A Quick Visit to North Korea

After spending some time in North Korea I can say that it’s not as bad as people imagine.

Just kidding, I only spent 4 minutes there and it was all inside the conference room within the DMZ. Last Tuesday I was in Seoul and did a tour of the JSA, Joint Security Area; the only point within the DMZ where the two nations come face to face. The DMZ is the 4km wide border area that divides the North and the South. It’s considered the most heavily fortified/militarized border in the world. Within the DMZ is the MDL, military demarcation line, which is the actual land border between the two countries. North of the MDL is North Korea and south of it is South Korea, there’s no fence just white posts l0m apart. There is one more line and that is the CCL, Civilian Control Line, which is a 10km area south of South Korea’s DMZ border. This restricts access to the DMZ for military personnel and families and is for increased safety and protection.

If you want to visit the most heavily militarized border in the world between two countries who are still considered at war, it’s easy, all you have to do is pay for a tour. Strange isn’t it.

The JSA tour is something I’ve wanted to do for a while, so last week I had some time off from school and I went up to Seoul. Last Tuesday I did the tour. It started off at 9:50 in the morning. First you stop at the Korean War Memorial where you learn and gain insight into the war, the division of Korean and the relations today. The war memorial is huge and offers a lot of really nice displays and short films, but we only had an hour so we probably only got to see a third of it. Then we stopped for lunch before the CCL.  The day of the tour was the coldest day of the year, it was minus something degrees F and snow covered the landscape. After lunch we stopped at the first checkpoint where our passports were checked and continued to Camp Bonifas where our passports where checked again. This is the area where soldiers are stationed and where we had an official briefing on the JSA. During the briefing you are given a document that you have to sign stating, “The visit to the Joint Security Area at Panmunjom will entail entry into a hostile area and possibility of injury or death as a direct result of enemy action.” I didn’t know it said that because I didn’t read it and just found out now researching it.

*Camp Bonifas is named after Major Bonifas who was murdered in 1976 within the DMZ during an incident known as the “axe murder incident.” Prior to 1976 the area within in the DMZ was free roam, North and South Korean forces had no boundaries. Two US army officers Arthur Bonifas and Mark Barret where tasked with pruning a tree when North Korean soldiers told them to stop and about 30 came running after them killing them both with axes. After this, the MDL was created dividing the two sides.*

After the briefing we boarded official army bus with an US soldier we made our way to the JSA. Once there you exit the bus, pass through the Freedom House, built to house the reunification of families (its never been used) and then you’re there. Standing at the border looking to North Korea and at the infamous blue houses. Up until this point we were not allowed to take pictures and only could when they told us to. Standing outside we were given about 5 minutes and couldn’t take pictures to the left or of South Korea’s look out post to the right, then we went inside the conference room. The Conference room has hosted about 12,000 meetings between the two countries. On the table in the middle microphones represent the border between the two and the only area where you can official cross over into North Korea. You have about 5 minutes in the room, then you leave, board the bus, head back to camp Bonifas, switch back to your tour bus and leave for Seoul.

An experience definitely worth it and something you must do if you’re ever in Seoul. Of course anything could happen between the two countries and it may not even be a possibility in the future.

*They are South Korean soldiers.