Comparing visits to the DMZ from North & South Korea
Visiting the DMZ From Both Sides of the Korean Border
By James Davies in xyz Guides.
Visiting the demilitarized zone (or DMZ) between North and South Korea is a popular and easy day trip from Seoul. In 2012 we joined a full day tour of the south side of the DMZ, including a visit to the Joint Security Area in Panmunjom.
In 2019, we also visited the world’s most dangerous border from the north during a ten day trip to North Korea. Here we compare the experience of visiting the DMZ from both sides of the divide, and the surreal normality of one of the deadliest places on earth.
Why Was the DMZ Created?
The Demilitarized Zone that pads out the border between North and South Korea is one the last remnants of the Cold War. When the Korean War ended in 1953, the armistice that both sides committed to did not fully resolve the conflict.
Instead, the armistice declared a truce, one that is still in place today. That truce has never been replaced with an official end to the fighting, and technically both countries remain at war.
That armistice also officially divided the Korean peninsula into two sovereign nations for the first time in its history.
The 160 mile long border between North and South Korea would become the focal point for the animosity and mistrust that would remain between the new nations for the next six decades.
A demilitarised zone was marked out to run the length of the border, two and a half miles wide. This would supposedly act as a space free of military weapons or conflict, and help to keep the peace. Ultimately the DMZ became one of the most heavily armed places on earth.
Inside the DMZ
Within the DMZ sits Panmunjom, also known as the Joint Security Area (JSA), where both Koreas have a base. The Korean border splits the JSA right down the middle.
Since 1953 the two sides have stared each other out across the JSA, and during that time several incidents and flash points have threatened a return to full scale conflict.
Both sides have their own official buildings in the JSA; on the north side is Panmon Hall, which had an extra floor added to it to ensure that it was taller than Freedom House, its equivalent on the South Korean side of the border.
It’s the many small and absurd details such as this that underlines the surrealism of visiting what is supposed to be one of the most dangerous places in the world. As is the fact that visiting the DMZ as a tourist is possible at all.
It’s hard to imagine visitors flocking to see any of the world’s other insanely militarised border zones just to gawp at the other side, but if you visit either North or South Korea it’s a fairly simple day trip. Estimates suggest that around 100,000 tourists visit the DMZ each year.
Day-Tripping to the Korean Border from Seoul
Our first visit to the DMZ started in Seoul, at the USO’s US army base, at the crack of dawn. It’s a popular trip – three coachloads of us are taken north for the hour long drive to the JSA.
On arrival we’re handed a badly photocopied waiver full of grammatical errors and spelling mistakes to sign. By signing it we agree that if it all kicks off whilst we’re visiting the DMZ we can’t hold the United Nations Command responsible for our unforeseen deaths.
We’re then brought into a small lecture theatre and given a presentation on the history of the DMZ, and specifically the Joint Security Area. This is when the true magnitude of where we are kicks in. The JSA has been the setting for a number of truly awful incidents since its creation in 1953.
We are told in detail about the Axe Murder Incident in 1976, where the simple job of pruning a tree that blocked the view from a checkpoint led to the vicious attack and death of two US army soldiers at the hands of the North Koreans.
We also learn of the deadly firefight that ensued after a Soviet citizen ran across the north side of the border in order to defect to the west in 1984. It’s difficult to imagine that this all took place just outside from the room we’re in, less than 20 metres away.
Hearing of these incidents also adds to the absurdity of a visit to the DMZ. Bussed in on a day trip, and with our error-strewn (and surely worthless) waivers, it fells like being extras on a film set waiting for the action to start.
Inside Panmunjom and the Joint Security Area
Despite the horror stories from the history lesson in the lecture theatre, our American soldier guides are calm, relaxed and friendly, and they’re happy to answer questions.
Thanks in part to their laid-back manner and the breezy chat, being on the massively militarised border with the unknown threat of North Korea feels quite nice, which it probably shouldn’t.
We’re taken through Freedom House and stand facing North Korea and the row of conference rooms that straddle the border. Operated by the UN, these buildings are the setting whenever diplomatic meetings are held between North and South Korea.
Our US army guide tells us that unfortunately we’re unable to enter any of these buildings on our visit as they’re being redecorated, denying us the chance to officially step in to North Korea. Sure enough, on the roof of one of the buildings is a man with a paint roller in his hand.
Instead we listen on the steps of Freedom House as we receive more details about the JSA. It’s difficult to match the scene with its history – the perfectly manicured lawns and neatly trimmed hedges, the beautiful blue sky and sunshine, as well as the chap painting the roof, means the JSA resembles a modern business park rather than one of the most deadly corners on earth.
The only difference being the South Korean soldiers dotted around, as still as mannequins in their Taekwondo poses.
Across the border a single North Korean soldier stands in front of Panmon Hall. The US army guide tells us not to wave at North Korea. “They won’t wave back” he adds.
The Bridge of No Return and Propaganda Village
In keeping with the schizophrenic nature of the day, we exit Freedom House through the gift shop, where all kinds of DMZ themed tat is on sale.
From here we re-board our buses and are driven up to the Bridge of No Return, where prisoners of war where exchanged by both sides in the early years after the Korean War, and where the horrendous Axe Murder Incident took place in 1976.
Then we continue on to a vantage point and allowed off the bus to stare at Kijŏng-dong, the village in North Korea most visible from the south of the border.
Sat beneath the fourth tallest flagpole in the world, the US army guys tell us that the village of Kijŏng-dong is largely for show. Most of the buildings in the town are empty – some are just shells without any interior at all.
Some are lit by a single bulb that turns off and on at exactly the same time every day. The outlying fields are ploughed by animals rather than by tractors. It all starts to feel a little dispiriting.
Peering into North Korea From the Dora Observatory
Later we’re taken to the Dora Observatory, which is filled with tourists from many other DMZ day trips (only the USO tour goes into the JSA, but other tours visit various sites around the DMZ). The Dora Observatory looks straight in to North Korea.
Inside there’s a huge auditorium that looks onto the beautiful green fields of the DMZ at nothing in particular. The industry around watching North Korea begins to feel incredibly sad.
The focus of the tour has been all about the history of the division of Korea and the military effort to keep the peace. There’s very little mention of the Korean families that have been ripped apart by the creation of the border, or of the hardships that the people of North Korea have to endure, through no fault of their own.
Nothing is said of the lives of the people who live just a few miles away on the other side of the border, almost within reach but living in a different world to those on this side of the divide.
There is no mention of how different their lives must be, or the unimaginable difficulties they must have to endure on a daily basis. But each day they’re being stared at from a purpose built observatory by busloads of tourists from all over the world.
Visiting the DMZ in North Korea
While standing on the southern side of the DMZ I couldn’t have imagined that in a few years time I’d be back here again, only this time on North Korean soil.
That first visit to Panmunjom and the DMZ sparked a strong interest in North Korea. So much so that we eventually booked a 10 day trip to the DPRK, which naturally included its own day trip to the DMZ.
Visiting the DMZ on the North Korean side is quite a different affair. There are no waivers to sign in case it all goes wrong, and generally the atmosphere is even more relaxed than the visit on the South Korean side of the border.
Accompanied by two coaches full of middle-aged Chinese tourists, our tour began at the DMZ shop, which sells all manner of ginseng-based goods, a regional speciality.
We were then taken for a very quick tour of the North Korea Peace Museum, which is just to the north west of the JSA. The museum is located inside the building where the truce was signed in 1953 by both sides at the end of the Korean War.
Here we’re shown the original armistice that was signed that day, though we’re not shown the axe that was used to kill the American soldiers during the Ax Murder Incident which is also on display.
Next we’re taken to the JSA for the view from the north side of the border. We park next to a stone sculpture of Kim il Sung‘s final signature, dated the day before he died in July 1994.
The stone monument of Kim Il Sung’s last ever signature and the signed armistice between North and South Korea on display in the North Korea Peace Museum
Then we are ushered up to the balcony in Panmon Hall which faces out across the JSA and overlooks the other side. Throughout our time in the JSA, our North Korean guides always refer to South Korea as “the American side“.
Despite the passing of a few years the place is identical to as it was on our last visit. The sun is still shining and everything looks just as neat and immaculately preserved as it was a few years earlier.
Unsurprisingly there’s no mention of the North Korean soldier who dramatically dashed across the border a few years prior to our visit.
Just as with our visit from the southern side of the border, we’re not offered the chance to enter one of the blue huts, and are led back to our coach to continue our tour of North Korea.
The Future of the DMZ
The historic moment when Kim Jong Un crossed the Korean demarcation line into South Korea as part of the first Inter Korean Summit in April 2018 suggested that there could be progress in relations between the two countries.
Understandably, many remain sceptical; there have been summits and peace proposals between North and South Korea in the past, and it would certainly take years of negotiations and actions on both sides before a real and lasting peace bore fruit.
Perhaps if that does happen, the JSA could remain a tourist attraction, much like the remnants of the Berlin Wall. Maybe one day people will walk through the DMZ and try to fathom what kept a divided nation apart for so long.
I’m James, the founder, editor, writer and photographer at Where You’re Between. Currently based in Japan, I started Where You’re Between in 2017 to create detailed itineraries and in-depth travel guides for the places that I’m fortunate enough to visit. You can see all of our destinations here.