Peace tourism

Hiking along the “Peace Trail” in South Korea’s side of the demilitarized zone brings home the stark reality that the land of K-pop and K-drama is also technically at war.

- ANA MARIE PAMINTUAN

My biggest concern on a rainy, dreary, late-autumn-cold morning last Tuesday was whether my aging bones, weighed down by heavy winter wear, would finish the trek of nearly four kilometers through a muddy path running parallel to the coast of the East Sea, which started and ended on steep wooden stairs.

But I was also aware of the threat of armed conflict erupting any time between the two Koreas. This threat is always palpable in any sector of the DMZ.

Lining the Peace Trail in Goseong (not Gimpo as I erroneously reported in the previous column, sorry) were layers of various types of wire fences and barricades topped by concertina wire.

I’ve done the popular Joint Security Area and Panmunjeom tours in the DMZ, but the Goseong Peace Trail has its own appeal.

Running parallel to the Peace Trail is a railroad that goes all the way to the North. The Korean guide, speaking through an interpreter, expressed hope that one day the railroad would be operated with the two Koreas already at peace.

Signs in red, warning of land mines, were posted at intervals of a few meters. The guide warned of snakes that might emerge — an indication of minimal human presence along the trail.

Security is so tight photos of the fenced area are not allowed, and visitors must be escorted by teams of uniformed soldiers.

At the Goseong Unification Observatory and DMZ Museum, visitors can peer at the North through coin-operated mounted binoculars. From the viewing decks, one can see a massive installation of loudspeakers, from which the South blares out messages and occasionally music to the North.

Maybe the North Koreans are no fans of K-pop. Since last year, they have deployed hundreds of balloons across the DMZ that dropped garbage on the South.