DMZ
Long day. Up at 5:30 to get to the point of departure for 7. We saw some of North Korea from observation points, got a tour of the forward most American/S. Korean military position from a ridiculously bigoted Military Police Sergeant, walked deep underground in a tunnel to see where the North had tried to build a tunnel into South Korea, and were home by about 5.
The most interesting part was the forward operating base, where South Korean soldiers stand at attention (in a Tae Kwan Do ready stance, wearing black sunglasses, so as to look intimidating) about fifty feet from North Korean territory, and stare at them all day. The North Koreans stare back. This goes on ad infinitum. As you can see in one of the photos below, the South Koreans stand with half of their bodies protected by the structures in front of them, to make for smaller targets. In another photo, you might be able to make out the North Korean standing atop the stairs of their building.
Some other things we learned from our military tour guide: he'd like to execute some people in Iraq; he thinks he's good-looking but women find him arrogant; he's definitely not a botanist (he made three references to that fact--I think trees are for sissies, or something); and French people are too stupid to follow protocol, as one of their journalists had the audacity to break from a tour and go photograph some things from the North Korean side of the fence. Oh, and our guide really liked to remind us that if we did something against the rules, he would apply violent force to us. I wonder what it's like having a dick that small.
Another interesting thing was in one of the meeting rooms placed directly on the border, they had replaced the cotton flags of all the participatory nations (including Canada) with a mounted frame hanging on the wall containing little plastic flags. This is because when some American and South Korean dignitaries were in the process of having some sort of discussion in that room, some North Korean soldiers walked in and polished their boots with the American flag and blew their nose in the South Korean one. I thought that was pretty awesome. So little plastic flags behind Plexiglas are more Commie-proof.
Speaking of flags, the North Koreans fly a 600 lb. flag above Propaganda Village, a non-inhabited group of buildings that is in some way supposed to demonstrate to the South Koreans the economic and social superiority of the North. They used to broadcast propaganda towards the South (and back towards their own people) from that location, but have since stopped. So anyway, if gigantic flags is your thing, go check out that big sucker along the DMZ. It was smaller, but the South Koreans put up a bigger one so naturally the North had to gamely one-up them in turn. The result is a flag that needs storm-strength winds to flop about. Awesome.
Two American officers were killed by North Korean troops with their own wood axes when they and some of their men attempted to cut down a poplar that was obstructing the view between two of their operating posts in the DMZ. The war was on the verge of re-escalation, but Kim Il-sung apologized and the tree was cut down while a massive American force (including an aircraft carrier and a bunch of B-52s) stood at the ready. The axes are currently on display in the Peace Museum across the border in North Korea, which we didn't have access to.
I was under the impression that we'd be allowed onto North Korean territory, but that was only inside the buildings that straddled the international boundary. To really see North Korea, you need to get a tourist visa by way of China.
Oh, the last photo is a big wooden dragon in the middle of Seoul. A flammable dragon? Wacky Koreans!
The most interesting part was the forward operating base, where South Korean soldiers stand at attention (in a Tae Kwan Do ready stance, wearing black sunglasses, so as to look intimidating) about fifty feet from North Korean territory, and stare at them all day. The North Koreans stare back. This goes on ad infinitum. As you can see in one of the photos below, the South Koreans stand with half of their bodies protected by the structures in front of them, to make for smaller targets. In another photo, you might be able to make out the North Korean standing atop the stairs of their building.
Some other things we learned from our military tour guide: he'd like to execute some people in Iraq; he thinks he's good-looking but women find him arrogant; he's definitely not a botanist (he made three references to that fact--I think trees are for sissies, or something); and French people are too stupid to follow protocol, as one of their journalists had the audacity to break from a tour and go photograph some things from the North Korean side of the fence. Oh, and our guide really liked to remind us that if we did something against the rules, he would apply violent force to us. I wonder what it's like having a dick that small.
Another interesting thing was in one of the meeting rooms placed directly on the border, they had replaced the cotton flags of all the participatory nations (including Canada) with a mounted frame hanging on the wall containing little plastic flags. This is because when some American and South Korean dignitaries were in the process of having some sort of discussion in that room, some North Korean soldiers walked in and polished their boots with the American flag and blew their nose in the South Korean one. I thought that was pretty awesome. So little plastic flags behind Plexiglas are more Commie-proof.
Speaking of flags, the North Koreans fly a 600 lb. flag above Propaganda Village, a non-inhabited group of buildings that is in some way supposed to demonstrate to the South Koreans the economic and social superiority of the North. They used to broadcast propaganda towards the South (and back towards their own people) from that location, but have since stopped. So anyway, if gigantic flags is your thing, go check out that big sucker along the DMZ. It was smaller, but the South Koreans put up a bigger one so naturally the North had to gamely one-up them in turn. The result is a flag that needs storm-strength winds to flop about. Awesome.
Two American officers were killed by North Korean troops with their own wood axes when they and some of their men attempted to cut down a poplar that was obstructing the view between two of their operating posts in the DMZ. The war was on the verge of re-escalation, but Kim Il-sung apologized and the tree was cut down while a massive American force (including an aircraft carrier and a bunch of B-52s) stood at the ready. The axes are currently on display in the Peace Museum across the border in North Korea, which we didn't have access to.
I was under the impression that we'd be allowed onto North Korean territory, but that was only inside the buildings that straddled the international boundary. To really see North Korea, you need to get a tourist visa by way of China.
Oh, the last photo is a big wooden dragon in the middle of Seoul. A flammable dragon? Wacky Koreans!
posted by Matthew at 7:21 PM
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