A guided tour of “the most dangerous border in the world”

The Korean demilitarized zone (commonly referred to as the DMZ) is a strip of land that extends across the Korean Peninsula dividing North Korea and South Korea. As a whole, a demilitarized zone is an area that cannot be used for any military purposes by each party in an armed conflict.

Also, you can only go to the DMZ on a guided tour, which you have to book in advance (merely a day in advance is good, so do not worry about needing to book far in advance). I booked my tour through the owner of the hostel that I stayed at in Seoul, but you can definitely find tour groups online and book a tour that way too.

I saw North Korea from the Dora Observatory, an observation deck on Dorasan (Mount Dora) that allows you to see the country from afar.

One thing I did not know is that there is a new Dora Observatory and an old one. Prior to the tour, I thought that the old one was still the only one that existed, but our tour guide explained that there was a new one created in 2018. In the new building, there is some insight into the DMZ, and before we went to the observation deck to look at North Korea, our tour guide showed us a video of things that you can see when you’re looking at North Korea from afar so that we could be aware of some sights to look at once we were actually at the observation deck.

Also, this is an interesting piece of information that can be seen on the wall inside of the first floor of the observatory. The time zones between Pyongyang, North Korea and Seoul, South Korea were differed by a half hour. But during the Inter-Korean summit on April 27, 2018, North Korea adjusted their time zone to match South Korea’s, breaking the time difference.

It’s hard to see them in this picture, but there is a South Korean flag farther to the right, and to the left of that one, there is the North Korean flag; some of the land you can see from the observatory is South Korea’s, so it’s not just entirely North Korea that you’re looking at (hence the flags). What you see in the distance (like the mountains and city to the left) is North Korea. Nonetheless, most of what you’re looking at at the observation deck is North Korean land.

Speaking of that city, here is a more zoomed in shot of it. This city is called Kaesong and it is the southernmost major city in North Korea. With its close proximity to the border of the two Korea’s, Kaesong has been the host of economic affairs between the two countries.

At the observatory, there are plenty of tower viewer’s that you can look through to see closer glimpses of North Korea. A tower viewer is a binocular stand that is permanently planted into the ground; sometimes, you have to put coins in them to use them. They were definitely entertaining to use for looking at North Korea. We were told that you can even see people driving and/or walking in North Korea, but when I was looking through the binoculars, I did not see any human activity of any sort.

More specifically, this is what the setup of the observation deck at Dora Observatory looks like. The new observatory is very clean and there was adequate space to walk around and look out. Plus, the guide gave us a good amount of time up there. She even took people’s pictures for them; posing for a picture with North Korea in the background is certainly not an everyday kind of photograph!

Also, I got to walk down into the 3rd Tunnel, one of the underground tunnels that was built by North Korea for the sake of southward invasion. However, South Korea discovered it in 1978, initially from hearing underground explosions, so it was never completed. Now, walking down it yourself is a part of a DMZ tour.

Interestingly, to get to the incomplete tunnel that North Korea was in the middle of building, you first have to walk down a massive intercept tunnel that was made by South Korea. This tunnel is actually how South Korea military confirmed that there was in fact a North Korean tunnel secretly being built in the first place.

Overall, between walking down the intercept tunnel made by the South Korean’s and then walking all the way to the end of the incomplete tunnel made by the North Korean’s, it is a very far journey underground. It is not a short trip and takes a good amount of time to get to the end! Needless to say, it’s not suitable for the claustrophobic either, as it is a tight squeeze under there. At the end of the 3rd Tunnel, there are three concrete barricades that act as blockers for the Military Demarcation Line, which is the land border between North and South Korea. No photograph’s are allowed either, and you leave your belongings in a locker in the lobby of the 3rd Tunnel building.

Behind the 3rd Tunnel building, there is a nice area you can walk around at. Nobody else from our tour group even went over here, so it seemed like it was a hidden gem of an area.

Right next to the DMZ museum, there is a statue known as the peace monument, a sentimental, hopeful work that depicts the two Korea’s one day uniting as a single country.

Thanks to the tour guide we had, I learned a lot that I didn’t know prior to going. The tour did not include a visit to the JSA (Joint Security Area), as it has been closed due to the current, ongoing high tensions between the two countries. Still, I am thankful for the opportunity to go to the other parts of the DMZ and learn more about the history as to how this place came to be what it is today; I learned so much about both North and South Korea. This was a great conclusion to my trip to Republic of Korea.

Lastly, looking from a distance at what is known to be the most isolated country in the world has served as a reminder to myself to have gratitude for the life I have. Like many others, I wonder if there will be a time in which there is peace and full reunification between the two countries. Along with many others, I hope this eventually happens.