North Korea, South Korea, Marilyn Monroe

Well, mo Marilyn Monroe on yesterday's trip into the DMZ, but there was North Korea and South Korea
Mike, Me and Kimberly at the DMZ


Heres a few fast facts: The DMZ (Demilitarized Zone) is the most heavily militarized border in the world. What does that mean? That for every 100 meters, theres a very heavily armed guard. Almost every precaution is taken. North koreans could not march, swim. climb, or drive into ROK without a fight. It runs along the 38th parallel and splits the 2 Koreas. NOw, since nobody could live there, its one of most natural wildlife preserves in the world.

OKAY. So we had to get up at 530, to get to USO Camp Kim by 7am. This meant leaving our friends who didn't wake up :( but we got there The tour starts immediatly, as when you leave you notice that theres barbed wire surrounding the highway,from when the North Koreans snuck in and tried to kill the president.
Our first stop was the JSA (Joint Security Area) where we picked up a jaded, but beautiful army boy to protect us. There, we saw a 1-hole golf course dubbed the most dangerous golfing in the world, as it is surrounded on 3 sides by life land mines. Oh dear! We saw some bunkers, but all in all the place was sad. We drove around the area, which was abandoned and sad. No civilians, just army. The army life here seemed weird. They are so well trained in case something happens, but it seems like a lot of puttering if you ask me.
We then went to go chill on the line. At the friendship park (which is not friendly despite the name) there are 2 empty buildings looking at eachother, with a few smaller buildings that lie exactly on the line. Its pretty intense. NOrth Koreas staring at us (we're not allowed to make any jestures to them. There were 5-6 korean soldiers hanging out to make sure we did not get into trouble. This area was very tense, and they have had incidents here (few and far between mind you
Rosenbergs, H-bomb, Sugar Ray, Panmunjom The Panmunjom, and the border (the concrete line)

We then made our way into the tunnels, which were close to the DMZ. The North Koreans dug tunnels (4 have been found) to try to get into Seoul. They covered it in black, so they could say that they were 'coal mining' even though the area is obviously granite. After a very steel slope 350 meters down, we walked through this small tunnel for half a km or so until we got to one of 3 blockades. It was neat, being able to see the dynomite marks. If the NK had been successful, they would have been able to get thousands of soldiers into Seoul within an hour. It was crazy.

Foolin' around at the tunnel site!

After lunch we went the Dora observatory where we could see the DMZ, the largest flag pole in the World (in a propeganda villiage in NK) and the area, even though it was foggy. It was pretty cool, but pictures were not permitted (if they saw you take them, which they do, they see everything, they have you delete them). But theres nothing in NK. Just land, mountains and more nothing.

After that, we went to the last train station in South korea, or the first station in NK, depending on how you look at it, to stamp our passports, and hang around.

After a long morning in the DMZ, I feel like I have more of a grasp of the severity of the situation, what is going on, and how terrible it actually is. The south beg for reunification, or at least civility, where as nobody actually knows what NK's problem is. Its scary knowing that they have missiles that could hit me right now, and to know how close we are. Its one of those things.
Barbed wire and grey skies.....
Until next time,
Patience and faith,
ErinJ