There were so many interesting sights to see in Korea but I knew there was one place that I absolutely had to visit: the DMZ. I had to go both as research for the new romantic suspense book and also because of the uniqueness of the area. I never imagined that it would impact me as emotionally as it did as our tour guide explained about the division of the Korean peninsula and the families who could never return home or see and speak to loved ones who remained trapped in North Korea. It hit me because of the similarity to my family’s story of escape and exile from Cuba. As you see the photos in the video, you’ll notice a stone monument that is actually a temple at the site of the DMZ where older Koreans visit and mourn the hometowns and people they can no longer visit. But more on that later.
We started the tour by having to turn over our passports for inspection by the guards at the entrance to the DMZ. They were given a list with our names and the passports were checked against the list when we entered and also when we left since the area is actually a military area and heavily guarded. Our bus had to pass not only the security gate, but there were also barricades blocking the road, and we had to zig-zag around to reach the tourist areas.
Once we arrived, we walked to the closest spot to what is known as the Civilian Control Zone. This is a buffer zone around the actual DMZ and it is patrolled by the military. We were prohibited from taking pictures of that area and many others for security reasons. The few things we could photograph were a rusting and bullet-ridden hulk of one of the last trains to leave North Korea, a fence festooned with ribbons with wishes and hope for those left behind in North Korea, and a bridge that was used for prisoner exchanges at the end of the war. The bridge was called the Bridge of No Return since any prisoners who were returned to North Korea would never see South Korea again.
The bridge also leads to the Joint Security Area where North and South Korean soldiers face each other across a short distance and guard various buildings where diplomatic meetings are held.
After that, we did a short walk to an observation tower that let us see across the Civilian Control Zone and into the actual DMZ and North Korea. Our tour guide even pointed out areas where it was possible to see the North Korean guards patrolling. Kind of crazy to think North Korea was right there but out of reach.
Next up on the tour was a visit to one of the tunnels that North Korea had built to try and infiltrate South Korea. South Korea has actually found four such tunnels built since the ceasefire between the two countries and has created interceptor tunnels to stop the infiltration. It is believed there may be many more such tunnels and South Korea continues to look for them.
We were able to walk down the interceptor tunnel, but we were not able to take pictures or video as the tunnel is a military facility and guarded by the South Koreans. The tunnel was so long and steep that we only went part of the way down as it was getting a little claustrophobic and we were worried about making it back up the intense incline.
You might be wondering if we weren’t ready to leave the DMZ already! Well, there was one last thing to do: take the gondola ride over the Civilian Control Zone and into an area surrounded by land mines. Yes, land mines. Both sides placed land mines in the area to protect their borders and some say it could be as many as 2 million land mines. In recent years, North and South Korea have started to remove the landmines, but it is uncertain whether they’ll be able to clear all of them. That’s why there are bright red and yellow warning signs in various areas to tell visitors of the risks of the land mines. The area surrounding the gondola is one of the areas cleared.
It was amazing to see the area from the gondola ride. We even saw one of the South Korean guard posts as well as a bridge that was once used for rail service between the two Koreas. The area in the Civilian Control Zone and by the Han River is used primarily to grow rice and since the area is overseen by the UN which has stringent standards about fertilizers, etc. the rice is prized for being so organic and it is available for purchase only by those visiting the DMZ.
Touching down from the gondola ride, it was finally time to head back to Seoul which was only about an hour away from the DMZ. During the ride, I reflected again on the pain of the Korean people who had to leave their homes and even their families to be free of the communists who had taken over North Korea. It was much like what my family had to do when Castro came to power in Cuba. My heart knew their pain because it was so similar to my pain. It’s a pain I wrote about in The Family She Never Met which has quite a few of my family’s real-life stories about our experience in leaving Cuba and coming to the United States.
I feel for those people and much as I hope I will one day be able to visit Cuba, I hope that they will be able to return to see their towns and the family and friends they had to leave behind.