North Korea

Saturday, Geoff and I went with some friends and took a USO trip to the JSA(Joint Security Area). I had been wanting to take that trip since I arrived in Korea. Well, we finally went, and I am so glad we did. It is amazing how interesting history is when you are older. If I had been a kid and gone on that trip I would not have appreciated it near as much as I do now. I also learned a lot. I have only posted 5 pictures because blogger will only allow me to post 5. If anyone knows how to get around this so I can post more, please let me know. This first picture is of a ROK soldier, Geoff, and myself. If you are an avid news watcher you might have seen this room we were standing in before. Along the DMZ, there are a series of buildings where half of the building is in North Korea, and half is in South Korea. This is the building where they do a lot of those peace talks. The ROK soldier is guarding the NATO flag there on the table. We were warned not to touch him, or try to go in front or behind him or he would use some fancy Tae Kwon Do tricks on us. In the picture, Geoff is actually standing in South Korea, and I am standing in North Korea. There was another guard at the other end of the room, and he was guarding the door into North Korea. If someone tried to open the door, the North Korean guards on the other side would pull you through and not let you go.
The picture above of Geoff and I was taken in the blue building on the left. Those are North Korean soldiers having there picture taken right on the border. I actually got up close pictures of them while I was in that building. They were taking pictures like regular people. It was a very sad feeling to know that those people, that were not even 5 feet away from me at times, hated me because I was an American. I know my husband and other soldiers deal with this all the time while on deployments. But I had never experienced it for myself. I just wanted to scream you don't even know me. Jesus loves you. We were all created equal. But they couldn't understand me anyways. Plus if I had I would have probably gotten in a lot of trouble. We weren't supposed to speak, point or make any kind of gestures at them.

When I took the picture above I was standing on the steps of a building built by the president of the Hyundai Corporation. He had the building built in 1998 before he died. The purpose of the building was so that the Korean Families that were separated during the war could have a place for reunions. Sadly the building has never been used. Since the building is in South Korea, the North Koreans are not allowed for fear that they might defect.

If you look at the building in the picture there is a guard standing in between a door and a window at the top of the stairs. He watched us the entire time with binoculars. In the window next to him there was someone else watching us also. There was also a guard tower to the right (its not in the picture) full of North Korean soldiers watching us like hawks. I said before that we were not supposed to point. Well you find out how hard it is not to point when you are not supposed to, and you are looking at some interesting stuff.
This is a town in right across the border called Propaganda village. I don't remember the real name of the village. They call this Propaganda village because up until 2004 the North would blast propaganda over loud speakers about how wonderful their country and leader is. Ironically, there is no one that lives in this village. Occasionally, there are people spotted just taking care of the buildings. I think they built this village to make it look like they had a booming economy.

On the South Korean side there is a village called Freedom village. The south Koreans hung a huge flag in this village for all to see. In retaliation, the North created what is know as the tallest flag in the world (in the picture above). The North Korean flag now stands twice as high as the one in the South. The North Korean flag also weighs 600 lbs.

This is the bridge of no return. The last time someone crossed this bridge they were held hostage for 12 years.
This is where the treaty of PanmunJeom was signed. It started the armistice between the two countries. It is actually in North Korea. When I took the the picture above I was actually surrounded by North Korea on 3 sides.

We saw a lot more that we could not take pictures of. We went into a tunnel under this mountain that was dug by the North. It was found in 1978, and the North says that they were doing coal mining. The mountain they were digging in was made of granite. There are 4 tunnels that have been found. The North continues to say that the South dug them, but if you look at the the marks in the rocks you can see that they were dug from North to south. The tunnel I went through was big enough that 30,000 troops could pass through it in an hour. I am sure there are more tunnels that just the 4 found, but they have not been discovered yet.

It was a very interesting and educational day. I wish we could all just get along. It might be a while before I post again because we are on the move again. Plus, I think the movers packed up the cord to my camera. Until next time!