Here I am with a fake South Korean guard and a real waiver for the Demilitarized Zone between South and North Korea.
Here is Barry with a real guard. They stand perfectly still in a tae kwon do pose, which makes them look a lot more intimidating than, say, Barry.
Here I am, standing in North Korea and working on an appropriately respectful DMZ face. Don't worry, they said they locked the door behind us.
In a rarely used feature, the Polycom demarcates the border above. Below, the concrete bump serves this purpose. You can see the North Korean guard in the background.
This man is the first North Korean I have likely seen in my life!
Speaking of North, here is their town of
Kijong-dong, also known as propaganda village. The flagpole, the fourth largest in the world, flies (only in tame weather) over shells of windowless buildings.
This is the aptly named Bridge of No Return, where prisoners of the Korean war were freed and got to make their most important life decision: North or South.
As part of the tour, you get to visit the ultra-modern non-functional train station.
They call it the Peace train, but it's more like a Train of Broken Dreams, really.
Final stop: North Korean dug
tunnel. Barry tried to convince me that we didn't need to go because he thought I would be scared. I think he was projecting.
What useful souvenirs do you buy after this? We chose not to get the doll guards to face off against each other on our shelf.
