Crossing the Boarder to North Korea

When visiting South Korea, it is a must to visit the boarder to North Korea - also called Demilitarized Zone (DMZ). Despite its name it is the most heavily militarized border in the world. 

Even though it is still a war zone, tourist can visit the area with a guided tour and enter the Joint security areas (JSA) under military protection. It is crazy how many tourists actually go on these tours and visit the DMZ as if it's the Walk of fame or any other huge, peaceful tourist attraction. 

Our first big problem was the dress code (well my (Nina) problem!). South Korea has strict rules for the tourists that enter the JSA, your are not allowed to wear shorts, pants or tops. You have to dress nice so that North Korea won't get pictures of people walking around in sweatpants. Unfortunately I didn't have any good pants, so I had to wear my chill- Thailand pants. We were a little scared that they won't let us in, but it wasn't a problem at all! 

The tour started at 7:30 this morning and it took us about 1 hour to get to the boarder. US soldiers came into the bus to check our passports and gave us a briefing about the rules. Everyone had to sign a paper that we can die and are aware of the situation of entering a war zone.We were only allowed to take pictures of certain points and were not allowed to wave or point or make any expressions towards North Korean soldiers, who were observing everyone closely. Somewhere in North Korea there is a foto of us now! I found it very surprising that we weren't even allowed to take pictures of the South Korean side, such as the US army base and the buildings. 



The tour took about 2 hours and was very interesting. We got to cross the boarder of North Korea (when visiting the conference hall where they have meetings). Every step was followed by security camera of the north and south and the soldiers guiding us. It felt very weird. Soldiers who were on patrol had to stand in a fighting positing, ready to fight in case something would happen. So they stay there not moving at all for some hours - crazy. 

South Korean Soldier, just across the boarder of North Korea

Meetingroom right at the boarder

 

North Korean soldier spying on us

I think it's very strange to be in such a place in the world. A never ending fight between two (one) countries - both trying to be better than the other. We could see that the fields in North Korea were totally dead and that almost all of the trees near the boarder where cut down. The soldier said that it's because they are using all the wood for energy and will run short soon. We could also see the propaganda village set up by North Korea close to the boarder. The houses there are just a set up, with an automatic light system and not even floors or anything in them, windows were painted on! Crazy!