04 Feb 2010, Posted by Matt in Gyeonggi, Historic Korea, 5 Comments
Touring the DMZ, Part 1: The Sights
Just one hour from Seoul is a peculiar land of misnomers – kilometers of barbed wire line Freedom Road and block access to the sea, and the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) is the world’s most heavily armed border.
An estimated one million troops stand at the ready along both sides of the 4-kilometer buffer that has divided the Korean Peninsula since a 1953 armistice paused a bloody, fratricidal war. In the 50-some years since, the DMZ has seen occasional flare-ups, an axe murder incident and the discovery of invasion tunnels capable of funneling 10,000 North Korean troops an hour toward Seoul. Yet, in spite of the ever-present danger, or perhaps because of it, the DMZ endures as one of South Korea’s most popular tourist destinations.
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