Dear Friends and Family,

Grasping the history of the Korean conflict turns a tour of the DMZ into living, breath-halting history. Suddenly it became easier to imagine the huts on the border that we had earlier viewed populated by military brass in diplomat mode. The landmine warnings were vividly real. Re-glimpsing the North Korean propaganda village flying the largest flag in the world amongst deforested hills seemed only sad. Standing on the tour bus to photograph the contested tree’s site became close to tourist mockery. And the peeling paint on the “Bridge of No Return” (where 83,000 prisoners were returned to North Korea after the Korean War while a mere 13,000 were returned to South) was perfectly understandable. That day in February, our bus drove us past all of those sights before returning us through anti-tank fortifications in order to deposit us at the JSA gift shop.

Next came a mediocre, over-priced lunch followed by a trip up to a viewing platform from which we should’ve been able to see well into North Korea – especially as the countryside just North of the border is spookily devoid of trees. But we couldn’t see much through the mist - even with the use of high powered binoculars.

Our last tour stop to visit tunnel number three indelibly printed North Korea’s determination to militarily alter the Korean peninsula in my mind. First we were subjected to a South Korean propaganda video which concluded with eerily inflated hope and then we were escorted to view a serious of timelines illustrated with Korean war memorabilia. Then we were escorted into another building, given yellow hardhats and terse instructions to stay with the group. We then walked down a steep incline into a rock tunnel.

The tunnel was just as you might imagine: a cool, long tunnel of rock with curved walls of chipped away rock, lit by strong light bulbs, and dripping with water. Dank to the point of sticking the insides of your nostrils. The walls had been blackened by fleeing North Koreans, who apparently figured that if they painted the tunnel black, the South Koreans would believe that the North Koreans had been digging for coal. An unlikely story even to my untrained eye. We walked single file, following the person in front of us and listening to our guide as he stopped to tell us that the tunnel could squeeze 30,000 soldiers per hour through it. It was hard not to feel claustrophobic.

We emerged from the tunnel fighting for breath – literally as the incline up is rigorous and figuratively as it had become easy to see that the North Koreans should be taken seriously.

I – we – returned to Seoul that day feeling that there was much to reflect on and found that while we were touring the DMZ, the long-running six party negotiations between South and North Korea, the US, Japan, China and Russia, announced a landmark agreement. My mind flashed to the laundered and now-glass covered flags in the DMZ meeting room. Readers of the world news would feel a raise in their hopes for Korea on the very day that had dealt a mortal blow to my own hope that Korea could achieve a happy ending.

Time will tell.
Laura


PS: Not all is doom and gloom in current Korean relations. You may have read on May 17th that trains crossed the North/South Korea divide for the first time in over 50 years. They aren’t going so far as to make a habit of this but the gesture was deemed good news. And just yesterday, my heart leaped at the news that South Korea’s current president, Roh, Moo-hyun, will visit North Korea’s Pyongyang in a few weeks to meet with North Korea’s Kim, Jong Il. Time will tell....