It’s our third full day here and we are headed north to the border between North and South Korea called the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ). Since the pandemic, this area has been closed to tourists but recently is back open.
The place is so booming with tourists that our tour guide changed our departure time from 6:15 to 4:30am even though the ticket booth doesn’t open until 8:00. The drive to the DMZ from Seoul is just a short 40 minutes - who knew how close they were! We arrived by 5:15am after all the pick ups of other passengers and stopped at the “oasis” built at the border for coffee and food. Since COVID-19 North Korea has halted visits to the DMZ and the Civilian Controlled Zone (CCZ) currently limits its visitors to 450 total a day. Often Kim Jung Un decides to just shoot off missles and after hours of waiting, tourists are sent home without the ability to visit the CCZ. Even though Joint Security Area (JSA), the only portion of the DMZ where North and South Korean forces stand face-to-face was scheduled to reopen, it unfortunately was still closed by North Korea so we weren’t be able to visit that famous location.
Our guide gave us a good history of the conflict, the Korean War, current relations between the north and south and the toll the separation has taken on the families. The area is covered in landmines, which are clearly marked but definitely more than any other place we traveled to. We visited the Third Infiltration Tunnel and the Dora Observatory. The third infiltration tunnel was uncovered in 1974 and is wide enough to hold 30,000 soldiers ready to attack Seoul in 30 min. The tunnel was converted to a tourist attraction now where you can climb down on a man made tunnel to reach the tunnel built by the North Koreans. We walked down a steep 250 meter tunnel and then underground for another 250 wearing hard helmets. At one point the tunnel stops since 150 meters ahead we would be crossing into North Korea, maybe someday…
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| Third infiltration tunnel |
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| View of North Korea from the Dora Observatory |
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| Pyeongang - 150 km away |
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