#dmztrain

[version-edulcoree]

Samedi 15 novembre: Zone Démilitarisée (DMZ) autour de la frontière entre la Corée du Sud et la Corée du Nord

[knpuvisitingprof]

First Trip Into The DMZ

Yesterday I had an opportunity to join one of my friends and his wife and son on a trip to Dorasan Peace Park in the Korean Demilitarized Zone. We took a special train from Seoul Central Station to get there:

It kind of had the feel of a big karaoke room inside, and the crew (all young, attractive women in military-style uniforms) kept the atmosphere very light.

There were only a few stops, but we had to detrain at Imjingang (the stop before Dorasan) to go through ID processing and get counted by the South Korean soldiers posted at the station. I would be counted many times on this trip.

After re-boarding, we crossed over into the DMZ. 

In the distance there at the edge of the fence is a guardhouse. It was active and large-caliber weapons were readily visible. Plenty of reminders on the way that this was a contentious area. For example, below is a picture of a barrier that can be extended across the tracks to prevent rail traffic from making it south from Dorasan.

Once we reached Dorasan, we toured the grounds of Dorasan Peace Park. It was really beautiful, and contained a lot of information about the history of the War and the DMZ.

Many of the sculptures on the grounds had a theme of reunification. It was all very sad but hopeful at the same time...

That hopefulness was expressed in a sign inside Dorasan Station as well: "Not the last station from the South, but the first station toward the North."

When we returned to Seoul, my friend Sungpil took my picture in front of the train:

I'm planning on returning to the DMZ soon on a different tour. Those will probably be the pictures that most people will want to see - looking North from the observatory, the Third Tunnel of Aggression, and the Joint Security Area, where technically I will be in DPRK territory. For this day, it was just nice to spend a beautiful afternoon with my wonderful Korean friends in a small park in no-man's land.