The interest from blogging about my Korea trip 1.5 months ago had somewhat waned off, but am trying to keep to my words and continue posting photos of the trip! Need to document down the stories because as you know, the brain is not very reliable when it comes to memories. Even though I am about 40% done? Will be peppering the days of the trip here and there with posts about some interesting things in my life (though mostly are on Dayre, cause it is so much easier to write and post there!), so hopefully it doesn't come across as boring or an information overload. If one were to write for the sake of writing, the it would have lost its meaning and wouldn't be interesting.
To continue on the second half of the day on DMZ Tour:
We had a brief respite from the solemn topic during lunch, which was included as part of the tour package. We were not expecting much of the meal but were greatly surprised.
We were brought to this house for lunch
For a superb, and awesome lunch.
We ranked it as one of the best meals we had in Korea.
[Comments and summary about our meals there will be done separately in another post]
Camp Bonifas
Camp Bonifas is the base which houses the United Nations Command Support Group, who assists the South Korea in guarding their half at the 38th Parallel.
No photos to share for this visit, because photography is strictly prohibited. The entire atmosphere becomes more solemn and serious at this point onwards, because not only do we have the UN soliders on board the bus to protect and guard us, the entire environment just feels like a military base.
The only photo I had was the pass that was given to each of us, during the briefing for JSA
We had to take another bus from the camp to the JSA, and the scenery enroute is amazing. Very peaceful, despite the tense situation. It is as if the whole environment is blissfully unaware of what is happening around.
These fields are actually crop land, manned by locals who are staying in a village located inside the JSA.
The South Korean government actually allows descendants of the land owners to stay here in a village and grow crops. In order to entice them to stay, males are exempted from the otherwise mandatory army, and all residents of the village need not pay taxes to the government. There is one rule though - only females are allowed to enter and stay in the village via marriage to an existing resident / land owner. Males are not allowed to do so.
Joint Security Area
This is the joint area which is manned by both sides, and lies on the 38th Parallel. Security is very tight here and we were given a limited amount of time to take a look, with the UN guard playing the role of timekeeper.
To distinguish the ownership of the houses in this area, blue belongs to the UN, who represents the South, and white belongs to the North.
The white building that you see, situated beyond those blue houses, is North Korean land and belongs to North Korea.
The tour includes a visit to one of the blue houses, called the Conference Room.
It is where important meetings between both sides are held, with half the room situated on the South Korean land, and the other half lying on North Korean land.
The security personnel standing guard in the modified Taekwondo position
The Military Demarcation Line runs down the middle of this conference table, a line marked by the flag on the table and the wire. You can see that the soldier's position is aligned with that of the flag, which means he is standing ON the line itself.
The wire line is actually a sound tapping system, which enables the North to listen in to whatever is being discussed in the room. The conference table allows both sides to engage in meetings and discussions without crossing the divide. We were limited to a mere 5 minutes in the room, and allowed to walk to the other end of the room (onto North Korean land). From the room's windows, you get to see North Korean soldiers standing guard outside. A rather tense experience I would say. Some of them will peer in curiously, and some just stand around chatting (probably talking about this group of strangers who come to visit). I spotted one taking photos of the tour group, not sure if he will be using it as propaganda material?
The last visiting point of the tour - the Bridge of No Return. It is the site where both sides exchanged Prisoners of War from the Korean War. Here, the prisoners were given a choice to on which side they want to go. Once they make their decision and crossed the bridge to their desired side, they were not allowed to return to the other side from then on. Hence the name Bridge of No Return.
We were not allowed to get off the bus and only given a view of the bridge from the bus, at this point. If you look closely, the bridge starts beyond the blue barricades. Even looking at the photo now gives me the chills.
This then sums up the tour, and we were brought back to civilian land, where the tour first started. As it was Korean Thanksgiving period, there were some festivities being held.
A news reporter providing coverage of the event
Performances
And this sums up the tour! A very sober history lesson indeed. One may feel sad to see such a case, but if you look back at the origins, it started long ago even before the Korean War. After the world war, Northern region of Korea was manned by the USSR, and the Southern region was maintained by US troops. Each region were under the influence of different ideologies - one communism, the other democracy. Unifying both sides proved to be too much of a challenge as both sides refused to budge on the ideology that they wanted to use to rule the country. That, in my opinion, is the start of the divide of the country. Because once they are mentally separated, physical separation will follow. Afterall, man's behavior is guided by his mindset and beliefs, isn't it?
The DMZ tour is a very pricey tour, it costs us SGD 160 each. However, I feel that it is a worthy experience and definitely a must-go if one ever visits Korea!
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