We're Watching You (Dee Em Zed)

Today, our last full day (kind of, we are leaving on Saturday morning at 12.30am) in South Korea and we went to the DeMilitarized Zone (DMZ).

I didn't know too much about this area before I had planned to come out here (and, indeed, very little about the Korean war), but it seemed like a historic place to visit, something not to miss.

They say the tension here is palpable, and they weren't wrong. We are told not to make contact in any way with the North soldiers, give them anything which they could use as propaganda, or anything that would give them a reason to shoot at us. SHOOT AT US. We were told the stories of the two JSA (Joint Security Area) soldiers from the UN side (the South side) who were hacked to death with axes, and the Russian who defected to the South, and the Free world, and the various other acts of provocation that the North have used to probe the South (not even beginning to mention the South Korean warship that was sunk by a NK torpedo in April).

In this particular scene, the North Korean soldier is watching us through the binoculars, the ROK (Republic of Korea, South Korean) soldier is standing half in view - this is incase they take fire, and can conceal themselves.

All very active, all very scary, but absolutely, the highlight of the trip.