Me Update & The DMZ

This blog post is dedicated to one of my regular readers, who always emails so politely to enquire as to my health when I haven't written for a while. Apologies for the big gap between posts, a full explanation is below.

I'll start with the me update then, before I get on to the interesting anecdotes and pretty photos. I know I spend most of my time complaining about how busy I am in almost every blog post, but this time I really, really am. The first, and saddest, reason is that Linda has now gone back to the USA after her year in Korea. I'm not sure this is the appropriate place to say much about it, but what it did mean was that the weekends before she went were filled entirely with crossing things off the Korea bucket list. Again, more on that below.

Professionally things are getting more interesting right now. As well as teaching and studying (though I'm now a bit behind on my MA stuff) I'm also doing some extra work as a workshop presenter. Last weekend I gave a three hour workshop at a middle school in Gangneung on the application of technology for teaching writing, and in a couple of weekend's time I'm presenting at the Gangwon KOTESOL meeting on taking advantage of your student's expertise. The technology was great, and went really well, but required a couple of nights spent practising in front of the mirror, plus a while learning how to use and abuse Prezi to make a fancy presentation in keeping with the technological theme.

I can't remember, and can't be bothered to look, if I had made a decision on my future last time I wrote, but I have now finally decided to change jobs next year. As much as I love my little town, and my school, it's getting frustrating teaching students from whom perhaps two or three per year will go on to study English at university, despite it being one of the four core subjects in the curriculum. I feel I would be better served trying to help some students who actually want to speak English, rather than just pass their exams. Anyway, job hunting takes even more time, but I have a couple of interesting options for next year already, and hopefully a few more to come. I'm going to stay coy on those before they have actually happened, but I will be in Korea for sure next year.

I think that's most of the news about me for now. Oh, I will be back in England some time in the first couple of months of the year, but only for ten days at most. Once I have figured out when, I'll let you all know and see if we can figure out a time to have an ale or two.

The DMZ

One of the items on the above mentioned 'Korea bucket list' was to visit the DMZ, or demilitarized zone, a 4km wide area that runs the width of the peninsula and divides the two Koreas. A few weeks ago we booked ourselves on a tour, and on Saturday morning climbed on a bus and set off North Westwards from Seoul.

A brief history lesson then, to set you off. On 25th June, 1950 the Soviet supported Northern region of the Korean peninsula invaded the US and UN supported South. They made huge gains, driving the Southern forces several hundred km back almost to Busan on the south-east tip. Then MacArthur made a famous landing at Incheon, getting behind the North Korean troops and causing havoc. This meant that the UN forces drove the North back almost to the Chinese border, at which point the Chinese entered the war and pushed the UN forces back to more or less the 38th parallel, where everything had started. With something like 2 million casualties suffered by the two sides and the civilian population, a truce was called. Significantly though, this was not an armistice, and so technically the war continues to this day. Under the terms of the treaty, both sides pulled back their troops 2 km, a border was set up and thus the DMZ came into existence.

The first stop on the tour is the third infiltration tunnel. This was the scene of an attempted Northern incursion, which was promptly ended when an SK agent discovered the plot and grassed them up. Seemingly (and this is the impression I got, as I was chatting to someone during the talk) the North Koreans tried to claim it was a coalmine, to the point of covering it in coaldust. The South wasn't buying it though, and set up huge concrete barricades as well as flooding parts of the tunnel. Whatever, as an example of digging it's pretty impressive, being several hundred metres below ground and hewn through hard rock. Typically, with anything North Korean, it was also intended for people about 4 foot 6 high. I'm noticing a strong correlation between NK sightseeing and safety helmets. Due to it being a tunnel, and thus not particularly photogenic, you'll have to make do with this description.

Next stop was the observation platform. This gave us our first real glimpse of the DMZ, and it's only human settlements. Under the terms of the treaty two villages were allowed in the DMZ, one North and one South. There is also the Kaesong industrial region, where North and South Koreans work side by side, though they are not allowed to talk to each other. If you look at the photo below, you can see Kaesong to the left, The North Korean village in the centre, and the white flag on the far right is the South Korean village of Daeseong. This was the tallest flagpole in the world when the South donated it to the village, until of course the North built a bigger one. Life in the DMZ seems pretty sweet. You don't pay taxes and the government buys 100% of your rice crop. You also dodge the mandatory national service that the rest of the country has to do. The flipside is that you havea midnight curfew, and absolutely bugger all to do seemingly. Interestingly, if you meet a girl from Daeseong you're not allowed to marry her and move into the village to escape your military service.

The three settlements in the DMZ.

Yeah, I'm wearing a lumberjack shirt. Yes, I'm annoyed that it suits me.

After that we headed down to the last station in South Korea. Trains obviously don't run any further than this, but the tracks run on into the DMZ and allegedly link up with the trans-siberian railway above North Korea. Apparently this is a sentimental place for Koreans, which is odd as it's a large, clinical and deserted modern station.

If it wasn't for Kim Jong Il I could go home on the train!

"To Pyeongyang" is more in hope than timetabling.

The checkpoint that leads to the Kaesong industrial complex.

After a stop for lunch, we got to the highlight of the tour - a visit to Panmunjeom. This is the village that contains 'Conference Row', where negotiations between the two sides usually take place. We get an official American Military Police escort, the aptly and brilliantly monickered "Specialist Blood" (some wit on the bus asks him if it's his real name) and a briefing in which we are told that the North Koreans might come down to look at us, and on no account to communicate or make eye contact with them. After that it's off to the real thing. Panmunjeom is even more eeriely quiet than the rest of the DMZ. The sole signs of life are the three Korean MP's (there for our protection) who stand in Taekwondo poses staring blankly across the border to the NK side. The prospect of being investigated by the North Koreans doesn't really materialize, except for the lone soldier on the Northern side steps who picks up a pair of binoculars for a better look. I wonder what he makes of us photographing him. From what I read of life in the North, very very few people have cameras of any sort, let alone ones built in to phones like the one I'm wielding. Does he think we're just propaganda paraded by the Imperialist South? (Are we?)

Conference Row and the NK building.

Specialist Blood.

I might be wondering if I'm about to get shot in this photo. More likely I'm just hating having my photo taken.

Being observed by the North. Look closely and you can see the guy with his binoculars.

Probably the most exciting part of the tour is going into the centre building of Conference Row. The building itself is pretty unexciting, just a blue hut with a large wooden table in the centre. We're asked to file around the table, and being near the front we find ourselves on the far side. It's at this point that Specialist Blood informs us that we just wandered into "Communist North Korea". It feels a bit odd to be honest, standing in the country that is always slightly overshadowing our lives here. We get told a couple of good stories, one about a South Korean guard who was left alone in the building and was dragged through to the Northern side, and another about a Northern soldier who got into the conference room, whose feet were so rank that whatever was on them ate the varnish on the table away. We pose for some photos with the guards, and then leave North Korea again.

On holiday in the North.

"I know what'll be really original. I'll copy this soldier's pose. No-one else will have though of that..."

Straddling the border.

The point of the soldier's pose, expression and glasses is to convey no emotion whatsoever towards the North. Has Linda grasped this fact? I'll let you decide.

The final part of the tour takes us out to Guardpost Three, and then the Bridge of No Return and the Axe Murder Incident Memorial. Guardpost Three is one of the furthest advanced points in the DMZ, surrounded on three sides by North Korean territory. From here you get an excellent view of the North Korean Propaganda Village, which is entirely unoccupied, except for the enormous flag fluttering above it. I say fluttering, it's probably more of a flap as the flag weighs enough that it takes 30 men to raise and lower it, which happens quite often as in strong winds it's heavy enough to tear itself to pieces. For any potential mercenaries out there, a 1m by 1m piece of the flag carries a significant bounty from Soldier of Fortune magazine.

The white posts there mark the border between North and South.

There's the flag, and your bounty. Don't be fooled by the pastoral appearance in front of it though. It's mostly a minefield.

Linda, backed by North Korea.

I rank North Korea among the prettiest of communist pariah states.

The last two sights on the tour are the site of the Axe Murder Incident and The Bridge of No Return. You can read the Wikipedia entry for the full story. I did think the soldier that told it to us told it with a little too much relish for one talking about the death of a fellow serviceman (think huge emphasis on "Bruuuuuuutal"). The Bridge of No Return was the site of prisoner exchanges once hostilities had ceased, and is no more accurately The Bridge of No Crossings At All, seeing as nobody has set foot on it since then.

The axe murder memorial.

The Bridge of No Return.

After those visits the tour finished with a trip to the gift shop, and then a bus ride back to Seoul past the Korean parliament building (below). If you happen to be in Korea, I can highly recommend this tour, but make sure that you do the USO one, as it's the only one that gets you into Panmunjeom, and hence allows you to bore your friends senseless with stories of the time you "went to North Korea". I'll be back soon, you lucky, lucky people.

Adios,

A

Jeokdeokdo

A couple of weekends ago we set off to do some offshore exploring among the islands in the West Sea, off the (air)port city of Incheon, where Linda lives. The most famous of these is probably Yeonpyeong-do, up in the north, which was the scene of a North Korean attack last year when we all got a little nervous. We eschewed this option in favour of the more southerly Jeokdeokdo, safely out of North Korean artillery range, but more importantly with nicer beaches.

We took an early ferry out of Incheon port, which at 44,000 won seemed rather expensive, but given that it worked out to 30 pounds return for an hour trip, probably just points to the fact that transport here is usually ridiculously cheap. This gave us the chance to have a look at the new Incheon airport bridge, which really is impressive. As you can see below, it's pretty long and must have been incredibly expensive. No wonder the Korean Highways Agency is tricking people into using it.

We get off the ferry and hang around in the port town for an hour or so, getting a coffee while we waited for a bus. This duly arrived, and we set off for the beach with about 30 other people. At the beach, everyone gets off the bus, and disappears. Linda and I are the only people on a 1km long stretch of beach. We're not really that sure where everyone went, but we assume it was to the pensions (houses you can rent for the weekend) up in the village. Wherever they went, it seems that these Korean people were not big beach goers.

The beach itself was really nice, a long stretch of sand, which turned into mud flats before the sea. There were many of the shells below around, which proved surprisingly mobile. The flats were also inhabited by lots of small fish, and huge crabs like the one below.

OK, so maybe not so huge, but interesting to look at at least. We also went for a paddle, and then just hung out on the beach. I wrote lovey messages to "Rinda" in Korean, and then we went off to get some Kalguksu for lunch. This turned out to be incredibly tasty, so much so that I forgot to photograph it.

After that, it was almost time to go home again, after having a quick beer in the park. There was time while waiting for the ferry to take a photo that shows what a nice day Linda had, and how much I hate photos.

I've just realised that this is a quite horrifically boring blog post. If you get this far I apologise. I will try to write something a little more exciting.

A

Reassuring Words

Most of you will be aware that last Tuesday North Korea fired "dozens" of artillery shells at Yeonpyeong island, a South Korean territory close to the disputed maritime border between the two states. The barrage killed two soldiers and two civilians on this island, and the political repercussions are still echoing between the two Koreas, America and China. What you might be wondering is whether this means that I will be coming home rather earlier than I previously stated. Well, the short answer is no, not unless things get a lot worse, and the aim of this post is to give some of the reasons why I believe they won't.

Firstly, and most tellingly, no-one that I am acquainted with in Korea is really worried about this. South Koreans are used to this behaviour from their neighbour, sadly. Back in March, the Cheonan was sunk (allegedly) by North Korea, killing 47 sailors. This from a country which has also blown up airliners, murdered defectors on South Korean soil, and generally behaved with the lowest standards of decency or regard for human life, yet the truce (technically the two Koreas are still at war) still holds. By all accounts there is more public outrage here than with previous incidents, but most of my colleagues at school simply dismissed the incident with a sad shrug. Nobody here wants to go (back) to war, and I suspect that if it came to a vote there would be little appetite for conflict.

Secondly, from my understanding of the political situation, none of the interested parties (with perhaps the exception of Japan) stands to gain from a war. Let's deal with the South first: a war would be hugely costly to the South. While in terms of hardware and technology South Korea is way ahead, and has the support of the US who would step in to help, a war would be unlikely to end quickly, and certainly not before Seoul had suffered major damage. Following the almost inevitable victory, South Korea would then have to deal with the remaining North Korean population. People here always tell you they are in favour of reunification, but would the South really want to take on 23 million starving, poorly educated and possibly brainwashed citizens. I've read a little of the difficulties that North Korean defectors have to adapting to life in the South. This would be the same but on a huge (and hugely expensive) scale. The war and the aftermath would cost trillions of dollars, with neither the South or the USA keen to pick up the bill.

China certainly doesn't want a war. I don't think they would actively fight against the USA (though they may provide other support for NK), and if they do the conflict would quickly escalate into a global conflict, and we're all for it. However, if they leave North Korea to lose, then they invite US troops on to their doorstep, which they couldn't countenance.

The biggest loser from a war though, is Kim Jong-Il. Whatever doubts you may have over his sanity and humanity, what is surely not in doubt is his ego and his sense of self-preservation. If he starts a war he is signing death warrants for himself and his political dynasty. The Kim regime will not start a war that it is almost guaranteed to lose. It does however benefit is from instability. The threat of conflict can be used as leverage to clamp down further on dissident elements who are a threat to the transfer of power currently taking place, and also to force more food and energy aid from the South and China, which the country needs more desperately than ever.

I, and most people I have spoken to, seem to feel that a normal course of action will follow. Korea and the US will put on a show of military strength, the North will make some threats, everyone will find a way to back down without losing any face, and more aid trucks will cross the border for a while. Things will go back to normal, I'll get hopeful when my won creeps up in value, and then they'll do it again. At this point, my colleagues will once again shrug and say "Mr Kim. He is crazy."

So don't worry about me. If things look bad I'll come home, but for now life here is far to good to think about quitting for the sake of an infinitesimal possibility of war.

A

Have you actually done anything exciting in Korea...

...or have you just been sitting around in your apartment scratching your unmentionables? Well, I actually haven't been doing much. A combination of a limited amount of money to get me through my first month, me being ill and then everyone else being ill has rather limited my opportunities to do stuff. There was one weekend where I did something worth mentioning, so here are some words and some pictures about it.

I travelled to the East coast of Korea with Shannon and Cherie (sorry if I spelt your name wrong) to go and look at a decommissioned American warship parked next to a North Korean spy submarine which crashed here a few years ago. Apparently one of the North Korean escapees made it to Jinbu where he was killed evading capture, but that's hearsay. From there we went to the slightly nuts village of Jeongdongjin, featuring a giant hourglass, a hotel built in the shape of a cruise ship perched on a cliff and most excitingly what is claimed to be the closest station to the sea in the world.

Here are some of the photos from our amazing adventure:

This huge craft is a North Korean spy sub. Crew 25. North Koreans must be really small.

And this is me on the front of an ex Korean Navy, ex US Navy warship. The Americans retired it, then sold it to Korea. The Koreans retired it and put it here for me to stand on.

I am actually taking candy from this baby.

Careful now, you wouldn't want to snp.

I'm guessing that these flowers were added after the vessel's retirement. These gentle arrangements hardly put you in the mood for pounding the commies with shells now, do they?

The Sun Cruise Hotel, happily sailing off a cliff. It's safe to say this one hasn't contained too many North Koreans.

Approaching Sun Cruise.

A slightly less glamorous boat, and yes, you guessed it, it's a North Korean one. This one held twelve defectors who arrived here late last year. It actually looks a pretty comfortable vessel. Better than the submarine anyway.

I stood on no less than four ship-like vehicles this day, and not one of them was in the water.

Me inspecting the damage to the sub.

Even Shannon is bigger than your average North Korean submariner.

Just because you're committing international espionage, doesn't mean your sub can't be kitted out with LOTS OF PRETTY COLOURS!!!11!!!!!

I'm driving a boat, and I'm not exactly sure how I feel about it.

Gunner Shannon.