7-13-19 - Korean Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) - on 2nd thought maybe this wasn't such a good idea
/Day 27. Today is our trip to the Korean Demilitarized Zone (DMZ). Our tour guide provides a very informative history on South and North Korea dating back to pre-WW II. During and post WW II, there was a battle between Communism (with Russia occupying Northern Korea) and Democracy (with US occupying Southern Korea). The Korean war started when N Korea invaded S Korea in 1950. After 3 years, a military stalemate was declared and the Korean Demilitarized Zone was established in 1953. The DMZ is a strip of acting as a border barrier that divides North and South Korea roughly in half. The DMZ is 250KM (160 miles long) and extends 2 KM (1.25 miles) on each side of the border.
When we arrive at the DMZ, the bus is pulled over and a North Korean guard boards the bus to check our passports. This is definitely one of those times you don’t want to tell the armed guard that you forgot them in the hotel. Luckily, I hadn’t so I had handed the kids their passports before the checkpoint. The guard checks mine and proceeds back to the kids. I turn around to see Ashlynn fast asleep in her bus seat. The Korean guard is not too amused. We scramble to wake Ashlynn up and she opens her eyes to see the Korean guard staring in her face asking for her passport in Korean. Scared the living hell out of her it did. This blog post would have been a lot less amusing if we were trying to figure out how to extricate Ashlynn from a North Korean jail cell.
The performers were on another coach (bus) together so John was on that bus. Turns out he had way more drama than we did. At the checkpoint, the guard gets on the bus and after checking passports, determines that there is one more person on the bus than on his pre-approved for entry list of people. He exits the bus and starts shouting in Korean to the other guards. The bus is forced to pull off to the side and a guard is posted to make sure the bus doesn’t go anywhere. No Bueno. It seems highly unlikely to me that the bus driver is going to floor it and try to crash through the security checkpoint with a bus full of kids but maybe not so unlikely to the guards. More guards board the bus and recheck the passports.
Now the bus is directed into a secure area and a guard with an AK-47 is posted to really ensure the bus isn’t going anywhere. No Bueno has quickly turned into muy mal or even muy muy muy mal. Apparently, an innocent logistical mistake has been interpreted as a coordinated plot to smuggle a non-approved kid into the DMZ for who knows what sort of nefarious purposes. The guard boards the bus again and calls out the names of three kids. Luckily John wasn’t one of them but according to him, they might as well have handed out a box of pampers to the kids they called forth. Eventually the guards determine that it is actually just a logistical mistake and not a right-wing, Trump sponsored, radical terrorist group posing as a children’s choir and let them through.
We stop at the Dora Observatory which is on the South Korean side of the DMZ looking across the border to North Korea and is the closest point to the North Korean border one can get. Great photo ops and the kids pose with a cardboard cut-out of a Korean soldier which looks totally real (see picture below). Apparently, they do have a sense of humor in the DMZ as long as you are not a suspected of trying to sneak in.
We next go to Camp Greaves in the DMZ which once served as a base camp for the 506thUS Second Infantry Division. The land was given back to the Korean government in 2007 and has been converted into a “peace and security” experience facility. We see signs with a target over a person and sign below in Korean which my trusty Google Translator app tells me means “Danger…Sniper Zone.” Another sign has a picture of a falling bomb on it. I’m not sure what a “peace and security” facility means but either they forgot to take the signs down or the DMZ is not as secure as we were led to believe.
The performance is a joint Korean – American performance with the National Children’s Chorus and the Lindbaum Festival Orchestra. The Lindbaum Festival’s One Harmony Art Festival is designed to promote peace and harmony through music. The performance is amazing and is broadcast live on South Korean television. You can see it on Youtube - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z6nCz16vWwg. What an incredible experience for John to be able to perform in that setting. I am certainly thankful as there is no way we would have even attempted to go to the DMZ on our own.
This is our last night in Korea and dinner is on our own (not provided by NCC) so we have to eat at a local Korean restaurant. This has been my requirement and I don’t count the hotel buffets as a local restaurant experience. We get back late and the group is tired but I rally some of them. Leanne, Corey, John, Justin & I go out to a local Korean BBQ restaurant recommended by the hotel. It is awesome. They do not speak any English but we discover it is actually quite effective to point to a picture of the food and hold up the number of fingers you want to order. They bring out heaping plates of meat which they cook on a grill right on your table.
On the walk home, we pass a K-pop karaoke studio. When in Rome…. Apparently, they have already contemplated that we would horrify the rest of singing world if we sang in front of a group so we are given a private karaoke studio where we can only horrify each other. The list of American songs is sorely lacking. After singing Imagine by John Lennon we are left deciding between the likes of Air Supply, Journey and songs we’ve never heard of. The last song is Zombie by The Cranberries. John is excited to learn (having just come from Ireland) that it was written in 1993 as a protest song against the Irish Republican Army (IRA) and about the fight for Irish independence. This was truly a banner day!
