De-Militerised Zone

This weekend I headed up to Seoul to visit the DMZ or de-militerised zone between North and South Korea. It is a strip of land running across the Korean Peninsula that serves as a buffer zone between North and South Korea.

We went with Wow Corea through Elvis!

We started off at the Imjingak Pavilion.

'Located about 54km north west from Seoul Metropolitan City Hall and about 7km south of the Demarcation Line, Imjingak Pavilion is as far as civilians can go to the north. It is a remnant of the Korean War. Built in 1972 to console those who had to leave their homes in the north, it stands on the 19,835m² area and has three floors and one underground floor. Around it, there are Mangbaedan, an altar where those who cannot go back to their homes get together and pray for their ancestors, a museum where various documents and about 400 pictures are displayed to provide a rare look at North Korea's military, politics, and society, the Peace Bell, the Peace Garden, the Imjingang River Battle Memorial, the American War Monument, and tanks and planes that were used in the war. It is a place where tourists feel the pain of the war and national division as well as the country's desires for unification. '

We then headed to Dorasan Station, the station that used to connect the North and South.

It was pretty eerie. Just a normal train station waiting to be used, with a ticket booths, security check points just waiting for the the 2 countires to reunite for it to be in use again.

Next we headed to the The 3rd Infiltration Tunnel, there are 4 that have been found and there are supposed to be up to 10. We were not allowed to take any photos, and I got told off by Gina G our tour guide for taking some snaps of Victoria and I in our helmets. Have a look at this search to check out some though!

I didn't think I was a tall person, but I banged my head a few times, so could not imagine walking just over a mile in a tunnel that was wet and only 2m high and wide with all the gear that a North Korean soldier would have to carry.

There was also the Re-unification Monument, which "Depicts the division of Korea, and the world, and the hope to reunite what was divided."

The last stop was the Dora observatory. This where you can actually get to see North Korea. There was a line that we had to stand behind when taking photos of North Korea, so unless you were super tall, you couldn't really get a good photo.

Also it was really foggy so we couldn't really see much anyway. You could tell where the south ended the north started as the North had no trees on their side. This is what it would have looked like minus the fog!