomical costs of the Germany reunification have left them wondering out loud if any future generation of Koreans can muster the will to put this Humpty Dumpty back together again.

A wonderful field trip but.....

Note the stance of the U.N. soldiers facing North Korea.
To avoid the stress of staring when N.K. soldiers face off with

them, all wear dark sunglasses when on watch.

Our trip North proved not just to be interesting but was a somber reminder that this war was much more than an old MASH episode. Despite the poor quality of our tour guides, whose lackluster performance was often more of a charade than an earnest attempt to educate, our decision to go was the right one.

Until next time.  Enjoy the pictures.

 The expressionless faces of the soldiers on watch was like looking at an envelope without any address on it?

Curiously, we weren't supposed to take pictures of the N.K.
side unless we were focusing on someone in the foreground. 

Linda, on the North Korean side of the negotiating
table in Panmunjam, still a dangerous flash point.

The N.K.'s have dug tunnels into the South.  Tunnel #2 was discovered in March 1975.  We walked 500 meters down to get to the 70 meter tunnel #3. Thirty thousand soldiers could move through it in an hour.