We went to the utmost south of North Korea: the border town Panmunjon and the next big city Kaesong. A long drive over an endless straight highway, built for absolutely NO traffic and passing by one of the most beautiful mountain ranges i’ve ever seen. Along the entire trip, i’ve only seen mountains, which could have been sculpted by any artist.
Then we arrived in Panmunjon. Hordes of Chinese People, staying there on their holiday, while North Korea received a big time visit from China today in the capital. All over the place, just before the DMZ started, about 150 tourists waited to be let through to the actual border.
You could see the tank barricades, which, in case of invasion, would be dropped to the road by detonating charges along the road.
So every vehicle got it’s soldier. One of them was the official tourist guide too and took us to all the different sites, where the cease-fire was negotiated, where it was signed and to the houses right ON the border, where some negotiations were held. I would have loved to also see South Korean soldiers and some American soldiers, but they hid themselves. There were no tourists today on the south side. But what I did notice was all the cameras mounted on either side of border, staring at each other. The South had more of them.
So the soldier/guide came up and asked, if and what questioned I had. I had some… How has he been now in the army, what rank do border posts have at Panmunjon and are they specially selected… Have there been any incidences, when somebody ran from the north to the south or from the south to the north… Turns out, he was five years in the army, the rank of the border posts are normal foot soldiers, who really really believe in the system. And in 1983, there had been a “sowjet” student who fled from the north to the south, running across the line. The incidence started, when North Korean soldiers came running after him and crossed to the south, too. He didn’t know, what happened afterwards and neither of what became of that sowjet student.
On the way back to where we started, I noticed that he had only been answering our questions. So I asked him, if HE had any questions to foreigners like me. He took a moment to think about it. Obviously he took it very seriously. He asked, what the opinion was, on North Korea pursuing their nuclear weapons program. And he heard as answer, that it’s not just an internal nor bilateral thing, but that it concerns the entire world, because the effects of a nuclear weapon reaches the entire world. We started a nice little discussion on what to do. So my obvious answer was to rid the peninsula of nuclear weapons and research of any kind. That would lead to trust in the long run and would help to integrate North Korea into the world. He had then doubts about integration. So I explained to him, that countries growing together and integrating would mean the build-up of trust. And to answer a common “fear” here in the north, I told him, integrating countries does NOT mean losing its respective individuality and sovereignty. The European Union after WWII was a perfect example. Nobody wants to attack North Korea. It’s for peace.
By that time, we reached the last check point. We thanked each other for our talk and he seemed authentically happy about our small discussion, despite him being a very devout North Korean soldier who believes in the system and that there’s supposedly a threat from “imperialist” America. He seemed very smart and kind. I made NK propaganda responsible for that paranoia. …so… We didn’t reach any conclusion, but the important thing was that we talked. He listened, he talked… to a foreigner. And we shook hands.
So I went to Kaesong to see the city. Obviously much smaller than Pyongyang but still built in the socialist chic. But people smile and wave back, when you smile and wave at them. They greet you back and they laugh with you. That doesn’t mean, they haven’t any hardships, on the contrary, they’re especially stricken with a hard life. But something seems to keep them going and I’m not talking about government propaganda nor the smile of Kim Il Sung. Maybe it’s hope.
