“Like any other day” in Seoul in the face of Sabre Rattling from North Korea

As I headed to Seoul, South Korea on March 25 on a business trip, the media coverage on the increasing tensions with North Korea was leading all news reports with headlines like “US officials concerned over North Korea’s ‘ratcheting up of rhetoric’” from CNN.

Yet my co-workers were totally unfazed by this escalating news, it was like any other day.  It really hit home when one colleague said “we’ve been at war for 60 years” and reminded me that the Korean War ended with an armistice agreement to set a demilitarized zone at the 38^th parallel and not a peace treaty ending the war. 

Note: At this 38^th parallel each drew back 2 km to their respective sides and this 4 km area is known as the De-Militarized Zone or DMZ.

As the business trip to support PR activities at Cisco Connect Korea (March 28-29) was over the Easter Long Weekend, I decided to stay and absorb the Korean culture and history.

On March 30, I joined Helen and Malcom on a tour to the DMZ.  I was a bit uncertain of how safe it would be as earlier that week North Korea cut off the military hotline, however, agreeing with both of them that this was a unique experience, I joined them on the tour.

As we drove up towards the DMZ along the Han River, the tour guide pointed out the high fences and guard towers along the side of the highway, which he informed us, were built to prevent “spies from the North” from slipping into Seoul. 

We finally arrived at the DMW and the Third Infiltration Tunnel, which was discovered on October 17, 1978. It is located 52km from Seoul and is 1.7 km (1.1 miles) long, 2 m (6.6 ft) high and 2 m (6.6 ft) wide and is about 350 meters below ground.

There’s a visitors centre and after leaving all purses and cameras in a locker and donning yellow hard hats we went down a very long incline that was commercially built to allow tourist to visit the tunnel. Once we reached the bottom, we walked along the actual tunnel, which was dense, hard rock and very damp.  The top of the tunnel was about my height and about an arm’s length and a half that we were told was to allow about 10,000 soldiers from the North to move through the tunnel in 1 hour and invade the South.

At the end of the tunnel, there are three concrete barricades that blockade it from the actual Military Demarcation Line (MDL).  I looked through this window at the end of the tunnel and could see the second concrete barricade about 50 feet away.

As I was walking through this very dank and muggy tunnel in the DMZ, it was hard not to remember sweating as I uncomfortably walked in a stooped manner through the Cu Chi Tunnels in Vietnam (Oct. 2010).  It does strike me that this war tactic of building tunnels certainly takes incredible patience, industriousness and time that blows my mind.  As we learned in the video before heading into the tunnel, the North built not just this one tunnel, but 4 tunnels!

Then we went to Dorasan Station that is a railway station which once connected North and South Korea.

After the tour concluded we headed to Insa-dong the artisan markets where traditional Korean culture and crafts are the focal point.  There were beautiful pottery, folk crafts, traditional teas as well as jewelry, hair ornaments and purses.  Of all the markets, this was the most impressive and original.

It was getting chilly so it only made sense to head into a chic bar with an amazing view of the city. We headed to Pierre’s Bar in the Lotte Hotel and had great red wine and a charcuterie plate.

For dinner we headed back towards our hotel (Intercontinental Coex in the Gangnam District, near Samsung Convention Centre) but to the Intercontinental Grand where we had a fantastic French dinner at Table 34.

Photo in front of the DMZ, with Helen and Malcom

This is the view of North Korea from one of the observatory towers. When I looked through these binoculars I saw these brand new two-story white building with bright blue roofs and thought that the North Koreans appeared to live the "good life". However, the tour guide informed us that these were fake buildings, in fact the whole village was not real. It was like a Hollywood movie set.  

I looked closer into the binoculars and noted there were no people walking around, no cars - nothing that resembled the buzz of a village at mid-day. Evidently, the North wants us to believe they live in these "Pleasantville-type villages".  This is known as "Propoganda Village".  When I tried to take a photo, I was told I could only take a photo from behind the yellow line which is 15 feet away from the edge of the platform where the binoculars are in the photo below.

On March 31 I used Korean public train transportation (what I loved was the train cards that I loaded up with yuan and used to tap the turn-style upon entry for speedy access to the very convenient trains) and headed to:

* The National Museum of Korea which was an architectural wonder with 3 levels of prehistoric and ancient history from Korea (see video for highlights).

* Chang Deok Gung Palace where I took not one, but two tours! The first was of the palace (1.5 hour) and the second was to the Secret Garden (2 hours).

* Namdaemun Market which reminded me of the street vendors in New York as they sold sunglasses, t-shirts and other knock-off bags and luxury items. I had dinner here. My favorite was the Korean version of gyoza (the skins were much thicker) and an-pan (like a steamed cha siu bao with red bean inside, the were the size of very large pancakes so very filling).

At the end of the day, I was exhausted from all of the walking!  

Here I am in the Secret Garden at Chang Deok Gung Palace.

On April 1, I headed to Gyeongbok Palace where I was lucky to see the changing of the guard in bright, bold colors playing traditional drum and horn music or carrying military weaponry and shields or flags. 

Having had my fill of tours the day prior, I did the self-guided tour that was a wise move as the palace grounds were huge!  There are several palace buildings plus two museums. I visited the National Folk Museum but disappointingly the National Palace Museum was closed so I’ll have to go back and visit another time.  There were several gates before arriving at the throne room that was reminiscent of the Changeok Gung Palace.  By far my favorite building was the Gyeonghoeru Pavillion that is where the King hosts formal banquets that’s nestled at the base of Mount Inwangsan.  The pavilion is two stories and is surrounded by a pond with two small islands. 

After spending most of the morning at the palace grounds, I hailed a taxi for a quick look at one more market that had been recommended – Kwangjan Market – which is well known for handicrafts and where you can purchase the traditional Korean dress of jeogori (shirt) and baji (pants). I visited the building, expecting to see racks and racks of traditional Korean dress for purchase, so I was very surprised when I saw this gigantic building filled with stall after stall after stall of vendors with many, many bolts of beautiful fabric that can be chosen from and made into customized Korean dress.  It was amazing to see all the beautiful fabric and the samples of Korean dress possible. 

Seoul is a very technologically advanced city with tall skyscrapers.  It’s very commercialized with all the expected name brand chain stores and restaurants and gigantic digital media signs everywhere (on the side of buildings, in the train station and even on vending machines).  Everyone I met was also very helpful and friendly to tourists. The city was very clean and welcoming. The very extensive train system made it very easy to get around to all the sights as well. 

Guards as the gates of Gyeongbok Palace