Part 5 GANGNAM Style: Visiting North & South Korea 2014
by John Sringer
Before we get to the intensity of the Joint Security Zone, some more humourous Engerish. Off Springs 2 and 3 outside the ‘Sodomy‘ restaurant or is it “Soda Me”? Then there’s Kolon Sport and the Gimpo Bridge.
North Korea sponsors about 9000 carefully managed tourists a year from the north side through China. To visit North Korea from the South side, the only way is at Panmunjeom via the Dorasan loop and Imjingak (see Part 3 & 4) facilities “on the road to Panmunjeom.” But to actually go in to North Korea other than through Tunnel 3 in the DMZ, you have to visit the Joint Security Area and Camp Boniface.
Here’s a map that helps get your head around the set up. We are in the DMZ that bisects North & South Korea along the 38th parallel. We’ve travelled by bus from Seoul to the Dorasan Observatory, Imjingak and through Tunnel 3 inside the DMZ.
Now we’re off to the Panmungak (complex) at Panmunjeom. There are lots of names, and it’s a bit bewildering how they all inter-relate.
New Zealand was a signatory and founding member of this initiative, so, like the UN, our flag flies onsite and we occassionally have personnel posted here as part of the joint initiative, ie, the West verse North Korea. NZ was of course active in the Korean war. Camp Boniface is the military base and its slogan is “In Front of them All.”
We pull in to the parking area of the Panmaungak. This is the Joint Duty Office (JDO) of the KPA/CPV in the JSA. The UN and military obviously love acronyms. We are taken into a briefing auditorium. There is a clunky propagandist short war movie that explains the essential facts, and then we are told, in no uncertain terms, that as we go into the JSA we must never point at the north side or the soldiers, be respectful, not make sudden movements, and stay strictly within the clearly designated areas.
At one point SkyGoddess is sternly told to stop gregarious gesticulation by HusbandOfAppropriateMoments (akaHeWhoMustBeObeyedThisOnce). A woman who wandered outside these areas was shot and killed by the North Koreans and there have been other incidents involving death. Soberly, we are then given this form to sign.
It’s not every day you waive responsibility for personal “injury or death“…as a result of a “hostile enemy act.” There are one or two spelling mistakes, which I circle before I sign.
We are escorted the whole time, and our guide is a delightful American Sgt from the midwest. He is armed, and answers all our appropriate questions. I have a long chat with him afterward about what its like working here. He briefs us that if we run towards North Korea, he will do his best to grab us and pull us back, but if we get across, we are on our own and will have to make the best life we can in North Korea.
We enter a polished marble hall and there are helmeted UNCSB-ROK soldiers stationed about in a Tae Kwon Do pose, fists clasped. They stand like this on four hour rosters and are immovable and impervious. They are armed; all we have are special red or blue plastic badges to allow us inside. I surmise blue is for wisdom, red is for ‘Gen Y. can I have some more money.’
Then we’re out onto a dais area where most people view North Korea across a short distance. Many famous people have some to this point, including the Clintons, Helmet Kohl, Margaret Thatcher, Barack Obama etc. We are allowed to take photos at certain points. I am on the left, and a bus passenger steps too far to the left and a Tae Kwon Do arm immediately flings out to create a rigid human barrier through which he cannot pass.
We get a few seconds each to take photos in front of the line. Its a scary place. You can see this from the expressions of the TwentySomethings who are kinda freaked out by Panmungak. I tell them their red badges are targets. Panmaungak is like a zoo and we’re looking at the North Koreans. Except they have guns and can shoot us. They watch us through binoculars. I wonder if they were befuddled by my Dr Who shirt?
Tomorrow: we cross the line.