Sunday, July 18, 2010

"Where did Jesse go??? I hope he's not in North Korea..."

As you can probably suspect from the title of this blog, we went to the DMZ yesterday. For those of you who don't know what the DMZ stands for, it is demilitarized zone. It's a border that separates North Korea and South Korea with 2km on each side. Because it was pouring yesterday (like it has been for the past two weeks that we've been here), we couldn't really see North Korea too well except on the bus and on the observation deck. I was going to take pictures but it was too hazy/foggy to make out anything.

There's a lot of history that comes along with the DMZ. Many people believe that the Korean war is over...but in reality, it really isn't. There is still tension going on between South and North Korea and although many hope for reunification of the peninsula, that may never happen. The tour guide that we had yesterday said she has a brother but she doesn't know where he is. She knows that he's in Korea but whether North or South, she doesn't know. We went to the Freedom Bridge, Imjingak, the 3rd tunnel and an observatory deck that looked out to North Korea. The 3rd tunnel was actually pretty awesome. It's one of the four tunnels (that South Korea knows of) that North Koreans dug to Seoul in hopes of capturing South Korea from its capital.

We had North Korean style bulgogi at the site. I honestly couldn't taste the difference but I was told that there is a difference. Anyway, some pictures would help this post a lot...here goes!

North Korean style bulgogi

Na Young trying to be cute with the bulgogi

Chris and I in front of a memorial

In front of a bell at Imjingak

Freedom Bridge plaque

Other international students and me at UoS on the Freedom Bridge

Ribbons and pictures on the Freedom Bridge hoping for reunification

One of the statues in front of the Freedom Bridge

Having fun in front of the 3rd Tunnel

South Korea built a train station at Dorasan (there are no trains yet) in hopes that one day reunification with North Korea is possible and that a train could go through North Korea from Seoul and eventually go to China, Russia and end in several European countries.

It's called the Trans Eurasian Railway Network. It would make exporting goods a lot faster.

Waiting for our train to Pyeongyang...North Korea...one day!

Hope you all enjoyed this post. I would take the liberty to research about the tension between North and South Korea if I were you - it's quite interesting and some of the stories are just heart-wrenching. Till next time!


1 comment:



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