Friday, from Korea (June 24, 2005)
Today I went on the tour to the DMZ, quite a bizarre trip. After leaving from the campus, it took us 45 minutes to an hour to get to the Sofitel Ambassador, which apparently is the headquarters of the the tour company, where we picked up our tour guide, and trainee, and a few more tourists not from the conference. We stopped in the restroom while we were waiting, as it would be another hour before a rest stop. So then we got to a place, I think it was Paju, where there were refreshments stands of all kinds, some kind of carnival, dozens of little kids on field trips including some cute kindergartners, I think, with matching backpacks. Up on the hill was a temple-like structure with a bell, but since I'd seen that before, I didn't go up the steps. And it was already getting really hot. Soon we were on our way again, but it was only a few minutes until we turned off to the restaurant where we had lunch. Luckily, they had a table that 4 of us who couldn't sit on the floor could eat at. We had Bul Go Gi, and the usual side dishes, but not as many as at other places. After an hour, we were on our way again, but this time, a short time later we stopped at Unification Park, where there was a monument to the 1st infantry of the Korean army that fought in the Korean war. Then a warning that we had to stay on schedule and keep up with the other bus, which was filled with Japanese tourists. Soon we started the bizarre series of entrance requirements and checkpoints in order to get to Panmunjom, the DeMilitarized Zone. Passports checked again. Clothing and shoes check for conformity to the dress code, which meant no sandals, no denim of any kind, no bare shoulders. A woman was wearing a denim hat for the sun, and had to take it off. Another woman was wearing a denim skirt, with a stylish design, but she had to take it off and put on a skirt provided by the tour guide, kept in a bag for such occasions, with long pants, and extra shoes.
. We were taken into a small auditorium for a briefing, with the Japanese tour group in the front, and us wearing headsets so our tour guide could go through his spiel in English. It was informative by uninspired, and probably written by someone in the military. We had maps with lines and arrows to illustrate the history of the beginning and end of the Korean War, from the U.S. point of view of course. I kept thinking that when i got home I'd have to re-read Han Su Yin's book, The Morning Deluge. Mao Tsetung and the Chinese Revolution; 1893-1954 (1972), which is written from the Chinese point of view. For some reason, I can't find it on my shelf right now, hope I didn't lend it to someone who didn't return it, and had to Google her. Born in 1917, she is still alive, and apparently wrote more books than I knew of, including some recent stuff. But, I digress.
After the briefing we changed to another bus, a military vehicle, which was boarded by our military guide in camo fatigues, a young guy named Fernandez from San Antonio, who'd been there 21 months and had a transfer to Iraq to look forward to after 3 more months and 30 days leave. He answered some of our questions, but the tour guide still did most of the talking. The military presence is apparently to protect the North Koreans from the crazy tourists, or vice versa. We rode to the edge of the U.N./U.S. park of the zone. I'm not sure why they call it the demilitarized zone, since it is in fact totally militarized. Don't know what it means, but I didn't think to ask. It's considered a combat zone, so only infantry is stationed there, no women as support staff. Of course, besides the U.S. Infantry, there are also the ROK or Republic of Korea troops, who seem to be the ones who do the actual hard time guard duty. When we drove up in the parking lot, there was a multi-storied modern building (pictures to follow later after film developed) which was built as a family reunion center, i.e. for families from the north to meet with relatives from the south. However, according to Fernandez, Kim Jung Il is afraid to let his subjects visit there, because they might defect. This also doesn't follow other information, because once or twice a year there's a day designated for families to meet either in Seoul or somewhere in the North. Maybe I got scrambled info. Anyway, the building is basically empty and useless, except to take us tourists to a viewpoint, where we could see the one-story buildings that sit exactly on the border between the north and the sourth at the 38th parallel (the MDL or Military Demarkation Line). I heard it said that this point was picked because MacArthur saw it in National Geographic. There are ROK soldiers who stand in a Tae Kwan Do readiness position, arms bent at the elbows and gripped in fists, so that they can reach their sidearms in a fastdraw situation, and they stand exactly at the corners of the building so that half of them is visible from the other side and half is hidden by the structure. I'll have to check my photos, but I think there are a couple who stand at the entrance, too. We went into the small building, called the MAC (Military Armistice Commission; everything has military initials which I didn't bother to memorize), a conference room with a shiny wood table, and two more ROK troops standing in the Tae Kwan Do position. We were able to get our pictures taken with one, as long as we didn't stand right in front of him. All of them looked like statues, and it's not revealed for how long they need to maintain the position, for security purposes, but we saw the ones outside had shifted position when we walked out. We were not allowed to take pictures outside the building, and were told not to point toward the N. Korean side or grimace in any way. Later we were lead to a tower with a temple-like roof, and we could take photos from there. The protocol is all a bit puzzling, but I did get reprimanded when I pointed to a guard station on the North side, forgetting my manners. On the North side of the conference buildings is another multistory building which the U.S. troops refer to as the monkey building. I missed the explanation while I was taking photos, but I think it has something to do with visual images displayed which are supposed to demoralize the ROK and US/UN troups. In all this time, I never saw sign of a live person from North Korea, altho I was told that I would have if the north door of the conference room was opened. Just now I was reminded of the British TV series "The Prisoner." If any of you remember that one, there were times when the streets were emptied and everything seemed fake, constructed to fool the prisoner.
Speaking of Fake, there are two villages one on each side of the DMZ. The U.S. calls the one on the south side,"Freedom Village," and a few hundred Koreans live there, getting paid $82,000/year tax free to stay there (cable TV available, too). The residents of Taesong-dong (its Korean name) are required to be either original inhabitants or direct descendants of the villagers who were residing there when the Armistice was signed in 1953 It was said that Propaganda Village on the North side of the line is the fake village, because only military troops live there, no civilians, A.K.A. village of Kichong-dong or "Peace Village," as it is called by the North. (I wonder if the TV show was a takeoff on this whole scene.) It also contains the world's tallest flagpole, apparently built in a competitive spirit to be highter than the one on the South side (as in "mine is longer than yours.") It was hazy, so it could hardly be seen, but I took a photo in the hopes that it shows up. There are several guard stations. #3 apparently is no longer in use because everything can be seen from the higher #4, which is where we had our viewpoint and photo opportunity. There's also a monument there to the war itself, and a roadside marker for the 1976 ax-murder incident. According to our informants, the infantry was chopping down a cottonwood tree, because it was blocking the view between guard stations, and the Koreans objected, slithered over to where the work was being done, and brutally murdered several of the men involved, with the axes. Camp Bonifas, one of the locations at the DMZ area, is named after one of them. All this happened near the "Bridge of No Return," a bridge, probably wooden, where the prisoners were exchanged when the armistice was signed.
The tour was closed with a stop at "The Monastery," which has little to do with religion, except perhaps the worship of the almighty dollar, since it's the tourist gift shop. Hard to believe that in a place of such international tension that yes, you can buy a souvenir, e.g. cap, t-shirt, key chain, or lovely Korean jade and amethyst jewelry. Also, you can get a refreshing ice cream bar or a can of iced coffee or tea, which is really a pleasure since it was beastly hot and humid during this whole excursion. Then, back on the tour bus (I think this is where we exchanged buses again), and back on the road to Seoul. Not included in this tour was the underground tunnels the Koreans dug, or the Last Railroad Station, which I didn't find out until I was already on the bus. But then, it was an exhausting day. The tunnels would have been cool though. Maybe next time.
Labels: Korea
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