Back to July 2001.
It's been quite a while since I wrote anything up here. Maybe I'll go back sometime and fill in the blanks, at least put up some photos. For now, suffice to say that I've been working 40+ hour weeks, consisting sometimes of 12-hour days -- I've lost some afternoon classes but have gained some preschool classes which we teach in the morning. Paperwork is the same worldwide, so I needn't go into that. I've lost (ie, got rid of to a new teacher) my silent 7.30pm class and have gained a more... enthusiastic set of kids at just a slightly lower level. Now to calm them down.... I've visited Seoul a pile of times, here and there.
I've also been going to church regularly. There are many churches here, as Christianity is a growing religion; certainly a dozen at least within walking distance of my apartment. (You can see the red neon crosses everywhere at night. You can also see neon swastikas: these stand for Buddhist temples, not Nazi hide-outs.) But instead of going to one of these churches -- even one of the ones with English facilities -- I've ended up becoming a regular of the church near my local friend's house. I leave about quarter past noon, take a bus to the subway, take a train, and take another shuttlebus, and get at the church in about an hour. I do my best to sing along with the words projected (in Korean of course) on a screen, and then my friend translates the sermon. Afterwards I go to Bible study -- I'm the only foreigner in the church, but a couple of people wanted to practise their English enough that they've found some materials for us to work with. After this -- generally around four thirty -- either I go home again (another hour in reverse) or I go out with them and other church friends for kimbap (rice and stuff rolled in seaweed) and dumplings.
Basically I've been keeping very, very busy....
My trip to the DMZ
I heard about this trip from my flatmate a couple of days ago; she was planning to go with a pile of the other teachers, but ended up staying at home. However, I got interested in the meantime. I've been meaning to get out of Puchon and Seoul a little...
We left Puchon at about 7.30am and took a taxi then the subway into Seoul; met the tour in the Seoul Plaza Hotel foyer. The bus trip was just an hour up to the DMZ. On the way up we could see barbed wire on the river banks in case any North Koreans try to use the river again to infiltrate the south. We could also see lots of soldiers and army trucks. We eventually got to the "Unification Bridge" where we had to show our passports before the bus could weave between obstacles designed to slow its progress into the DMZ.
We were warned not to take photos from this point, except at places where we'd be told it was okay. I considered this a great shame indeed, and needlessly overcautious (what on earth would North Korea do with my photo of the view into their territory from a random observatory?) but I didn't think it'd help to argue with the guns. So most of the photos I have are of parking lots:
(Right: The DORA observatory platform, from which (just imagine you can see through the building) we could look through the telescopes but take no photos. I was reassured that, if I accidentally forgot this mandate, one of the several military police among us would do his best to remind me. They also answered questions.)
In our first stop, the Anti-Communism Hall (actually just before DORA), we were met by a friendly ROK military police dude who took us through the museum with a pointer that he snapped to and from the pictures (photos of glorious heroes shedding their blood for their country) the way you always see stuffed-up generals do in the movies. I had to try very hard to keep the smirk off my face at this. He also encouraged us ("It's okay, we don't mind.") to step on the cartoon picture of the North Korean president on the floor. However no-one felt quite comfortable doing this, and we all skirted around it, to his amusement. Before leaving we watched a gorgeous piece of propaganda about the "Third infiltration tunnel".
On the next stretch of busride, it was pointed out to us that the barbed wire on the side of the road had signs on it warning of landmines in the beautiful forest.
DORA was a nice view. We could see a fake town the North Koreans have set up: it has apartment buildings and all, but apparently all the lights in them turn on and off at the same time. We could also see a black flagpole which is supposed to fly the North Korean flag (there was no wind so we couldn't see the flag itself) and a white one which flies the South Korean flag. I also saw two magpies.
Next we went to the famous 3rd infiltration tunnel. It seems that North Korea (and I quote from "Undermining Peace: North Korea's Infiltration Tunnels", a publication of the Korean Overseas Information Service) "has repeatedly mounted bogus peace offensives even while preparing for a reinvasion of the South". We spent a lot of time, on the bus, discussing what a 'peace offensive' might consist of. Basically, some North Korean dude defected and told the South that the North was constructing a bunch of tunnels through which they could invade the South at their convenience. South Korea discovered them in Nov '74, Mar '75, Oct '78, and Mar '90. There could well be more.
The third tunnel (discovered '78) was to exit at just 44 kilometres from Seoul, and would have five exits through which 30,000 troops and field artillery could come and take over the republic. We were allowed to take photos in front of it, but not in it. I guess the ROK forces figure that North Korea might have lost its tunnel-building technology, and don't want them to reverse-engineer it from photos posted on obscure websites.
We posed outside, then left our cameras with the tour guide and went in. The floor was lined with rubber, which was good because the roof was dripping at many points and the slope was about 15 degrees, IIRC. There were three rest points on the way down, not that we needed them. We did stop to drink out of the Unification Fountain, as one does. Then we went on to the point where the tunnel has been blocked off by barbed wire and a lot of concrete. We hung around for a bit, listening to someone explain about something; then she went back and we followed her. But we did pause a little on the realisation that we were all alone not very far indeed from a foreign country, and that this would make an excellent spy movie. Not being spy material, however, we went back up the tunnel. This time, we understood the point of the rest stops.
On reaching the top (legs and lungs aching) we staggered across the parking lot to buy souvenirs. I got a mask wall-hanging thingamy, a pin commemorating the 3rd tunnel, a DMZ t-shirt, and -- after a bit of inner debate -- a piece of the barbed wire fence "removed from the DMZ on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the Korean War with the dearest wish of Peace for Mankind." I knew it was a bargain because the Mayor of Paju City guarantees that this is the only one available in the world among a limited production of just 150,625 sets.
Our final stop was back outside the DMZ, so I could take photos freely. This place, Imgingak Park, is for families of those stuck in North Korea, so they can come here over Chusok (Korean Thanksgiving Day, during which one honours one's ancestors) to pray. (Korean nationals aren't allowed in the DMZ, only us tourists.) We were expecting to see shrines and such, so the amusement park aspect took us by surprise. But we were reassured. Firstly, by lunch (included in the price of the tour): that was good. Next, by wandering around. We laughed a little at the collection box for "North Korean people and starving children" in front of the memorial monument, but did put some money in. Wandered around the amusement park area, with its little train ride and big monuments and proud display of relics donated by the US during the Korean War. Then went back to walk on the Freedom Bridge (apparently so-named because a pile of prisoners of war were returned over it) up to the point where it connects to the main bridge, which is getting a railroad built on it that will be one step to uniting the two Koreas.
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| The short bit of Freedom Bridge we walked on, joining to the longer railroad bridge. Beneath the small bridge is a nice pond, then a tacky aqua pond, then you can see the memorial and as a white smudge, the collection box. | The requisite barbed wire and flags where the bridge tags onto the railroad. |
In defiance of all those stupid photo regulations, I then went up to the observatory and took a photo towards what may or may not be North Korean territory with the zoom cranked up as far as it will go. Unfortunately, it was quite hazy out there, but you can see a dark smudge in the middle that might be a guardpost of some sort:
At 2 o'clock, we went back to the bus and slept our way home. Or at least, back to the Seoul Plaza Hotel; back home required another subway ride and a bus ride, on neither of which I managed to get a seat. Ah well, it must be good exercise....
Forward to November 2001.
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