Going up and going north

November 17th 2016

Going up

We start the day telling ourselves that we'll move places and not do much of anything apart from that. After arriving in our new apartment, we decide to leave the house and explore our surroundings. Hongdae is the student district of Seoul — which is why there are a few universities here, of which we take a look at the most famous one, Yonsei University. The campus is very modern and also architecturally interesting.
One more thing we want to check out this evening is the N Seoul Tower. This is a television tower on a hill of Seoul, from where you have a great view of the city. We take the challenge and climb said hill by foot — who needs cable cars, anyway? Especially at night, the walk up is very worthwhile.
Below the tower are several metal trees on which thousands of love-locks make for a pretty picture.
After visiting the tower, we're in for some more Korean barbecue — the budget version, this time: We have to do the grilling ourselves, but in exchange, we get to work on our language skills some more. We greet the nice woman serving us, I understand that she asks if we speak Korean and eloquently explain that our language skills are unfortunately not sufficient to adequately place our order ("아니오" ~ No). After we thanked her for our food and manage to say "Yes", she (probably?) tells us that our Korean is not that bad at all.
We continue our good impression, knowing exactly what we have to do — except for Jan trying to oil the aluminium foil with vinegar. After this incident, the vinegar is taken away from us, presumably for safety reasons.

7:30 am — Going North

It is very early and very cold. At 0°C outside we fight our way through the morning cold towards the city centre, armed with T-shirt, hoodie and 2 jackets (It won't get much warmer throughout the day, sadly). From here, our tour to the DMZ (demilitarized zone) starts.
After a hour-long bus drive during which our guide explains something, seemingly without ever taking a breath, in broken English, we arrive at a point where we are to have lunch and can, for the first time, see the North Korean side. The Freedom Bridge, carrying a set of rails, fell out of use due to the tensions between North and South Korea.
A fence on the South Korean side of the Freedom Bridge, which was used to exchange prisoners during the Korean War, is covered in countless symbolic messages for an eventual reunification of Korea.
We continue to the JSA (Joint Security Area), an area on the border between North and South that is subordinate to the UN. From here, we are accompanied by a friendly South Korean soldier. Photos of the South Korean side are strictly forbidden — "Only to the north", we are told repeatedly.
Negotiations frequently take place in the JSA, which is why the site is of crucial importance to the inter-Korean relationships. Here we get the rare opportunity to enter the conference room right on the border and even cross into North Korea.

North Korea Review

On the roughly 10 square meters of North Korean soil we were able to inspect, we could find neither poverty nor any human rights violations.
I wonder why that may be?
Unfortunately, we were only able to inspect the one North Korean crossing our way from afar as well.
All joking aside for a minute: We're sometimes all too eager to see North Korea as some incompetent rogue nation, not to be taken seriously. And while that may not be all that wrong in many aspects, this reputation is, to a large extent, intentionally crafted by the DPRK: The North does know about the press it gets — but as long as the West does not take North Korea all that seriously, no one will attack or otherwise engage them, either (not that that would necessarily be required and/or efficient). Despite its crumbling infrastructure, North Korea's military and scientific capabilities are not to be taken lightly — they are proud to call themselves the tenth space-faring nation, after all.

"2 minutes for photos", then we have to move on. At all times closely guarded by soldiers of both sides. While filming with my phone, I apparently caught some parts of the South Korean side as well. A soldier asks me to show him my camera — yes, sir, I'll delete it.
Before we have to get on our way back, we get the chance to talk to the soldier who showed us around — with the glasses on, he looks a lot like a South Korean actor. His English is better than what we've heard here in Korea so far. And he, too, gets to answer a question from our book — Question #605 "What would you miss most if you went deaf?" His answer, David Bowie songs, is very relatable.