Peaking into North Korea

While is Seoul I took a half day trip up to the DMZ, the area between North and South Korea. The DMZ is about a 30 minute drive from Seoul, and to enter you have to go on a guided tour. The whole DMZ is a 2km zone around the border that the armies on either side guard. There was a lot of propaganda stating that North and South Korea are still one country separated by a civil war, and the whole tour was focused on how much South Korea wants to unify with the North. For example, things were named 'unification bridge' or 'unification village'.

This was called the stones of peace wall. It had stones from 64 different war zones around the world. I think it's a really cool idea for a monument.

This is a train that was caught in the DMZ during the Korean war. You can see all the bullet holes in the train.

South Korean guard post on the DMZ

I had heard it was built up in a very touristy way, but was not quite ready for what I saw. There was actually an amusement park at the entrance.
Me with the DMZ in the background
Train tracks now run from South to North, but there are obviously no trains running currently. The South built a train station in the middle of the DMZ. It is newly built but has never been used, and has a very eerie feeling. There were big signs talking about how someday when there is peace between the North and the South you will be able to take a train from South Korea all the way to Europe. They even have fake tickets you can get to go to Pyeongyang.

This is the platform where you can see into North Korea. The day was VERY hazy, so I was unable to see more than a little pond and a road across the border. There is a big yellow line you have to stand behind to take pictures, because for security reasons they don't want people to be able to capture any of the South Korean base in their shots. This guy took one across the line and was quickly approached by a guard to delete it. It also happened to be the 60th anniversary of the beginning of the Korean war, and so the government had invited all these war vets to come visit. There were flocks of these vets on site, each with a young Korean guide next to him.
We were also able to go into a tunnel that the North Koreans dug under the DMZ. There are 4 such tunnels that the South has discovered, and probably even more that are still unknown. The North attempted to disguise the tunnels as coal mines by smearing black on the walls, but they were actually part of a plan to sneak soldiers into the South. At the end of the tunnel you are allowed to walk down you are 170m from the border, the closest any civilian is allowed to go.