Kaesong is the prettiest city in Korea and among the loveliest in all Asia. Kaesong is winding alleys, old homes with curved tile roofs, gardens and guest houses with bamboo bed mats. The serenity of this sleepy, peaceful city gives way to the greatest concentration of military muscle on the planet. The train tracks used to continue south to Pusan, but now we ride a car 10 miles to the peace village of Panmunjom, where the poorly named Reunification Highway ends in barbed wire. Panmunjom is surely the strangest tourist trap on Earth .
Visitors sit at the peace conference table, a line running right through the room.
While guards from the South Korean side peer through windows, North Korean officers give a briefing on the outrages of the western imperialists. A gift shop sells separatist souvenirs. Then the cars leave for a ride through the hilly countryside. A battery of tripod-mounted binoculars await at a viewing site. They focus upon a concrete wall curving over the distant hills.