DMZ

I've been here three years and finally made the trip up to the DMZ today. The South Korean guards are scary!! They don't even move. The first guy I saw, I thought he might be a mannekin or something. They stand there in this defensive posture with their fists clenched and look like they'll beat you down if you do the wrong thing. It's really impressive when you're looking straight at them. Unfortunately, although we could take pictures as we walked through, we weren't allowed to stop, so I didn't get any really good pictures. We got to go in one of the buildings which are half in North Korea and half in South Korea and the doorway to the North side is guarded by a ROK guard while it is being occupied by people from the South side. The tour guide told us we could go anywhere in the building, but we couldn't go behind the guard. Well, my friend Jo was getting her photo taken standing next to the guard and Myrna was going to get in the picture too. Without thinking about it, Jo went move to his other side and instead of going in front of him she started to step behind him. He didn't even say anything, but he immediately moved to block her. That was the only time we saw any of them budge except when ordered to post. It was a pretty good tour, but it was rainy and foggy, so I didn't get any good outside photos. I wanted to get a picture of the huge flag and flagpole the North Koreans have. They used to have a smaller one, but then the South Koreans put up one that was larger so the North Koreans put up one that is 160 feet high. The flag on it is 30m (about 90 feet) long. It weighs 600 pounds! I wouldn't want to be on that flag detail. All in all, I'm glad I made the trip. I'll post some pictures once I get them downloaded.