We took a trip to Paju to visit the Demilitarized Zone - the border that separates South and North Korea.
The DMZ runs 250 km across the Korean Peninsula and is only 4 km deep. Many people may not realize that the two Koreas are still at war. The Korean Armistice Agreement was signed over 60 years ago in 1953, but there have been 2900 provocations from the North since the Agreement was signed, including an axe murder here at the Joint Security Area in Paju, making this one of the most fortified borders in the world. It's an intense experience, and there are strict guidelines tourists must follow.
The DMZ is a tourist destination for many who are curious about the tensions between South and North Korea, and want a glimpse of the elusive North. You can catch shuttles from Seoul to Paju and the drive is about an hour and a half.
The DMZ is a popular tourist destination in South Korea, with 160,000 tourists visiting every year. The shuttle from Seoul to the DMZ is about $20.
Just before heading into the DMZ, we're asked to put away our cameras before going through security, passports in hand.
Inside the DMZ at Panmunjom. Those blue buildings are Conference Row, where the Korean Armistice Agreement was signed on July 27, 1953, bringing three years of civil war in Korea to a pause.
To this day, Korea remains the only divided nation in the world and the North and South are still technically at war. The soldiers with their backs to camera in the image above are on the South Korean side, but just steps ahead of them on the ground lies a small concrete barrier, marking the border between North and South Korea. The white building is North Korea, where soldiers stand stationed with binoculars in hand. Soldiers usually don’t stand inside Conference Row, except for when tourists come to Panmunjom. Most tours are on Wednesday and occur every 45 minutes.
Inside Conference Row, a South Korean soldier stands at the table where leaders from South and North Korea meet for peace talks. To the left of the UN flag is South Korea, to the right, North Korea. So the soldier stands with one foot in the South and one foot in the North.
Standing on North Korean soil inside Conference Row, with a South Korean soldier.
North Korean wine, purchased in the gift shop in the DMZ, for roughly $14 Canadian.
A view of Propaganda Village in North Korea, which is 1.8km away from Taesungdong, or Freedom Village, in the South, where civilians live in the DMZ. The North Korean flag pole stands 160m tall and is one of the tallest in the world.
The flag pole in North Korea's Propaganda Village is 30x50m and weighs approximately 600 lbs. By comparison, the flag pole on the South Korean side is 100 m tall, and the flag is 18x20m and weighs 30 lbs.
The 208 civilians who live in South Korea's Freedom Village are the original residents or descendants of those who lived on the land before the Korean War. Due to their proximity to the border, they are given special benefits: they don't pay taxes, men are exempt from mandatory military service and the federal government pays for the construction of their homes. The villagers do have to follow strict rules: they must be home 240 nights of the year, their curfew is from 12 a.m. to 6 a.m. the next morning, and no men from outside the village are allowed to move into the village to prevent people from evading military service.
If you ever have the chance to visit South Korea, the DMZ is a surreal experience, and it's something you definitely have to see for yourself.
