OUR TRIP TO LOOK AT NORTH KOREA FROM THE NORTHERN LINE

October 31, Thursday

            We got up very early (6 AM) so that we could meet a driver at 7:35.  Breakfast began at 6:30,  but there was a huge line of people waiting to get in.  There is a nurse’s convention here and they really love to eat.  Since it was Halloween the waiters had funny hats, the place mats were covered in drawings of carved pumpkins, and they had some candy – whoa – way too early.  We managed to dodge in and out of ravenous nurses to get some things to eat.

            Our driver met us with a van, then drove us to a bus.  We ended up waiting until 8:30 until we were joined by the other tourists on our not-DMZ tour.  There was an outbreak of swine flu, apparently, coming down from China, through the DMZ, so it was closed.  We toured, instead, the northern end of an island that had an observatory facing North Korea.  It shouldn’t have been so interesting, but it was.  There was a fog settling in which made the views of North Korea even weirder than they might have been.  The only issue was that there wasn’t anything to eat.  We got some water, but left us hungry for a time.  Amazing, since we had eaten like horses for days.

Seoul early on a Thursday morning

Across the Han river

Korean National building (like congress)

Gyangnam style.  Gyangnam is a wealthy neighborhood adjacent to the financial center of Seoul)

Local farmers were selling their wares near the Observatory

View of the observatory

North Korea.  The houses in the fog were built to show off North Korean modern housing.  No one really lives there.

Foggy day - but a little more of North Korea.

            We then drove back toward Seoul.  On the way a Miss Park who was a refugee from NorthKorea answered our questions.  Her story was fascinating. Some of the questions: 1.) what finally made you leave?  Her mother had been smuggling in CDs from the west, got caught and was sent to prison.  She decided she had to go.  Unfortunately she left her younger sibling, mother, and father there.  2.). What path did you use to get out.  Her village was near a river on the Chinese/North Korean border.  She paid a person to smuggle her into China (a coyote of sorts).  Once there she made her way all across China to Vietnam.  In Vietnam she made her way to the South Korean embassy.  They got her to South Korea. First she had to be checked to make sure she wasn’t a North Korean spy.  Then she had to be oriented to fit into modern society.  3.). Did the North Koreans know she took off.  Yes, and her mother was re-imprisoned and tortured some more. 4. Is there still starvation?  What’s the difference between the lifestyles of the rich and poor there?  There really isn’t much difference – no one is doing well.  A rich family has 3 meals with rice.  A poor family has one.

   Before we got back to Seoul we stopped on the way to an amethyst factory.  Some really gorgeous gems.  Before we got to the next stop we were given a history lesson about the Korean War.  What a mess from 1945 until today.

Basically, the Japanese invaded Korea in 1910 and became occupiers.  In 1945 the US dropped the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.  It didn’t seem as though Japan would ever surrender, but after the bombs they abruptly quit.  That meant that no one was running Korea.  When the ending of WWII was negotiated, the Russians and the Americans were beginning the Cold War.  The result was that Korea was split along the 38^th parallel. 

The next move by the US made a huge disaster.  The Americans decided that they would have a defense line that went from Japan to the Philippines. The problem was that left Korea out of the mix.  The communists in the north, emboldened by Stalin invaded the Southern part of Korea.  The attack was sudden and well armed. The North Koreans marched south almost to Busan in the southern part of Korea.  The UN decided they had to help so the US, Britain, Canada, the Philippines, the Netherlands, and several other countries joined the war.  Under the command of  Douglas MacArthur invaded Korea at Inchon (west of Seoul). This broke the North’s supply line and they began to lose. The UN group marched almost up to the Chinese border.  But then, the Chinese decided to help the communist North Korea, and they joined the battle.  They pushed the UN line back almost to Seoul again.  Sigh.  Exhausted from years of war, they decided to go back and use the 38^th parallel to divide the country.  Both sides couldn’t agree to a peace settlement, there was just a cease fire.  And so it remains today.

            We then went to a war museum. The museum re-enforced the war history we had just listened to.

A hallway of plaques honoring those who had died in Korea fighting the war.  

            We then stopped at a Red Pine Resin pill factory.  The stuff stank to high heaven, couldn’t stay for too long.  Apparently, few others could stand it either.  We waited outside while the few that were interested to finish the ad to buy the stuff.

            We then drove back to the city center.  Most of the tourists (from the Netherlands, Philippines, a few Americans) got off near the place where the bus began its journey.   We stayed on the bus and got delivered to the hotel. We stopped at the Dutch and Bean (a coffee shop related to the hotel).   Dutch, we found out, was the fact that chocolate squares were dropped into the coffee.  Naw – we’ll stick to our

 cappuccinos, lattes, and for today an English muffin sandwich to stave off starvation for the fat.

            We went back to the room for a bit of a rest.  We also made sure we were packed up and ready to leave for tomorrow morning.

We decided to try the chicken place for dinner.  The house regular chicken was 18,000 wan (about 18 dollars).  The waiter told us that was plenty for 2 people.  Boy, was he right.  A huge basket showed up filled with crispy chicken.  We had mild kimchi radish squares, coleslaw of sorts, round things that were crunchy and delicious.  Oof.  We ate like pigs.