I had made my way to Seoul yesterday from Sokcho. I have a full day here which I’d fill with an excursion to the border or Demilitarised Zone (DMZ).
I couldn’t have picked a worse day to do an excursion. The rain was relentless and the wind had picked up a little due to a typhoon coming in from the Philippines. Visibility was also poor.
The standard Panmunjom tour of the DMZ (visiting the meeting buildings) isn’t available for the days that I’m in Seoul (it doesn’t run daily and besides, some nationalities have to apply at least one week in advance for security checks).
So instead I did the 3rd Tunnel tour. This refers to the third out of four known tunnels dug by the North Koreans to infiltrate into the South.
This tunnel is less than one hour’s drive from Seoul and was discovered in 1978. At the time of discovery, it hadn’t been completed. The discovery by the South was by way of an intercept tunnel based on information given by a defector from the North. The distance on the South side of the DMZ is about 435m, relatively short compared to the total 1.6km dug so far.
The tunnel is about 1.95m high, 1.7m wide and runs at a depth of about 73m underground. Unfortunately photos were not permitted for the best part of the tour, including the tunnel and views into North Korea.
The tour also included:
- Imjingak and the Freedom Bridge where prisoner exchanges were carried out after the war.
- Dora Observatory where one could look into North Korea (including Gaesung City, an industrial city built and managed by the South but staffed by cheap labour from the North).
- Dorasan Sation, a railway station built in 2000 in anticipation (or hope) of unification. No train services run across the border yet but everything seems ready … customs, immigration, quarantine, freight distribution centres, tollgates for the expressway!
It was a very interesting day with very good insights given by a highly knowlegeable guide. Unlike the more common Panmunjom tour, one cannot claim to have crossed into the North Korean side though!
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- Freedom bridge at Imjingak where prisoners were exchanged.
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- A Korean take on “tie a yellow ribbon” at Imjingak. These are for lost relatives on the other side of the border.
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- Hopefully services will commence to Pyongyang but I can’t imagine it happening soon.
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- At Dorasan station with the soldiers.
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- Dorasan station … not just the last station in the South but the first one taking you into the North.
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- All the facilities are at Dorasan … customs, immigration, quarantine, freight distribution, tollgates for cars etc
