Panmunjeom, Korea Dem Peoples Rep
Saturday, May 5, 2007
Taking the weekend off after finishing a grad school assignment, I met Chris in Seoul and we quickly absorbed ourselves in "western" food and lattes. We had Tony Roma ribs, fantastic Indian food at a Pakistani restaurant (I guess that would actually make it Pakistani food?), and enjoyed a breakfast brunch of home-style eggs, bacon, toast and potatoes. The most interesting thing we did was take the USO tour of the DMZ. DMZ is the demarkation zone separating North and South Korea, technically still at war since a peace treaty was never signed. By going with the USO we were allowed access to areas that other tour companies aren't. It started off with a briefing about the do's and don'ts - things like no photos in certain areas and no gestures to the North Koreans that might precipitate an international incident! I'll be brief, but we were actually allowed into North Korea and the negotiation rooms. We heard quite a few wild stories about incidents - fights between soldiers, axe murders (7 US/SK soldiers were murdered by axe while attempting to remove a tree obstructing the view of an outpost), defection attempts (which led to NK and SK soldiers shooting it out in the "peace area"), kidnappings (which still happen to this day in the nearby rice-worker village), and the like. It's a pretty intense and wild area...there's a lot more I could say, but maybe the pictures will tell a better story! ;)
