Tours to the North Korean border are a magnet for curious tourists. Photo / Getty Images
Tours to the North Korean border are a magnet for curious tourists. Photo / Getty Images
Join an official border tour in South Korea for an otherwise impossible glimpse into North Korea, writes Julian Ryall.
As the man makes his way along the rutted track on the outskirts of the village of Kijong-dong, he has no idea that from a distance of around 4km on the other side of the border between North and South Korea, I am following his every step.
From behind a thick concrete wall daubed in different shades of camouflage green that protects, I monitor his progress through a huge pair of binoculars. There are slight ripples in the air due to the distance, but the man is wearing the baggy brown smock that seems to be the unofficial uniform of North Korea’s rural population.
Peeking into the North Korean village of Kijong-dong from South Korea. Photo / Getty Images
I swivel the binoculars across the rest of the model village of Kijong-dong, picking out people on bicycles, groups bent double as they tend the fields and children with red neckerchiefs. Continuing the arc, the lenses traverse the ribbon of land that has divided the Korean Peninsula since the three-year Korean War ended in stalemate in 1953 and come to a sudden halt at the 3m-high chain-link fence topped with razor wire that marks the South’s front line.
This 3km wide divide crosses 257km of the peninsula and is known as the Demilitarised Zone - arguably the most inappropriate title for a piece of land on the planet. This is the most heavily fortified border in the world, a place of minefields, sandbagged bunkers, tank traps and a large and very visible military presence. On both sides.
Given the frisson of danger that hangs heavily in the air and curiosity about an impoverished yet nuclear-armed nation ruled by a man who would not be out of place as the baddie in a James Bond movie, the place the troops call Freedom’s Frontier is also a magnet for tourists.
It’s not possible to travel independently to the DMZ and anyone wanting to get up close to North Korea will need to sign up for a tour in Seoul. Tours often start at the Dora Observatory, which is built atop a low hill around 90km north of the South Korean capital.
Tours to the the Demilitarised Zone start from Dora Observatory in South Korea. Photo / Getty Images
The next stop will be an invasion tunnel that was being excavated by North Korean sappers beneath the DMZ. Designed to enable a full division of troops to infiltrate beyond the mines and barbed wire on the surface, the tunnel was revealed by a defector in October 1978. To date, four such tunnels have been discovered, with the North protesting each time that they were merely coal mines that had gone off track.
Visitors can descend the 75m intercept tunnel bored by the South Korean military, who found that the North Korean miners had already fled what is now known as The Third Tunnel of Aggression. Nearly half a kilometre inside South Korean territory, spotlights pick out where the North Koreans had drilled into the rock face in preparation for the next round of blasting.
Walk towards the North until one border reaches another, marked by a thick concrete block with just a narrow slit offering a view into the blackness beyond.
After a brief stop at Freedom Bridge, where prisoners were exchanged after the armistice was signed in 1953, the tour reaches the very spot where North meets South. And the tensions are highest.
Prisoners North and South Korea were exchanged at Freedom Bridge in 1953.
Photo / Getty Images
The Joint Security Zone is at the village of Panmunjom, where the armistice was agreed in 1953, and all visitors here are in the hands of stern-faced soldiers. They will deliver a clear and concise explanation of what not to do, with the most important instruction being not to provoke the North Korean guards who are just a few paces away.
This is not hyperbole. The Joint Security Zone has been the scene of a number of clashes in the past.
Three blue huts sit astride the frontier and have been the venue for periodic talks between the two sides, although attempts at detente have faded in recent years. Nevertheless, visitors can enter the huts and even go beyond the negotiating table to the North Korean side of the room.
Three blue huts sit astride the frontier between North and South Korea. Photo / Getty Images
On the return journey, the bus passes the Bridge of No Return, where North Korean prisoners of war were given one final chance to remain in the South before being repatriated.
In addition to the organised tours, the South Korean Government has in recent years set up a series of 11 hiking trails across the peninsula. The most recent track opened in April this year.
The first routes, at Paju, Goseong and Cheorwon, were opened in April 2019, but the pandemic put the project on hold. The aim is to link the east and west coasts of the peninsula with walking trails, although the instructions on what to do and what not to do are as exacting as at the Joint Security Zone.
Hikers are told not to touch the tall metal fences as they are alarmed and will trigger an aggressive response from nearby South Korean units, while photography is also restricted. Most importantly, hikers are told to pay special attention to any areas marked with a red metal sign, a skull-and-crossbones image and the single word “mine.” For obvious reasons.
