Visit the Korean DMZ

“At the time of my visit, the DMZ was surprisingly accessible to American tourists. My friend signed us up for a tour through the American military base at which her husband taught school. We signed a waiver that basically said we knew we could die, made sure to adhere to the conservative dress code, and boarded a bus outside of Seoul that made a number of stops just inside the two-and-a-half-mile area between North and South Korea. [...] While it’s true that North and South Korea are technically in a cease-fire, and I never once felt like I was in danger while there, the tension was palpable. I was hyper-aware of the number of armed guards. The idea that I could safely and easily access a place that caused so much heartache for others stood out in my mind.”

“We then stopped at a visitor center and the Third Infiltration Tunnel, part of a series of tunnels dug by North Koreans in the 1970s. My friend and I walked with the crowds down the dark, rock-lined tunnel, which gets increasingly smaller the further in you go (not great if you are claustrophobic). We then headed back to the bus and made our way to the next stop on the tour -- Dora Observatory, a viewing area complete with a gift shop. You can conveniently buy a T-shirt and stare at North Korea in one stop.”

“Watching the number of cars on the highway dwindle down to one or two as our tour bus inched closer and closer to the DMZ was eerie to say the least. The massive traffic jam that was Seoul just an hour before we arrived at Camp Bonifas bordering to the DMZ quickly turned into only a handful of cars.”