A fascinating tour to the Demilitarised Zone along the border with North Korea.
A couple of immediate things to clear up:
Firstly, it’s not a border, it’s a military demarcation line as the war has never ended;
Secondly, it’s heavily populated by the military, agreed by both sides, to respond when mines go off (there are a million each side)
Seoul has a population of 10 million, with another 10 million living in satellite cities. 40% of the total population living within 30 miles of the ‘border’ with North Korea.
During the trip we visited a tunnel which was discovered in 1978 (one of 20 that are known of, 4 of which have actually been discovered) making it’s way from the North towards Seoul. The tunnel has approximately 3 million visitors a year, so is now viewed as a gift from the North.
The Dora observatory allows visitors to see across the ‘border’ with the aid of binoculars, and whilst the picket fence is not visible, the lack of trees (they have cut them all down!) clearly is.
We also visited an new station, with full customs facilities, along a railway that crosses into North Korea, the gateway to the rest of Asia and Europe beyond that; it has never been used. We were informed of other initiatives towards reunification, all of which ceased in 2016.
It is eerie to see guard posts and fences with barbed wire along the river close to Seoul. The river joins with one from North Korea so they protect against defectors. Perhaps a hint of what I didn’t experience in Russia, arriving 30 years after the fall of the Iron Curtain, but (more worryingly) of what may be to come in the UK!
And for anyone who might think I am creating this from my sofa (you know who you are), here I am obviously taking a selfie
areudirty
discoholicmusic
pixelskylines
romaincrisis
gummygunk
vaporwave