Tempting Fate

OK, so you are working in South Korea in the shadow of one of the biggest tension times with North Korea in quite a while and you have a day off in Seoul, what do you do?

You head for North Korea, of course!  Armed with only a GPS (in my Crackberry) and in a tiny no name car two of us headed north in Seoul and went to the closet point where the highway nearly touches the DMZ.

Here is a picture from the main highway out of Incheon which turns north just before entering Seoul.  If you stay on it it goes right along the river which serves as the DMZ on the West side of the country.  Somewhere, just a little north of the main interchange into Seoul on the left side of the Highway you begin to see barbed wire and gun implacements, yes I said gun implacements about every 200 meters or so.  Above is a picture of one.  Is a picture of the fnece when North Korea is directly across the river.

At the point where the Highway is closest to NK there is an overlook called the Odu Reunification observation tower.  The 4th floor has a movie about NK topography and shows quite a hint of sadness by the SK people over the dire fate of their cousins across the DMZ.  This overlook is about 3kM from NK which is directly across the river.  Just a bit east of here the DMZ is only 460 meters across, but it is not easy to get there.

This is a map of where we were.  The peninsula to the left is part of SK,  Too the right is the narrowest point.

A South Korean border guard, UN observer and North Korea border guard.

South Korean side.  More on this later.

North Korean side.

Love hotel on South Korean side, less than 3 miles from DMZ.

A Korean drive in theater, less than 3 miles from DMZ.