Our bright young guide delights in telling us that North Korea’s supreme leader Kim Jong Un is my height — 1.6m — but at 130kg weighs more than twice as much as I do.
How he got that information, given how little is known about Kim, is a mystery. So too is his assertion that the dictator has had plastic surgery on his neck to replicate the bulge seen on photos of his grandfather, Kim Il Sung, North Korea’s leader from 1948 until 1994.
True or not, the stories keep our busload of tourists entertained on the trip from the South Korean capital, Seoul, to the country’s top tourist attraction, the demilitarised zone (DMZ).
It is 80 years since the world’s longest ceasefire began, an armistice declared after three years of fighting between North and South Korea. A military demarcation line (MDL) marks the land border between the two countries, while the DMZ straddles the line.
About 4km wide, the DMZ is 240km long, running roughly along the 38th parallel north.
Soldiers from both sides may patrol inside the DMZ, but they may not cross the demarcation line. However, armed South Korean soldiers patrol under the aegis of military police.
Bizarrely, 450 farmers are still living in the South Korean part of the DMZ, enduring a long-established night curfew for the sake of high incomes. They grow mainly rice — South Korea produces about 90% of its own needs — and the extremely lucrative ginseng. If they leave the area permanently, residents are not permitted to return, their land passing to family members or, if none, to the government.
Among the wartime relics is a rusty railway engine.
Riddled with more than 1000 bullet holes, it was left in the DMZ after being bombed and derailed.
It carried people to the south but many perished, bodies flung from the roof of carriages as the train travelled through hostile fire.
After that war, many remained trapped in the north by the Korean conflict, unable to return home and thus doubly victimised.
There’s time for a snack before we head on, so I try chilled barley tea, said to prevent heart disease, cancer and a raft of other diseases.
I doubt one bottle of the slightly bitter brew will help me much, though.
I team my drink with a thing a bit like a crab stick but made with octopus, surprisingly tasty and inexpensive.
To get into the DMZ, you must show your passport and be ticked off the list of coach passengers by a pair of South Korean soldiers, usually young men undergoing their 18-21 months of compulsory national service. Women are not compelled to do so, but may volunteer, unlike their northern counterparts who, we are told, are required to serve seven or eight years. Men are even worse off, forced into military service for 10 to 12 years.
Even though it is so long since fighting ceased, there are still 28,000 American troops in South Korea. By comparison, 6000 New Zealanders served in Korea between 1950 and 1957, 45 dying in service there.
Binoculars help get a close-up view, not that there’s much to see, mainly farmland and what the North Koreans claim is the world’s tallest flagpole.
Before that, we see a pro-United States war commentary, including an American-voiced documentary about the DMZ.
I’m a bit confused to learn it is an important wildlife sanctuary, given the numbers of armed soldiers I’ve seen. If the stories about how little food the North’s soldiers get are true, surely they’d be slaughtering the wildlife.
The highlight for many of our group is going down into the Third Infiltration Tunnel, purportedly cut by North Koreans planning to invade the South. Running almost 0.5km into South Korea, the tunnel was discovered in 1978.
Access is down a sloping visitor tunnel and before entering, everyone is issued with a hard hat. No photos are allowed, which seems daft, as the tunnel isn’t exactly dripping with military paraphernalia and I had to look several times to be sure the two bored soldiers were real and not waxworks shipped in from Madame Tussauds.
Although very slick and tourist-oriented, the DMZ is well worth a day visit from Seoul, 56km south.
Getting there
Independent travel to the demilitarised zone (DMZ) is not permitted and there is a limit of 50 buses a day from Seoul to the DMZ, so it pays to book ahead. Expect to pay $70-$120.
The journey takes about an hour, depending on traffic. Most companies advertise pickups from central hotels but, in practice, limit that to two or three locations. Travellers therefore have to make their own way to Hongik University or City Hall underground station for pickup. Fortunately, Seoul’s underground is simple to use, with signs in English as well as Korean. Buy a travel card at a convenience store such as 7-Eleven and top it up at any station; it is a great way to get around the city.
There was a train service to the DMZ but it was suspended during Covid and has not resumed.
