DMZ and North Korea

This spot marks the demilitarized zone - the DMZ.

It looks a bit like going into Disneyland, doesn't it? These days it's a tourist destination.

Still....

Because of the current tensions between North and South Korea, all tours actually going into North Korea have been canceled, but we took the tour that got us as far as we could go.

The picture above marks the spot where a tunnel built under the DMZ by North Koreans was discovered. You actually take a tram car ride underground and see parts of the tunnel.

At another spot, we were allowed to look over into North Korea (but not take pictures past the yellow line!)

Another part of the tour took us to the beautifully built but empty train station at the end of the South Korean line. A rail link between North and South Korea has been completed but currently no trains run. There are signs (literally!) of hope:

And here we are in Panmunjom (or the Joint Security Area) on the south side of the DMZ but looking over at the big gray building on the north side. It was here that the armistice ending the Korean War was signed in 1953.

Here I'm standing next to a South Korean UN soldier in that central blue building where talks, when there are any, still occur between the two sides.

South Korean President Lee Myung-Bak has just proposed that a reunification tax be levied on South Koreans in anticipation of reuniting the country one day. It is predicted that reunification will cost the more economically-robust South Koreans billions, maybe a trillion or more dollars. I spoke to South Koreans who are ambivalent about reunification, fearful of its economic impact.

Meanwhile, this tragi-comic place endures, off limits to Koreans themselves, but open to gawking tourists.