USO DMZ Tour

I was told by many that the USO tour of the DMZ is the best, yet I don’t think I know anyone who went on another tour…

Anyway, you leave Seoul at 7:30, so you should get there between 7:00-7:15 for check-in.

Next you take a bus to Camp Bonifas which is the start of the JSA. There is a video presentation which gives you the history of the Korean War and DMZ. Below is the history with my photos from the tour.

By September 15 1950 future-North-Korea had pushed future-South-Korea to Busan, which was when future-South-Korea received support and pushed future-North-Korea to the Yalu River which was when China joined in and pushed back future-South-Korea to the International Cease-Fire Line on the 27th of July 1953. The JSA was established in 1952. The Military Demarcation Line (MDL) is the actual boarder, but the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) is for 2 kilometers in both directions (north and south).

Within the DMZ there are two villages: Taesongdong (Freedom Village) for the South and Gijungdong (Propaganda Village) for the North. Taesongdong has a population of about 200 and the people who live there grow rice, don’t pay taxes and the men don’t have to do military service (but many do out of honor). Gijungdong does not have a full time population, but the military has seen people come in for repairs. South Korea gave Taesongdong a 100 meter tall flagpole as a gift, so North Korea gave Gijungdong a 160 meter flagpole to compete and say they are better. We drove past Taesongdong (you need approval to go in) and could see Gijungdong from one of the Checkpoints.

There is a Neutral Nations Supervisory Commission (NNSC) which has the Czech Republic, Poland, Switzerland and Sweden involved. After the collapse of the USSR and many changes in the Czech Republic and Poland, North Korea lost confidence in the NNSC. Also, the Czech Republic left 100% and Poland left 50% (meaning they show up sometimes). We did not visit this.

The Bridge of No Return is where POWs were returned at the end of the war. People were given the choice of which side to go to: say where they were or go to the other side. Whatever they chose the must stick with, as there is no going back. the UN returned 82,471 people and North Korea returned 12, 457 people.

In 1976 the Axe Murder Incident happened. This was because of a UN Checkpoint (near a bridge toward South Korea) that was surrounded by 3 North Korean Checkpoints and could not be seen by the next nearest UN Checkpoint because of a tree grove. Many UN forces showed up to chop down trees, but there were also many NK forces and the NK soldiers killed many of the UN soldiers. Later, a huge troop came to cut down all the trees, and now the further Checkpoint is not used because everything can be seen from the first one. At the National Museum of Korea there is a diorama of this. Currently, there is a memorial stone there.

In 1984 there was a Soviet tour and one person decided to try to run across to the Southern side of the JSA. Soldiers from both sides jumped into action and many died but the Soviet defector lived and was no longer living the USSR.

After the presentation, we went to the Freedom House and were able to take pictures outside. The Freedom House was built by South Korea as a place for South Korean and North Korean families to meet if they were separated by the war. However, North Korea has not ever allowed this to happen. There is a North Korean building called the recreation building, which has nothing inside but cots and is where NK soldiers say if there is a meeting inside the Freedom House. They make rude gestures at the South Korean and American soldiers. They have named it the Monkey House.

Below you can see the set up of the view from the back of the Freedom House. The middle building is the MAC building, which is having construction done so we could not go inside. The soldiers dressed in dark colors facing one another are North Korean, and they do that so they do not defect. The one facing the MAC building is doing so to stop people who try to run over before they reach the two watching one another. If there is no tour they go inside. They are all trained in Tae-kwon-do and have weapons. The soldiers facing them in gray uniforms are South Korean soldiers, as are those in the camouflage. 96% of the UN soldiers are South Korean.

After the presentation and tour we left the JSA and saw more of the DMZ.

Next we went to an observation point, where you could not see much because it was gray. There was another video presentation which didn’t tell us anything new (at least I don’t think so, many people from other tours were talking).

Next we went to the 3rd Tunnel. There was supposed to be a video presentation there but the line was too long–kind of annoying after paying so much (we pay more than the other groups). The tunnel was okay….dark and wet inside so I can’t imagine many soldiers actually would go though it and be able to fight once they got though. After a 358 meter walk down to the tunnel, 265 meter walk in the tunnel we got to the 3rd blockade where you can see though a hole to the 2nd blockade. It used to be manned but now CCTV watches it. There is a water tank between the 3rd and 2nd blockade which, if the 2nd blockade is broken, will break and allow the water to flow downhill. Between the 1st blockade and 2nd blockade is concrete. It is 73 meters underground and 1635 meters long. There are 20 tunnels total, but only 4 have been found. The 3rd is the most dangerous.

Next we went to Dorasan Station which is supposed to be the Starting Point of the Transcontinental Railroad. This would have been put into use on June 14 2003, but never has been. It is 56 kilometers from Seoul and 205 kilometers from Pyeongyang. Once the Trans Korea Railway extends to the Trans Siberian Railway and the Trans Chinese Railway South Korea plans to emerge as a distribution hub of Northeast Asia. This way to North Korea!

UN Memorial Cemetery

Behind the Busan Museum is the UN Memorial Cemetery. It is a very solemn place, as to be expected. You are greeted by UN guards who will ask where you are from (the UN keeps track of what countries citizens visit, I guess) and then salute you. There are a lot of things you cannot do in the park, including run:

The plans (and overall design) are really beautiful.

The part that I always find most moving of any war cemetery is the part for the unknown soldiers. There are two parts for them in the UN Memorial Cemetery.

The Wall of Remembrance is filled with names, and the largest part is for America. This is just the start of it. In the reflection you can see the pool-like area that has a helmet in the middle and a flower at the edge (allegedly, I did not really see either).

Busan Museum

Currently, and until January 27th, there is an exhibition called Emperors in Istanbul at the Busan Museum. It costs 10,000KRW and you are not allowed to take photos. Usually when I’m told that I take them anyway–I paid, so, yeah–but the lighting was really dark so any photo would have come out bad unless I used a flash which would have been obvious and that picture would have probably come out looking flat.

Anyway, whats in the exhibit you may ask?

Coins and Medallions from all different rulers with their faces on them.

Some amazing drawings of the different empires and attacks.

Statues of Nike (pretty disappointing, actually) and men with snake legs (never even heard of that before!)

A mirror with a handle that looks like a gold branch which I thought was pretty amazing.

A lot of candle holders including one that was about the size of me! (5ft 2in)

Beautiful turban headpieces that looked like something out of Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom

A beautiful Koran chest

And a glass chess set–I don’t play chess but I’d be willing to learn if someone gave me a set as beautiful as that one.

 

After the Istanbul exhibition, I went upstairs to the regular part of the Museum, which starts with History of Korea-Japan relations, which has never been good…Then was the Living Culture Gallery, the Folklore of Busan Gallery, Modern Busan, and Contemporary Busan. This is all in the second building. I never went upstairs in the first building because you are kind-of pushed from the front desk where you buy the ticket straight to the Istanbul part and I didn’t know there was anything upstairs (or that there even was an upstairs) in the first building. Oh well, maybe next time I go I won’t be told 3 times where to go because, apparently, stopping to look at something in a museum means you are lost (I wasn’t the security guard was just pushy).

Here is the first part of History of Korea-Japan relations. I loved the paintings of the time period, including the one below of an attack. I believe it was called ‘Defense of Busanjin somethingsomethingsomething’ because there were 2-3 paintings that started with the same ‘Defense of Busanjin’ part.

This last photo is a massive scroll, showing the Procession of a Korean Mission.

Next was Living Culture Gallery, which is small and had a warning sign of ‘This smell comes from Korean traditional straw thatched houses’. It did smell a bit odd in that room, but not odd enough for me to be bothered to ask someone downstairs at information about it, but I guess they had enough complaints. I always love this part of museums, because a lot of work goes into making them. The second photo I liked because of his shoes.

Folklore of Busan would have been more interesting if a kid did not change the video I was trying to watch. There were 9-16 videos you could put on in a large room, I put on 2 and sat down, and a kid ran up and started slamming all the buttons. Oh well. There were nice dioramas there as well.

The next part was called Modern Busan, and mostly was about Busan during the Japanese Occupation. The picture explains why it is important to give up food for Japan. There was a video room titles ‘Education of Japanese Colonial Rule’, but since I did not understand what the video was saying, and the ‘teacher’ was just holding a stick while students looked sad it did not look to different from what my students tell me school is like now.

I’m not sure where the Contemporary Busan part started, but there was a sign saying:

Meanwhile the photographs which had been thought to be made by attaching dried bodies on the paper, started to be popularized by degrees thanks to family photos for Koreans who give a high value on a familial solidarity.

I thought this next photo was pretty interesting in what it says about school during the Korean war. After that is a photo of a sign saying that Korea should be united.

I learned something today too from this sign:

As Seoul was retaken on September 28, 1950, the Korean government felt it was the best chance to achieve the unification, so insisted on advancing northward. The UN and South Korean forces crossed the 28th parallel, took Pyeong-yang on October 19, and advanced northward to reach the vicinity of the Amnokgang (Yalu River). When the UN forces reached the Korean-Chinese border, the Chinese forces intervened in the war. Then the situation reversed and the UN forces retreated to the 38th parallel, around which the two opposing forces mingled with each other.

I feel like this implies that if Korea had stopped short of the Chinese border then Korea would be unified. After this there was a sign calling the Korean War ‘The Unfinished War’, which sounds really accurate.

Seoul Museum of History

This museum let me know that I don’t care too much for the dynasty era of Korean history. I tried reading the information but I would get bored less than halfway though reading the sign. That being said, there were some beautiful things throughout the museum.

On the bottom floor there are two exhibition halls, among other things (restaurant, information, gift shop, etc) and the rest of the museum is on the 2nd floor (realistically its the 3rd floor but visitors cannot go anywhere on the 2nd floor).

I first went to the right and there were exhibitions on Jeongdong: a Strange Coexistence and the Universal Exposition of Paris 1900: the Daehan Empire Met the World. The Paris one confused me at first because the sub-heading was not there so I expected some French art…not so much though, it was Korean stuff that was sent to Paris to show the world what Korea was like before 1900.

Below are pictures from Jeongdong: a Strange Coexistence was about the changing times from traditional to Western, which is exemplified in the second picture, of the modern man and the bike. The first picture is of Seoul at the time of 1899.

In the Universal Exposition of Paris 1900: the Daehan Empire Met the World there were many things from the time before 1900 (as the exopsition was in 1900) including the walls that Koreans would put up between rooms and instruments. There were also the chairs that kings were carried on, fans, chairs, pots and drums.

On the floor with the exhibitions, it starts in Zone 1 of Seoul of the Joseon Dynasty, then Zone 2 of The Capital of the Daehan Empire, Zone 3 of Seoul under Japanese Control, and ends with Zone 4 of Development of Seoul.  However, at the top of the stairs there is the Seoul Panoramic Theater, which has a mini-model of Seoul in it. It’s actually called ‘SEOUL: Now and in the Making’ which I thought was a great title for a city display. Very difficult to get pictures of without a tripod because of how bright it is. As I was looking a kid walked in and just went ‘WOAH’ and went all fours and stared down at what he had been standing on as his father and myself laughed.

What I enjoyed in Zone 1 were the models of the city, or models of how life used to be.

Zone 2 is the smallest of the zones and displays the start of modernization/Westernization. One thing that was prevalent was the numbers of foreigners, specifically Japanese,  was increasing–as you can see in the first picture–which lead to Zone 3 quite well. On the floor in one of the three rooms was a map of the Seoul that was before occupation. The final room had a photo show going on with descriptions of the photos. The ones I thought were most interesting were:

• 1907: Report on the national debt redemption movement, the Daehan Maeil Sinmun (Newspaper) and the Hwangseong Sinmun (Newspaper)
• 1907: Japanese army soldiers march in downtown Seoul when Emperor Gojong was forced to abdicate
• 1907: forced abdication of Emperor Gojong and enthronement of Emperor Sunjong
• 1907: Parade of Emperor Sunjong after ascending the throne
• 1097: Uprising of loyal army soldiers
• executing loyal army soldiers
• 1910: Japanese annexation of Korea

Zone 3 had more models, but this time displaying the way things were changing in specific areas, such as Cafes, Barber shops and Billiard Halls. There was also a lot of writing about the changes in culture and how things were under Japanese occupation. Department stores were created, people started to read more as it was a good way to find out about rebellion and young people who dressed in modern styles were basically saying ‘everything you wear is terrible, look at all the money I have, I am better than you because I dress like a Westerner’. At this time World War 2 was going on and Korea had to fly the Japanese flag.

Zone 4 starts with a short sum up of Liberation, US Occupation, and the War. There is a whole museum about the Korean War, so I think they skip over it here because there is no point in going over all the information twice. After that there is information about Seoul growing and expanding in number of people but not size, which lead to overcrowding, bad sewage, shanty towns (and fires in them) and food shortages. This lead into the dictatorship which lead to a lot of construction and helped Seoul become a booming city and Korea a booming country. After that it seemed like the museum skipped a bit, showed a 1970s dress and went to the Olympics, which was a massive deal for Korea to hold, less than 50 years after the Korean War.

Back to the ground floor, there is the Cartographic Achievements of Joseon, which are maps that were collected by a private collector and loaned to the museum for display.

Taejongdae

Came here for a cool brisk hike on December 8th, the day after it snowed in Busan (which never happens, right?) which was really nice. Clear blue skies with a bit of wind so you need to wear gloves, but there are some more intense walking parts so the hat and scarf might come off. You can take a a train all the way or walk, but why take a train and miss out on some of the cool things or view points? I could see the people on the train looking longingly as I was at the first view point, sad that they were not stopping for it.

It is a beautiful walk as well, even when its cold out with the foliage.

At the lookout where the train stops the first time there is an interesting Western looking man trying to sell you a burger. There is some Korean food and other fast food as well, but the main point is this lookout! You can see the Japanese Island of Tsushima, but that didn’t show up to well in the photos.

But here is the actual lookout with the weird arch thingy.

After walking quite a bit more in the loop around (not going back) there is a monument.

This monument is dedicated in consecration of the old camp site of Young-Do-Group (Oct 1950-Dec 1952), composed of the young anti-communists from three north Eastern-Sea provinces. Equipped in tactics of guerrilla warfare, they were launched deep into the hostile territories, inflicting heavy damage on North Korean army installations and facilities.

Because every forest needs fake tree stumps.