Sunday, January 25, 2009

Trip to DMZ



Sorry no pictures, no one is allowed to take pictures in DMZ or inside the tunnel.
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I wasn't really into visiting a war zone or anything, but I had nothing planned for this long long weekend (Koreans celebrate Chinese New Year, we had Monday and Tuesday off). It was snowing like crazy in the morning. Before we left, one of the IBM colleagues went back to his room to fetch his passport while 7 of us, including the driver) were all waiting in the van. 5 minutes passed, 10 minutes passed, 15 minutes passed. I started to give cynical comments about how this guy is putting on make up and powder his nose. Trying to push other IBM guys to him a call but he has no mobile phone. I was furious and was telling the driver we should simply leave without him. He finally turned up before I took any further action. Of course, I didn't give him a break. I said "you have wasted everyone's time, you should buy everyone a drink". Though that's only a 15 minute delay and the heavy snow slowed down everyone anyways, I am still angry at this guy. I cannot stand people who are not capable of making swift decision and cleanly executing them. If I am leading the trip, I would certainly abandon him without a second thought.

The De-Military Zone between north and south korea was the most heavily armed borders in the world. If you have heard all these crazy things North Koreans have tried, you would have understood why it is necessary. North Koreans are nuts! 10 year mandatory military service for men and 7 years for women. Any sane pepole would become dumb/insane/crazy after this long brainwashed. North Korean soldiers instigated fights in joint security area (even throwing an axe and killed 2 American solders at the spot), shot people if standing in their shooting range, etc. They really think Kim Yong II is the savior of the world and all they have done can be exempted by the name of protecting the greatest country in the world, North Korea, and the greatest leader, Kim? Bloody barbarians. The most amusing part is Kim has made himself a lot of statuses, one of them can be seen from DMZ (in a good day), several story high, painted in GOLD! I bursted out laughing when our tour guide told us this fact.

North Koreans dug tunnel through the border to south after the 1953 cease fire agreement. When being caught, North Koreans said "Oh, we were about to mine coal and took the wrong turn". It is such a lame execuse, you cannot deal with people like that. We walked through the tunnel, which was blocked with 3 barricades between north and south, Oh well, how can you trust the north? Perhaps they have dug a tunnel beneath this tunnel with political dissindent's labor.

1 comment:

loveabout said...

ha, don't be so hard on that poor guy. I just finished "The Eight" and "The Chocolate War," have you read them?

Love, ihon