We went to the Joint Security Area where they hold discussions between the two countries. We went to the third tunnel where North Korea dug a hole into South Korea. Its 150m deep and about 1600m long. Fairly impressive. We also went to an observatory where we could look into North Korea, into "Propaghanda Village" as it is named by southern forces. Ironically naming the village propaganda is a form of propaganda itself. Interesting point: The flag that you see flying in this picture weighs 600 pounds when dry (its huge), it was a windy day on saturday.
The JSA was the most interesting place. After signing a contract that we would not make any type of gesture whatsoever to the north koreans, we saw the buildings where they meet for military talks. So technically we got to enter North Korea because when we went inside the building we crossed over the border. After observing a number of soldiers I was impelled to ask our soldier tour guide "If this is a demilitarized zone, why is it so militarized?" I felt that demilitarized would mean lack of soldiers with guns, lack of guard towers, etc. The soldier responded with, "To tell you the truth man, I dont have an answer for that. Its really one of the most heavily miiltarized zones in the world." This is one of the building we entered. Here is a South Korean soldier closest in the picture. They stand half of their bodies exposed to look and half of their bodies covered by the building in case they are shot upon.
Another interesting thing is that in the pictures below you can see that all the mountains are bare. I was skeptical of this at first when I first heard about this, was that the mountains in North Korea are bare because they cut down all the trees for fire wood and did not replace them. Every mountain i saw was bare. It might be difficult to see from these pictures, but its true.
Thats it.
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