I headed to 송탄 (Songtan) to meet up with an old friend from high school who is now in the US Air Force. She invited me to tag along with the DMZ tour that had been organized for her wing. I gladly accepted. After meeting up with her on Friday night for a few drinks at the local spots, we were narrowly prepared for an early start the next day, but we did manage to make it.
The first stop on the tour was a sort of memorial I guess. I'm not even sure what to call it actually. They had several memorials and a large bell called the 'reunification bell'. They also had a small depot with restrooms and a few food vendors. We had a look around at what they had there, but I was starting out already a little confused.
After that little stop, we went to the tunnel. The North, at one point, was trying to tunnel under the DMZ to secretly get thousands of troops past the heavily defended area. While drilling a well, the South came across one of their tunnels, and foiled the plan. You get to go down and walk through one of the tunnels. It's sort of neat, but it is quite a long walk, and the tunnel that was made to make it to the original tunnel is at quite a steep grade. They also have a small museum there, which is worth while. But don't hang out too long in the museum, or you might miss your bus!
Next we went to a spot where you can actually look into the North. It was sort of interesting, but as the DMZ is nearly completely deserted, you find yourself looking at a landscape that isn't wholly remarkable, except for the knowledge of where you are actually looking.
Next we headed off to a train station that was the last stop in the South before connecting to 평양(Pyeongyang), the capital of the North. Of course, the station isn't operation at the moment, and only serves as a part of the tour.
As far as I'm concerned, the real gem of the whole trip was the visit to the Joint Operation Area, or the JOA. If you're going to book a tour, make sure it includes this. This is when you actually get to go right up to the border. If you're lucky, you get to see some North Koreans peering at you from across the way. The tour at this end is run by the US Army, and they show you a few points of interest. They drive you up to the 'bridge of no return', which is the point where any prisoner exchanges have happened since the armistice. You also see the spot of the famous "tree cutting incident" occurred as well as the area where the fighting broke out after the Soviet Citizen defected by running over the border. And they take you to an observation post where you get a pretty good view into the North, including the ghost town that exists just over the border. This is the place with the famous 'largest flag on the planet'. The best part, for me, was going into the diplomatic meeting area, that sits exactly on the border. Half of the room is in each country, and this is the only point you actually get to step foot into the North. Thy have lot's of interesting information, and this is the part that made the whole thing 'real' for me.
It was definitely an interesting and eye opening experience. It has really helped me to understand Korea (both of them) and the reasons for the way their history has played out like it has.
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