Gentlemen, welcome to North Korea

“The visit to the Joint Security Area at Panmunjom will entail into a hostile area and possibility of injury or death as a direct result of enemy action.”

That was the first paragraph of the paper I had to sign to enter the De-Militarized Zone, or DMZ, marking the border between South and North Korea. The American officer that briefed us on the tour we were about to get made it very clear that the situation along the border is very unstable at the moment, with multiple incidents making the divide between North and South seem bigger than ever.

The american officer showing us around

The DMZ is a strip of land running across the Korean Peninsula that serves as a buffer zone between North and South Korea. It is maintained by United Nations Command, and is the most heavily militarized border in the world.

As we were walked to the border, we were met with the sight of South and North Korean soldiers staring each other down with binoculars and striking poses. It’s a sight like no other, and you feel really out of place going on a guided tour through a situation like this.

South Korean soldiers guarding the border to North Korea with a North Korean observing at a distance

On the other side of the border the North Korean soldiers stood coldly observing us with their binoculars, and the officer showing us around pointed us toward a funny looking window right next to the North Korean guard.

“Notice the window over there. At this time, communist North Korea is taking pictures of your faces and documenting your visit here. They do the same for us all, they even figured out how long we officers stay on duty here, sometimes playing a farewell song through their propaganda speakers when we’re about to leave Korea. Please do not point or gesture towards them, they will use it in propaganda against the UN.”

Standing inside North Korea

Finally we were shown into the building where North and South meet for diplomatic talks. The officer stood himself in the center of the room and asked us to gather around.

“Those of you on my left, you are now standing inside communist North Korea. Those of you on my right, you are still safely inside South Korea.”

There used to be a shelf with international flags inside the building, but North Korean soldiers went inside and blew their nose in all the flags, and danced barefoot on the tables to mock the south. The shelf has now been changed to a framed picture of flags, hopefully acting as a harder target. And whatever the north korean soldiers had on their feet… it sucked right into the varnish of the tables, still clearly showing the foot-markings all over.

North Korean flag pole

On each side of the border, the countries have raised tall flag poles. The South Korean built a 100 meter flag pole. North Korea responded by building a 160 meter one, at the time it was the tallest one in the world. As we were shown where the flag poles are, the officer gave us one more “fun fact” before we ended the tour.

“Take a look at your mobile phones. Notice how they aren’t working? Yeah, thats North Korea blocking any phone, TV, or radio signals being used in this area.”