Panmunjom, JSA

Panmunjom is the only ‘truce village’ of the Korean Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) where tourists could view North and South Koreas without much hostility. It is probably the only unique area without any troops around as the other area separating the two Koreas is the most heavily armed in the world.  As a foreigner from a small country, I find it hard to believe that a country can be divided so clearly by the Military Demarcation Line (MDL) and the culture between the North and South Koreas is so different. While the older generation is looking forward to unification between the two areas, the younger generation from the South Korea is afraid that the economic situation in Korea will deteriorate after unification since the culture gap between the two areas is so wide.

I was excited to visit Panmunjom to experience the tense situation between the two borders and from Seoul, it took about one hour to get to the check point. The soldier came on board to take a look at us and he got off and we continued our journey to another checkpoint. Before we entered the Panmunjom area, the guide checked our outfits again and asked some people who were wearing track pants to wear another pants over their own pants. Another guy who was wearing a green jacket with its country logo was not able to wear that jacket while we were inside Panmunjom. Finally a soldier come on board to check our outfits, make sure that our camera lens are not longer than 100mm and instructing us not to bring our belongings while we were in there. After that, together with the soldier, we went to the Visitor Briefing Center to watch a short movie about the history behind the two Koreas and we got on a bus provided by JSA.

At first the bus took us to Freedom House which was built in 1998 as a facility that supports various forms of inter-Korean exchanges. We alighted the bus, lined up in 2 rows and from Freedom House, we walked to the Conference Building. I saw a few soldiers standing facing the North side and at first I thought they were dummies, but actually they are real soldiers who were standing there to protect us if the North attacked. We walked into the Conference building and reminded by the soldier not to wave and point at anything while we were in there. The guide explained to us that the mid of the room divides the North and South and it was the only area where we could stand on North Korea ground. We were able to take some pictures of the room and the soldiers who were standing in there. About 10 minutes later, we walked back to the Freedom House and to the pagoda which we were able to take some pictures of the surroundings. Because of our presence, we saw some North Korean troops matching towards the Conference building and once again we were reminded not to wave or point at anything. Peace House was built in 1980 to hold all non-governmental talks that are not related to military issues.

After that we went back to the bus and we were told that we could take some pictures of the Panmungak of North Korea while sitting and it serves as offices for North Korean guards in Panmunjom. Then we moved on to the Axe Murder incident spot which happened in 1976 while five S. Koreans civilians were trimming a tall poplar tree under UNC supervision and out of nowhere, two N. Korea officers and dozens of KPA soldiers appeared demanding that they stopped the trimming. The civilians ignored their requests and another N. Korean forces appeared and began attacking these civilians with clubs and axes. After this incident, the MDL forms as a permanent separation line between the two Koreas.

Beside this spot, we saw the Bridge of No Return which crosses the middle of MDL in JSA and it used to serve as the only entrance to Kaesong city. The bridge was named as No Return because once the POWs decided to cross the bridge from either side, they could not return again and it has never been used again after the Axe Murder Incident. After this it was considered the end of Panmunjom tour and the JSA bus dropped us off at the gift shop and we were picked up again by the tour bus. We shopped for awhile at the gift shop and we went to Imjingak to take some pictures before we set off for the restaurant.

On the bus, the Korean guide told us that she hopes that there will be unification someday but no one knows when that will happen. She also told us to love the people around us as we don’t know what might happen in the future since North and South Koreas have been separated for more than 50 years and many families were separated. I also hope that the two Koreas will reach an agreement and slowly united as one country.