Yeah, it's sad, but when you live in the middle of nowhere, you tend to rely on gadgets to communicate with people. Especially when your friends are spread out over miles of green dotted islands and peninsulas and glass paddy fields. Before moving to Japan, I hardly ever used a cell phone, but here it is a necessity.
Not only can I communicate with people on my cell phone, but I have access to all kinds of information. Japanese people are amazed by how much information I can gather for them on the Internet...I was an information designer before coming here; it's my tool and trade. I crave to know about the world and the people in it.
That is why I find North Korea so intriguing. A government that keeps its citizens from having cell phones, traveling outside the country, talking to foreigners, and basically suppressing any information from the outside. I want to see it for myself, but being an American, I'm not allowed in the country. (FYI - only Americans and South Koreans cannot enter North Korea...I know a British guy who went)
So I went as close to North Korea as I could get: the DMZ (Demilitarization Zone - the heavily fortified border between the two Koreas).
Korea is a fascinating country, and at the core of its philosophy is the ying-yang. Basically, everything has an opposite: man and woman. Good and evil. Life and death. The two opposites complete the whole and cannot exist without each other. The two Koreas emphasize this concept, for many Koreans told me they are "one people." Their division is one of the most tragic things to occur in the 20th century, and you can feel their pain to this day.
During the tour, many patterns emerged, the most distinct being the South Korean dream of reunification. The freedom bridge was built by the founder of Hyundai in 2000. He was born in North Korea, and wanted to reach out somehow so this bridge was built:
At the end of the bridge is a wall where the relatives of North Koreans can put messages:
South Korea has spent billions to assist the North Korean people. One of the things they did was open a factory employing North Korean workers on the North Korean side. This is the highway that goes to the factory:
But the North Korean government doesn't want their people to know that they are being aided by the South, so any vehicles going to the North have to have their license plates hidden. Here is where they do it:
Here is Dorasan station, it connects Seoul to Pyeongyang and will eventually run someday:
So what has North Korea done?
North Korea dug many tunnels, but only 4 have been discovered. The tunnels are a violation of the cease-fire agreement of 1953. Technically, North and South Korea are still at war, because no peace treaty was ever signed. I visited the 3rd tunnel, which was discovered in 1978. The workers could dig about 1 meter a day, which was done by exploding dynamite and then removing the pieces. It is over 1600 meters long, and dug by workers who were starving. They smeared black on the inside of the tunnel to look like a coal mine, but since the material they were drilling was granite, that argument doesn't really fly.
Obviously, I only have a Southern perspective. Since they won't let me into the North, that's all I get. Here is the closest I will ever get to North Korea (Dorasan Observatory):
You have to stand behind a yellow photo line, so it is hard to get an actual photo of North Korea. From the overlook, you can see the factory, as well as the two flags of North and South Korea. The North Korean flagpole is the tallest in the world...it is so tall that when it rains, they have to take the flag down or it will collapse under the weight.
Like its flagpole, North Korea is about to collapse under its own weight: the South wants to reunite, but the North won't do it unless the South takes the anti-communism clause out of their constitution. After talking with many South Koreans, that will never happen because they hate communism. I left the DMZ feeling fortunate and even more fascinated by the North. Who are the people on the other side of that 4 km military line and what do they know about the world?
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On the flip side, the yang of the ying-yang, back on the southern side, we went to a cell phone art exhibition.
If there's one adjective to describe Seoul, it's "spicy." Not only the food is spicy, but the people are too. If you get in their way, they push you. They will tell you exactly what they think. For a country so close to Japan, it's amazing how different the culture is.
Suzie and I were sitting in a restaurant having a few drinks, when a young guy asked us if we wouldn't mind speaking English with him and his mates. We were bored and obliged, and ended up having a great time. All of them had lived abroad, so their English was really good and they were really easy to talk with. Turns out that they are university students, but some of them already did their mandatory 2-year military service so they were a little older. We ended up drinking soju (Korean spirits) with them until the wee hours of the morning, eating ice cream on the street, and the next day Sammy (they all had Western names they were using) showed us around his university, then took us to dinner and paid for it.
Is another trip to Seoul in my future? I really hope so!
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