DEMILITARIZED ZONE - DMZ

The DMZ was created in Panmunjeon with the agreement of the armistice between the two Koreas on 27 July 1953. It is a strip of land of 4 km by 250 that separates North Korea from the South, and was said to be demilitarized but it is not the case. The number of soldiers monitoring the border is estimated at more than one 1 200 000:700 000 North Koreans and 400 000 South Koreans and Americans. There is also a million mines that are buried there. A single passage is officially opened: the common security zone which is monitored without interruption is the only place that can be visited by tourists. Tunnels (at least four) were dug by the North Korean military at different locations across the border: one of them was even used for an operation to assassinate the South Korean head of State Park without success.

Get into the park through a centre where there is a small shop with a large selection of propaganda paintings and beverages, such as Coca-Colahat was directly imported from China. Once the program of the visit is explained by a military, you will set on a road that is lined with huge blocks of concretes that are there to drop on the track and prevent the advance of military tanks coming from the South. No photo is allowed on this first portion of the road. On the way, the vehicles will drive along a bridge, the "bridge of non-return" so named because it is on this work that the prisoners of each regime were exchanged after the signing of the Armistice, but also that crossed by those deliberately choosing to be exiled to the North. It is not possible to go back.

The course is always the same: after the visit of the peace Museum, one goes to a large stele which promotes peace and where the signature of Kim Jong-UN is reproduced. Then you will go upstairs to a large building of modern Soviet style "Freedom House". It is from the balcony that you will discover the real border. Opposite, the "home of freedom" built by the South Koreans and the Americans, and midway between the small white and blue huts, each with a door facing north and South side. Here again, photos are allowed and are even encouraged. The guards even agree to make selfies with the tourists! Those who have an international SIM card may have the chance to capture the South Korean telephone network and send a few messages. The guards won’t be angry about that but still, you need to remain discreet as North Koreans also visit this place. In the distance floats a gigantic South Korean flag, you cannot always see it from the balcony but it is the fourth largest flag in the world.

The visit continues in one of these small houses, the only place where one can be a foot in North Korea and another in South Korea. It is only possible to visit these small huts by visiting the DMZ from the North. It is easy to visualize the exact location of the boundary that was fixed by the agreement of 1953: outside, it is represented by a wall of a few centimetres high and inside by microphones cables that are on a table in the centre of the room. It is obviously impossible to come out from the South side. The room is decorated with the emblems of North Korea and flags of the allied powers of Americans in the Korean War and its aftermath.