More from the DMZ

The one-story blue building in the middle houses the UN flag so sacrosanct that moves to touch it will result in grievous bodily harm. You can see a small concrete line running between the buildings in the middle. That is the border. The building on the other side has North Korean military. You can see that the S. Korean soldiers standing guard close to the buildings are partially hidden by the buildings. This, we were told, is to provide a smaller target for any N. Koreans who decide to take a shot at them.

We were told this, of course, as we were standing on some stairs in plain view of any N. Korean soldiers who might decide to take a shot at us. But then, we don't know the ready Tae Kwon Do stance, so maybe we were more expendable, or considered not worth the bullet by the N. Koreans.


And the N. Koreans. Note the peeping tom in the window with the binoculars. Pointing, gesturing, talking to or otherwise engaging the N. Koreans was expressly forbidden. In fact, we were told that pointing would be a violation of the armistice agreement signed in 1953.

So why did the fighting flare up again on the Korean Peninsula?

Phil pointed at a North Korean soldier.

Yeah, that jerk is always pointing at stuff.


We went up to a nearby guard tower that had quite a view of the surrounding mountains, and of a N. Korean guard tower in the foreground. Our escort said that the majority of the 1MM strong N. Korean army is likely stationed just over those mountains, along with thousands of artillery and rockets capable of hitting Seoul.


The DMZ is 4KM wide and runs the length of the Korean peninsula. It is basically a long no-man's land, and has been pretty much left empty since the end of the war. They supposedly removed all the mines from inside the DMZ as well (and put them outside the DMZ). As such, it is an eden for a diverse population of wildlife.

We also had a good view of what those on the South side call 'Propaganda Village' a mostly empty North Korean 'model city' right in the heart of the DMZ to show those in the South just how wonderful North Korea is and, in the past, pump in loud propaganda from huge speakers.

There is a similar village on the South side in the DMZ (Daeseong, or 'Freedom Village') that is actually an inhabited farming community. Because the townspeople don't actually live in S. Korea proper, they pay no taxes and do not have to do compulsory military service, thus making it an attractive place to live. As such, you can only live there if you are a decendent of other villagers, or, for women, marry a resident. There is a curfew and the village is heavily guarded, as some villagers have been kidnapped by the North in the past.

I suppose some could call that village, and it's nickname, a bit of propaganda as well, but then everyone would be confused and wouldn't know where to go if they were invited to a garden party at Propaganda Village, so Freedom Village it is.

The tower is a flagpole. A huge flagpole. When in Kuala Lumpur, a cab driver pointed out what he called the tallest flagpole in the world. I'm here to tell him that he is sorely mistaken.

Freedom Village (FV from now on) and Propaganda Village (PV) both had flagpoles to fly their respective flags. Then the folks at FV went and put a taller flagpole. Not to be outdone, PV went and erected a 160 meter flagpole.


All very silly. I guess North and South Korea are not immune from 'Keeping Up with the Joneses' syndrome.