DMZ!

Hey everyone!

Tim and I just returned from the DMZ! We had an incredible time! We actually stepped about five feet into North Korea!!! We went on a tour with the United Service Organization sponsored by the US Army. First we went to the only city in the DMZ in South Korea which is a United Nations/US Army base. We had to sign a wavier saying the South Korean government and the United Nations would not be held responsible in the event of enemy fire. A bit scary but we were still very excited!

We went to a place called the Freedom House which leads to the military demarcation line. It's about 2 feet wide. We went into a room where negotiation talks are held - half is in south korea and the other half in north korea. We got to go to North Korea! Beyond the building, the North koreans have their headquarters so we saw two north korean soldiers watching us through binoculars. It was creepy and I was definitely nervous because you had no idea what could have happened. Thankfully we made it out safely with some great pictures!


Another highlight of the tour was a visit to the 3rd Tunnel. The North Koreans dug four known tunnels that very nearly reached Seoul! The 3rd tunnel is opened and we went down in it and got within 3 meters from North Korea underground! It was crazy!!!!! One of the tunnels could have passed 30,000 troops in one hour. The south koreans have found four, all coming from different offensive positions toward Seoul. It's speculated that there are more. You should search these if you get a chance!

All in all, it was a great day. The DMZ is what we've been looking forward to the most. It's hard to believe we stepped into North korea! I'm going to put up a few pictures but we'll show you the rest when we get home!



In the background, you can see a grey building. that's the North korean building headquarters at the demarcation line. You can see a few blue buildings in the background. The middle is the one where we were able to cross into North korea. You probably can't see it but there are two North Korean soldiers up by the grey building!







The quintessential DMZ picture :)



I'll put more up soon! We've only downloaded the ones from Tim's computer!