“When you get there, you realize that it’s only a few centimeters and you can easily pass through”: what it’s like to visit the demilitarized zone between the Koreas on a tourist tour

It is one of the most heavily fortified areas in the world, a no man’s land that exists as a relic of the Cold War. It was also a major tourist attraction before the covid pandemic.

From Gyeonggi-do in the west to Gangwon-do in the east, the 258-kilometer Korean Demilitarized Zone (ZDC) cuts the Korean peninsula in half.

And in Panmunjom, the so-called “truce village”, where a concrete slab symbolizing division, tour groups poured in daily. They are still coming, but in smaller numbers.

On Tuesday, Travis King, a US Army soldier who was returned home for disciplinary reasons, joined a tour group in South Korea and headed north across the ZDC.

It is not yet clear whether the recruit has deserted or hopes to return, but the US military confirmed he crossed over “of his own free will and without permission”, adding that he was likely being detained.

“When you get there, you realize it’s a few inches and you can easily enter North Korea like President Trump did in 2019,” said Jean H Lee, former Korean bureau chief of the Associated Press news agency, who has entered the ZDC dozens of times from both Koreas.

“So in a way, if you’ve been there before, you also recognize how tempting it is.”

However, he points out that in reality tours to the ZDC operate with very strict rules.

Visitors are allowed to take photos, but must walk and stop where indicated, and must not wave or make other inappropriate gestures.

They can legally step on the other side of the ZDC’s demarcation linebut only if they are in the blue-roofed huts of the Military Armistice Commission, where the ceasefire was negotiated in 1953.

Before the pandemic, the tours were conducted under intense military supervision, with South Korean soldiers in a taekwondo stance — legs apart, arms in focus — and North Korean troops watching with watchful eyes, as well as the United Nations Command (UNC) actively patrolling the area.

Nowadays, the north is no longer visible on the border and as a result the South does not deploy patrols either, so no soldiers can be seen on either side. The tours are guided by the UNC.

Tensions in the ZDC were fully exposed in November 2017, when A North Korean soldier was shot multiple times by his own army while defecting to South Korea..

Private King’s actions came nearly a week after the 70th anniversary of the armistice that ended hostilities in the 1950-53 conflict, although it was not a formal end to the war.

When you’re in the ZDC, “you realize that even though North Korea is so far from us psychologically, economically, politically, ideologically… physically, they’re just there,” said Lee, a Korean-American from Minneapolis.

“It’s a very moving experience.”

That surreal feeling remains with Rowan Beard, an Australian who has been leading tours to the site on behalf of Young Pioneer Tours (YPT) since 2008.

The travel agency promotes itself as “the first travel agency in the DPRK (Democratic People’s Republic of Korea)” and handled more than 1,000 customers annually before the pandemic.

YPT claims to offer the largest selection of tour programs for North Korea of ​​any company, and most orders are to visit the ZDC and the North Korean capital Pyongyang.

“Most tourists feel that if they don’t visit the ZDC, their trip to North Korea isn’t complete”Beard noticed.

Day trips from the north begin in Pyongyang, about two and a half hours from Kaesong, the city bordering the ZDC. From the south they start in Seoul, less than half an hour away.

Tourists visit the Joint Security Area (JSA), learn about the area and its history through reports and artifacts, and get to see both sides from different vantage points. Some tours also include access to the infiltration tunnels dug by the North Koreans.

Mark Edward Harris has seen both Koreas from both entry points several times in his career as a documentary and tourist photographer.

“For most people, almost everyone in fact, the only glimpse they will get of this very hermetic land is from points along the ZDC,” he said.

“For anyone interested in history, it’s the ultimate tourist spot in a way.”

Still, “things are happening” in the ZDC, Harris said, citing a 1976 incident of an ax murder in Panmunjom, when the South Koreans and Americans were pruning a poplar in the JSA and were attacked by North Korean guards.

The incident resulted in the brutal murder of two American soldiers and rising tensions.

for Harris, the ZDC represents the “propagandistic war” being waged between the North and the South.

“Actually, both sides would do well to tell their own side of this complex story,” Harris said.

“The main difference is that if you come from the north, you feel like the war is still going on. Coming from the South, you feel like you’re taking a brief glimpse into ancient history.”