Panmunjom
Although the Korean War never officially ended, organized tours are allowed
to the Joint Security Area at Panmunjom. Korean tourists are not allowed,
but foreigners can visit and even step a few feet into the North Korean sector.
The South Korean and US troops here are especially selected for this
duty and are always on the lookout for trouble.
In 1976, two US Army officers were killed by North Korean troops in the "Axe
Murder" tree trimming incident. Three days later, US troops cut the
tree down as B-52 circled, ready to nuke the North if provoked. Later,
in the 1980s, a firefight erupted in the UN courtyard as North Korean troops
pursued a defecting Soviet diplomat.
A limited number of civilians from both sides are allowed to live in the
area. A handful of South Korean farmers accept sever limitations on
their movements to own relatively large tracts of land and earn around $80,000
per year growing rice. The North Koreans have built a propaganda village
which supposedly shows the superiority of the North, although it is thought
that no one actually lives there. At some point the governments of
North and South began competeing to erect increasingly taller flag poles
to display their respective flags. The South eventually gave up, leaving
the North the "winners." The Communist government of the North fails
to feed its own people but can boast the world's tallest flagpole. The
fabric alone weighs 600 pounds.
Check out the panorama. You can see the Propaganda Village, the Bridge
of No Return, and the wartime truce buildings. The mountains behind
that area are the vicinity of Kaesong. Before the war Kaesong was in
South Korea right at the border and was the site of one of the attacks with
which the North began the war. During the war, the area of Panmunjom
was the closest thing to "tank country" in
Korea.
Freedom Bridge across the Imjin |
Freedom Bridge |
Neutrals |
Conference Buildings |
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ROK Guard. They wear body armor and use the protection of the building. |
Two ROKs in the conference building. |
The guards are always at the ready. |
On the left and in the South, John Hamill. On the right and in the
North, Willard Hamill. |
The Group. |
An agent of evil, a North Korean guard in front of the NK building. |
Cameras are everywhere. |
The UN building. |
A plant inside the UN building. |
On the left, the UN building. On the right, the conference buildings. |
The courtyard area of the UN building. |
The Bridge of No Return |
The Bridge of No Return from Observation Area |
Original Wartime Truce Buildings |
Communist Propaganda Village. No
one actually lives there, we are told. |
The world's tallest flagpole. |
Looking generally east. This may be the wartime positions of the Marines. |
Big panorama from the Observation Area.
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Copyright © 2002 John Hamill All rights reserved.