DMZ

Got up extra early today for a trip to the DMZ. The demilitarized zone between North and South Korea is often described as the most fortified border on the planet—layered with mines, razor wire, and constant surveillance. It was the top spot on my “to‑go” list, yet ironically the place where I took the fewest photos, since photography is banned in most of the areas you actually want to capture.

Imjingak Peace Park

The border went up quickly and divided countless families. At Imjingak there is a stone altar called Mangbaedan, where families separated by the Korean War bring food and bow toward the North. It’s the closest they can get to their relatives across the border, a place to perform ancestral rites when home is forever out of reach.

My favorite story was about a poor Korean farm boy named Chung Ju‑yung. To escape poverty, he stole his father’s cow, sold it, and used the money to leave his village and travel south for work. He took any job he could find and eventually built a small repair shop. When the war broke out and the border was sealed, he was never able to return.

His repair shop grew into an automobile company we now know as Hyundai, one of the world’s largest industrial and automotive groups. Wanting to repay his father for the stolen cow - with interest - he made a symbolic gesture. In 1998 he personally drove a herd of 500 cows across the DMZ into North Korea. A few months later, he sent another 500, bringing the total to 1,000. Because communication with the North was impossible, he never knew whether his father ever heard his deed. They never saw or communicated with each other again after he left. Most historians believe his father died in poverty.

Freedom Bridge

Freedom Bridge is a short railway bridge at Imjingak where more than twelve thousand prisoners of war crossed back into the South after the Korean War, shouting “Freedom!” as they went. It doesn’t reach the DMZ itself anymore, but it remains one of the most symbolic places on the border, covered in ribbons and messages from families still waiting for reunions that never came.

Our guide said that most Koreans don’t think of North and South as two separate countries. To them it’s one Korea and one people, divided by politics and history, and someday the border will disappear and the peninsula will be whole again.

Third Tunnel of Aggression

The Third Tunnel of Aggression is one of the strangest and most unsettling stops along the DMZ. Discovered in 1978, it’s a North Korean infiltration tunnel dug straight toward Seoul, large enough to move thousands of soldiers per hour.

Ava and I hiked the long 75‑meter descent into the tunnel. It’s the closest you can get to the border now—just 170 meters from North Korea at the far end. The tunnel is low and cramped; the guy in front of me smacked his head at least half a dozen times. Good thing helmets are mandatory. No Photo's allowed.

Peekaboo!

Dora Observatory

Dora Observatory. I couldn’t take a photo of the actual view, but I was allowed to photograph a model of it. The observatory sits on a hill overlooking the DMZ, giving you one of the clearest views into North Korea without crossing the border. It was clear enough for us to see Kijong‑dong, the so‑called propaganda village—a fake town that looks normal from a distance, but the buildings are empty shells with painted windows and no residents. It was built in the 1950s to project an image of prosperity.

We could also see the site of a “real” factory town that the South once operated in the North during a brief period of friendlier relations. The North doesn’t have the technology to run it on its own, so it now sits abandoned.

Thank goodness for misters! It was a bit of a climb to the observatory and this helps you beat the heat.

Unification Village

A small village that’s pretty touristy now, mostly home to farmers the government incentivizes to live there. Decades ago, people kept getting kidnapped by the North, so no one wanted to stay. The incentives were the only way to keep the village alive.

All You Can Eat Pig Company

This place took me a while to find but was totally work it. All you can eat for 17,000. OMG. We were barely able to haul our carcasses back to the hotel after to sleep off the meat sweats.