Thread: North Korea

So Bluemoon, what can I say about N.Korea. Lets start here. A company on post organizes tours of what is called the DMZ, or demilitarized zone. It runs on the 38th parallel, and is the line that divided North and South Korea. My fellow soldiers and I took a trip up there today, and it was not what I expected. There are some great symbolic things that are on the south side of the DMZ, like The Freedom Bridge more popularly known as the Bridge of No Return, where thousands of thousands of S. Koreans have crossed to the gates on the North side, leaving messages scrawled on everything from paper to bedsheets. Asking the tour guide, how long some of the notes have been up there, she bitterly told me that some of the things left at the gate have been there for more than 20 years, specifically pointing to what looked like a bed sheet, which looked extremely old. After seeing the gate and a few other odds and ends, my friends and I were smoking outside when we heard talking coming over the loud speakers. It was FUCKING LOUD. When I asked a Korean worker what was being said, he replied they are telling the North Koreans how wonderful it is here. and apparently at night N.Korea does the same thing. .....really???? If you ever get a chance go to the observation tower here. You'll see what called the Unification Observer y. At the top, you can see a N.Korean village. Our tour guide explained that even though the village is decent sized, no one really lives there except less than 150 factory workers and farm workers. They are paid to live there by the North Korean Government. Looking out, you can easily see that these people don't have coats, gloves, or anything that looks relatively warm on their bodies as they trudge toward a factory and fields in the distance. At sundown they all leave, and apparently only a small amount of people remain in the town. The tour guide then explains, in the summer, the villagers farm rice, but since the population of N.Korea is so fucked up do to every single fucking problem you can imagine, certain companies, get S.Koreans to farm N. Korea rice fields. We were told a story about how a bunch of N.Korean upper-class people came to visit, and usually no one is allowed to cross the Dmz, but because of the tour they were on, they came right to the edge. When they were there taking pictures, one of the N.Koreans started sprinting across the DMZ to South Korea. North Korean soldiers gunned him down before he made it. Walking around outside, we could see the North Korean army, we talked and joked and smoked cigs, and watched as they walked back and forth, scattered along the 38th Parallel. We could see them staring at us. and thats all they did, just stare. Eventually we decided to take a picture of them, and see if we could piss them off. eventually we got bored though. really??? does this dude look scary to you..... After that we hit up the gift shop, bought bottles of N.Korean alcohol and got drunk, messed around with some Katusas Korean army soldiers integrated into the U.S army we ran into then hopped up and took the bus back home. It occurred to me later, the complete absurdity, of the situation here. A bunch of US army soldier and tourists, just came up the what is now the equivillant of the Berlin Wall, but its a line and took pictures, and made faces at the N.Korean soldiers. ITS A TERRIBBLE FUCKING JOKE. N.Koreans treat this DMZ like its the most important thing in the world, you know not letting S.Korea mess up their country right???.....in south korea, food great, people are great, people have jobs, colleges, hotels, diplomats, embassies, malls, parks.....North Korea has.......um...... NOTHING!!!!!!!!!!!!! The rest of the world treats the DMZ like a fucking tourist spot. Do you know how many people are starving to death, just 30 miles past that DMZ???? How bad it is over there??? How fucking brainwashed all those people are???? On their side, they set up a museum, and hung the Ax used in the killings in the 70s when a bunch of s. Koreans and soldiers fell asleep in a guard house, on the south side of the DMZ. When the museum was built on the south Korean side, N.Korea build this huge fucking tower, with a giant flag at the top. The fucking flag weighs 800 pounds dry. why? On the tour we were shown a tunnel that had been dug underneath the DMZ by N.Korea. In case war ever started, they could move 30000 troops an hour through it. They apparently didn't plan on the road falling in over them, which is how the tunnel was discovered by south korea. it collapsed, Over 6 tunnels have been found I think. anyway. I just think its weird, how we could treat a place like that like its nothing but a way to waste an afternoon after everything...which is still happening and never stopped. Fun fact for you. N.Korea routinely shoots artillery into S.Korea, usually just isolated wooden spots, or in mountainous regions, just to prove that they can actually hit something if they wanted to. Ive heard during training missions, South and North Koreans have run across each other in the within the DMZ and shot each other up remember it goes all the way along the 38th parallel. UGGHHH.....I honestly hope that something similliar to the Berlin Wall is going to happen soon. In fact last week, S.Korean officals stated that, if they recived, clear signs that N.Korea was going to invade, then S.Korea would invade first...... makes a lot of sense right??? Opinions and thoughts Bluemoon???