DMZ Tour

Recently we had the opportunity to go to Panmunjom at the DMZ. It was a lot of fun. We went with Melissa's mom, who was here to help out when Melissa and Fred's baby was born. It was my second time to the DMZ, and Tiffany's first. We also got to go to the 3rd tunnel, which is a long tunnel which was dug through solid rock by North Koreans in order to reach South Korea. It was discovered by South Korea before it could be completed. Unfortunately, photography was prohibited inside the tunnel.

When we first got to Panmunjom, there was a group of North Korean soldiers who were taking photos by the border (the concrete block that runs over the grating).

We were taken inside one of the buildings that straddles the border. They are used for talks between North and South Korea. Inside the building, I was able to get a pretty close-up shot of a couple of guys getting their picture taken.

Here's Tiffany standing next to one of the South Korean soldiers at a safe distance. Pretty tough, eh? They get a little jumpy if you get too close. The sunglasses and martial arts stance are to convey an air of intimidation. Tiffany, at this point, is on the north side of the building, and technically standing in North Korea.

This is Panmungak, a large building on the north side of the border. The North Korean soldiers frequently look through binoculars at visitors on the south side of the border.

Here's a shot of “Propaganda Village” in North Korea. It features an impractically tall flagpole topped by a gigantic North Korean flag.

This is the “Bridge of No Return,” which has a significant history, both during the Korean War and also more recently during the mid-70s.


Of course, we were shuttled to the gift shop as part of the tour. I took this picture of an assortment of novelty chocolates: red pepper-flavored chocolate, corn-flavored chocolate, ginseng-flavored chocolate, seaweed-flavored chocolate, sweet potato-flavored chocolate, green tea-flavored chocolate, and, of course, kimchi-flavored chocolate.

Here's me at the Dora Observatory. Unfortunately, Dorasan Station was not part of the tour.

All in all, it was a fun tour.