Mr. & Mrs. Smith

Jonathan here! Saturday we toured the DMZ "demilitarized zone" which has devided North & South Korea since the end of the Korean War in 1953. It was a great learning experience and really helped us understand the tension that has existed over the last 75 years in Korea. Even though the armistice was signed in 1953, plotting and planning did not stop there. 29 N. Korean assassins were captured in 1968 in an attempt on the S. Korean president's life. Since then barb wire fences have been set up along the water borders of the country in addition to the DMZ protecting land borders. No airplanes can fly through DMZ airspace or they will get shot down. Tunnels were found in 1970, 72, and 90 that were from 25-50 stories deep in the ground and came out around 50 km from Seoul... no I don't have any idea how many miles that is (silly metric system). There are undoubtedly more tunnels which have not yet been found (scary). S. Korea also has many "tank traps" set up on highways. These look like bridges, but are packed with dynamite and would be destroyed to block off any entryways into Seoul in the event of an invasion. Kind-of scary to drive through so many! We don't have that many pictures to post since the DMZ is pretty strict about what you are allowed to see. We did get to climb down one tunnel and it was quite the workout..especially since anyone over 5' tall had to walk around with a hunched back. These tunnels took over a decade to build. It was truly amazing and I'm really glad we took the time to go on the tour. The tour was really cool but also really sad. S. Korea desperately wants to make peace and reunite as it once was. Both governments helped build a railroad to unite the two countries and to give S. Korea a land route to China. Relations seemed to be strengthening until as S. Koreans were allowed entrance into N. Korea from 1999-2008 after the building of the unification bridge. Sadly, a tragic incident occurred in 2008. A visiting S. Korean was killed, evidently for breaking some regulation and no one is allowed in N. Korea now. Relations took a big hit with this incident. We followed all strict rules in the DMZ, notice the yellow no photo lines.

It was also really intense to see the guards watching your every move. There is a unification village set up on both sides of the DMZ. The N. Korean side does not even have any residents. They just pipe propaganda over the loud speakers at all times.

Tonight, Hudson we will get to keep Hudson for good, but don't worry, we won't scare him with any stories of the DMZ (just stories of a 13 hr. flight and a bunch of dogs waiting for him at the house.)