On Saturday August 13th, I made my way finally to the infamous demilitarized zone. I was lucky enough to have a good friend drive us to the location that he did his own military service, and there I was able to meet some of his 후배 (juniors). It was one of the most memorable and incredible trips that I have made on this trip so far. That trip started with jamming to tunes on the 30-ish minute drive from Kipyo (my friend)’s hometown. As we arrived, it was identical to when entering an American military base, show your ID and make sure you get approval. After that was done, we headed towards the 제 3 땅굴, which is a tunnel that found by South Korea during that war that North Korea was building to infiltrate Seoul. With the solider pictured, he showed me underneath the tunnel, which has become a tourist attraction.
Receiving an information session about the tunnel by one of the Juniors. I lucky had a personal tour by him of the tunnel.To go down the tunnel, you can either walk to ride this little train. With getting special treatment coming with my friend, I was able to ride the train down.
Following that, we made our way to the Dora observatory, where you can see the landscape of North Korea and the DMZ.
Another junior sharing what parts of North Korea you can see from Dora Operation. He is currently in charge of the jobs that my friend had during his military service.As tourist are always wanting to take photos with soldiers, they had a cardboard cut of one soldier and what better thing to do than to take a selfie with it.
Within the DMZ, there are a few peace parks, and here are some images of when I went to one of those peace parks.
The DMZ is widely known for the unique agriculture that surrounds it, and one of the well-known animals is the deer that live around there.
To end the day properly, we watched the film Operation Chromite, which is based on the Incheon Landing during the Korean War. It was a really well-made film. Also, I understand that Korea is a very nationalistic country, but I was a little surprised when that climax of the movie and the South Korean’s mission was successful, some of the audience members clapped. The nationalism and patriotism is very evident in this country.
“South Korean Navy Special Forces, Captain Jang Hak-soo and 7 members of the KLO (Korean Liasion Office) unit disguise themselves as a North Korean inspection unit and infiltrate the North Korean army command center in Incheon. Their mission directives from Gen. MacArthur are: 1. Recon enemy forces in Incheon and secure the mine chart, 2. Kidnap ‘Ryu Jang-choon,’ the second highest ranking officer in the North Korean command center, to acquire intel on the naval mine location and 3. On D-Day, light the Palmido light house as a signal to the main UN forces.”
The day was one for the books, that is for sure. As well, not long ago, I made a second trip to the DMZ, which I will share about in my next blog entry.
