Seoul, the DMZ, and Cheonan

A few weeks ago four of us visited Seoul for a USO tour to the DMZ. Our tour was scheduled for Saturday the 5th, so we took the KTX up on Friday and stayed at Jin Guest House. The next morning we grabbed breakfast on the run and were at Camp Kim by a few minutes after 7am. We checked in, boarded the buses and set off for the northern border.

We signed our life away (the first sentence in the Visitor’s Declaration wavier: “The visit to the Joint Security Area at Panmunjom will entail entry into a hostile area and the possibility of injury or death as a direct result of enemy action.”) and started the tour. Here’s an overview of what we saw:

+ The Joint Security Area, or Panmunjeom, the only place in the DMZ where North and South Koreans face off on a daily basis. It is where diplomatic talks take place and we could see things like the Bridge of No Return, where POWs were returned after the Korean war; the site of the Axe Murder Incident; and the ‘world’s most dangerous golf course’, a one-hole course surrounded on three sides by live minefields. South and North Korean civilians are not allowed inside the JSA so we were escorted on this part of our tour by an American soldier stationed in Camp Bonifas (which is in the JSA).

+ Dora Observatory, which is the closest you can get to the North – you can use the coin-operated binoculars and see North Korea’s propaganda village, Kijong-dong, and the city of Kaesong, where North and South Koreans work together in the joint industrial complex.

+ Inside the Third Infiltration Tunnel, one of four tunnels that have been discovered so far (it is believed that there are several more undiscovered tunnels) that were dug by the North for use in a surprise attack on the South.

+ Dorasan Station – “Not the last station from the South, but the first station toward the North” which was used for transporting supplies to Kaesong in the North and the finished products back to the South. The border is closed now but in the event of reunification Dorasan Station will be used again.

Even given the recent tensions between North and South Korea after the sinking of the Cheonan warship, this tour wasn’t really scary, just very surreal and a bit tense. We had to observe a dress code and even behavioral codes in some places – walk in two straight lines, no pointing, waving, or other gestures, and no pictures allowed in several places, even from the bus windows.

I was left with two main impressions from the day. One is that North Korea is just weird. Some of their judgments are just so screwy. Like the constant attempts to one-up South Korea and prove how much better they are: South Korea builds something in the JSA, and the North adds a faux third story to their own adjacent building so that it’s taller. The South puts up a flag pole in their village in the DMZ, Daeseong-dong, and the North puts up a taller one in their village, with a flag so big that it can barely wave even in a gale (it’s the world’s tallest flagpole, at 160 meters, and the flag itself weighs 600 pounds!) Anyway, this village – called Kijong-dong but better known as Propaganda Village in the West – is weird enough even without that flag. North Korea maintains that it is fully inhabited with schools, hospitals, etc. but no one actually lives there. Lights regularly go on and off and people clean the streets but the buildings are all completely empty! They face loudspeakers toward the South and deliver Communist propaganda for hours every day. And those tunnels – the North denied digging them, but structurally it’s obvious that they were built from North to South. And when we visited the Third Infiltration Tunnel, we could see places where North Koreans had painted the tunnel walls black to support their story that they were mining coal, even though there isn’t any coal in the area! And finally, a South Korean I know told me something that he saw when he completed his military service in the DMZ: the North can’t afford tractors for their farm work, but to keep up the pretense that they’re a rich country, they would have one tractor come out once a day and make a lap around the field! There are so many weird stories like that.

The other impression that I got from the DMZ, and also from the Independence Hall we visited later, is just how sad it is that this country is split. I’ve always thought about them as two separate countries, and I guess right now that’s what they are. But only a bit more than 50 years ago they were one country, with one homogenous population, until they were divided by outside powers. Especially considering how far the South has come in the last few decades, both economically and democratically, just imagine how powerful it would be today as one country twice its current size, with twice the working population and resources. It’s really depressing to compare the two now and imagine what could have been.

We arrived back in Seoul around 3pm (the border is only an hour away from the capital). We headed straight for the Changdeok Palace complex. Since we got there so late in the afternoon we didn’t have nearly enough time to see everything. We made a beeline for something called the Biwon Secret Garden, and arrived at the entrance just in time to buy tickets for the last tour of the day. A tour is the only option for seeing the Garden so we didn’t even care that it was in Korean. It was different than we expected – not really like a Western garden, but more like a huge grotto. We had a two-hour tour through beautiful roads and enormous ancient trees. There were also a few old buildings used by the royal family and a really pretty pond. We kept walking and walking, saying ‘Where’s the garden?’ and didn’t figure out until the end that we were in it the whole time.

The next morning, Sunday, we got on the train and headed south to a suburb of Seoul called Cheonan. We spent the entire day at the Independence Hall of Korea. This is a huge history museum – there are eight buildings plus several outdoor memorials and statues. One building was closed when we were there, but we managed to get through all seven of the others before almost missing our train back to Daegu. One exhibit was about prehistoric Korea up through the end of the Joseon dynasty in 1910, but all of the others dealt with the Japanese colonial period (1910-1945) and Korea’s movement for independence from Japan. It was a really good museum – at least as interesting and informative as the DMZ – and I’d definitely recommend it to anyone visiting Korea. This part of Korean history is really interesting because it’s still relevant, and affects feelings between Korea and Japan even today. I won’t write it here, but if you’re curious, email me and I’ll tell you what one of my middle schoolers said to me about Japan.

So that was probably the most productive weekend I’ve had in a long time – we knocked out three major touristy things and I had a lot of fun hanging out with my friends the whole time. I’m so lucky to have an awesome huge group of fiends here; even when we have insane long hot weekends like that we’re always laughing and having a good time. This post is long enough so I didn’t include pictures, but here’s the link if you have the time! http://picasaweb.google.com/kristin.laufenberg/SeoulDMZBiwonIndependenceHall?feat=directlink

World Cup Fever aka 대한민국!

Korea’s first World Cup game, against Greece, was Saturday the 12th. After a big dinner downtown, a big group of us set out looking for a bar where we could sit down and watch the game. However, every business that we passed that had any kind of TV screen – from bars and restaurants, to cafes, bakeries, ice cream shops and clothes retailers – was packed. People were sitting on folding chairs, shelves, countertops and floors. So we proceeded to the main stage in the heart of downtown, where there’s a huge outdoor screen. The area was absolutely wild – the main road was blocked off and people were sitting on the street; the ones near the front had probably been there for hours. Every time the Red Devil’s scored a goal, the crowd went crazy. Our huge group got split up, and Jeannine and I watched most of the first half there and then slipped off for some ice cream. We were lucky enough to find an ice cream shop with some seats and a TV, so we watched Korea kick Greece’s butt in air-conditioned and seated comfort.


After the game we re-grouped and enjoyed some celebratory drinking. The streets were full of people yelling and car horns blaring out the rhythm to the Korean chant 대한민국 or dae-han-min-guk, and everyone was dressed up in the Red Devil’s shirts, bandanas, blinking devil’s horns, and the Korean flag. I’ve never seen so many people riled up over the same thing; I can’t think of anything to compare it with in the States, except maybe New Year’s Eve in NYC. Certainly none of our sporting events even come close.

We attended the second game, Korea vs. Argentina, on the 17th at Duryu Park. If possible, it was even crazier than the downtown area had been. We arrived two hours early to find a spot on the grass in front of the big screen, and when the game started people were still coming in and the park was full of thousands of people. There were lots of vendors with chicken, beer, water, and all the necessary accessories – t-shirts, bandanas, flags, various horns and noise-makers, and temporary tattoos. There were so many people moving around that sometimes it was hard to see the big screen, so we watched parts of the game on our awesome Korean cell phones that come with free TV channels!

Unfortunately Korea lost this game. However, they tied the next one against Nigeria, which was at 3:30am yesterday (I didn’t stay awake for it, but a lot of my students did. Way to make me feel old, guys). That means Korea is advancing to the final 16, so the excitement will continue! If only I were as well-informed or excited about the American team....

Weekend Goings-On: Jirisan Edition

I'm so busy using this blog to write about the fun stuff I do on the weekends, that I don't have time to write about my day-to-day life in Korea. Stuff like my work, the food, Daegu, the culture, etc. just gets left out. I'm gonna have to work on that, but probably not anytime soon because I have too much to catch up on (sorry to get your hopes up, haha). Here goes:

My last post was about the Seoul Lotus Lantern Festival, which is sort of a prelude to Buddha's birthday. So Buddha's actual birthday was on Friday, May 21st; since it's a national holiday, we had a lovely three-day weekend on our hands. On Friday morning seven of us met bright and early at the bus station. We bought tickets for the two-hour bus ride to Jirisan National Park, only to find that the bus was full. Our options were to stand on the bus, or wait almost two more hours for the next one. We decided that it was all part of the adventure and chose to stand for two hours. We passed the time by playing Twenty Questions, trying to keep our balance and not topple onto any seated Koreans or annoy anybody too much.

We arrived in the town of Namwon and decided that the easiest way to reach the park was by taxi (traveling in groups like we do has its advantages, like splitting the cost of everything!). It was a beautiful ride into the park - curvy and hilly roads, trees and greenery, and the best air I've tasted since visiting Jeju Island (I think I probably complain about this a lot, but after living in Daegu I will NEVER take fresh air for granted again). Jirisan National Park is huge - the biggest in South Korea - and with over a dozen peaks it is famous for hiking, camping, waterfalls, several temples, and even a population of wild bears!

We were dropped off in a little parking lot and after a few minutes of hiking, found Guryong Waterfall. I think the original plan might have been to do some hiking that day, and even find a temple and pay our respects (it was Buddha's birthday, after all), but the weather and location were too perfect for us to resist. We ended up sitting at the waterfall all day, eating kimbap and drinking beer, playing games, soaking our feet, and exploring the area (which for a few of us included some awesome climbing - Mark, Dave, Jayson and I decided to explore downstream a bit, and it was so much fun to climb up and over all the rocks).

At the end of the day we made a quick detour to explore some of the nearby hiking trails, just for a few minutes, and it was SO beautiful. I didn't want to leave - I really like hiking and climbing, and the scenery was just breath-taking. I'd love to go back and hike the mountain properly, and even stay overnight in a tent or something to see the sunrise on the summit. Between the weather, the scenery, and the company, this was easily one of the best days I've had in Korea.


The first two photos here are mine; the rest are from the talented and generous Jeannine. To see the rest of mine, click here: http://picasaweb.google.com/kristin.laufenberg/JirisanNationalPark?feat=directlink