dmz debrief

Saturday last, my fellow ETAs and I went to the demilitarized zone between North and South Korea (a 2.5 mile-wide stretch of land separating the two countries). We began our tour by driving to the Joint Security Area (JSA), a place along the demarcation line (the actual border between the two countries) where North and South Korea can hold conferences and negotiations. During the tour at the JSA, I stood looking at North Korean warriors across the border and they gazed back through binoculars. Following the JSA, we went to the third tunnel of aggression. Four underground tunnels have been discovered for North Koreans to move soldiers into South Korea. This tunnel was discovered in the 1980s. When it was discovered, North Koreans claimed that was built from the south (the dynamite blasts prove otherwise) and then said that they were digging for coal (after coloring the inside of the tunnel black). Some think that there could be twenty other tunnels from the north. The final stop that we made on our tour was at a train station built to head into North Korea in the hopes of reunification of the two countries. Throughout the day I gained a new sense of reality of the war between these two countries. I saw armed soldiers standing face to face. I start to wonder: Where is the possibility of peace? Are there any solutions? I think that is the most difficult aspect of this situation. There do not appear to be any concrete solutions, only an interminable stalemate.

look at the man on the steps with the binoculars

 this was our tour guide/military escort