DMZ

At the end of June, a group of us went up to the north of South Korea to the most northern part we are allowed to go- the DMZ- the border between the south and the north.

A group of us booked a tour with the tour group Kooridoor. After reading many reviews, they came out miles ahead of the other groups. This was one of the only groups that took your to the JSA (Joint Security Area) as well as many other sights. Also this tour was led by the American military so it had an interesting perspective.
For this trip we went with a group of people that happened to be 3 Marie/Maria's and their significant other and Sian. Even though that added some confusion to the weekend, it was actually a fun novelty!

We left for the tour really early in the morning. There was a dress code that we had to dress to that included collared shirts, closed toed shoes, long skirts, and nice dress cloths. Apparently this is because we need to look nice for the North Koreans who were looking at us through binoculars.

The tour bus took us to the JSA where we boarded another bus. There we got to see the buildings that they have meetings between the north and the south. If you stood on one side of the room you were in South Korea, and the other side of the room you were in North Korea. The picture below I am in the north, and Ben is in the south.

This is the propaganda village that is located across the border in North Korea. We were told that many of these buildings have painted on windows and doors and do not even have floors in the buildings. The North Korean flag that you see if a funny story too!
Apparently, South Korea put up a flag on the border. To counteract this, North Korea put up an even bigger tower and flag. There have been many petty things like this done between the two countries over the years.

After the JSA we went to a  few other places including the train station that goes to the north. It was used a few years ago to take people to work at factories in the north. At the moment, it is not in operation, but there is hope for the future that it will be use a lot! We also went to a tunnel that was built coming into the south from the north. It was so deep and so long. I was amazed by it! We had to put on hard hats and duck our heads because it was so small/short. It was an interesting day and I'm glad that we got to see this important part of the country. I hope some day in the future, there will be peace between the the two sides and they will be able to unify.