Nampo, Panmunjeom, and Kaesong

From Pyongyang we drove a few hours north to see the West Sea Barrage, a giant dam (?) with a complicated lock system. We had to watch a terrible video about the construction, which, as someone on our tour pointed out, showed footage circa the 1950's, when this thing was built about 20 years ago. Above is the lighthouse, designed to look like a giant anchor.


Here's the Barrage. I guess.


After spending the night in the east coast hot springs town of Nampo, we drove four hours south to Panmunjeom to see the DMZ. This is the road on the way, but notice behind it the mountain. Pretty bare, right? Unfortunately, many of the trees have been cleared over the years (some for farming, many for heat and fuel), leaving the mountains looking like this. Sometimes you'll still see covered mountains, but apparently one of the initial sentiments of escapees to the south is their surprise at how green the mountains are.


At this point I want to tell you about our bus. Ours is the one on the right. Ever seen that episode of the Simpsons when Bart and Homer are tethered together? And Homer has night terrors in Bart's class? And screams in his sleep? That's what our bus sounded like.


Inside the DMZ at the official border. This is taken from inside the official building on the North side, facing the South. A striking point was the quality of the roads on each side, although the building in the North was surprisingly nice.


See that big cement block? That's the official border. It's 50cm wide. If you try to cross it someone, will shoot you. Probably a number of someones, actually, from both sides. This was taken from inside the meeting room where the two sides convene for discussion. Here I was technically back in the south. Would have been easier to get home from there...


Craig and I, my left and his right foot in the south, my right and his left foot in the north. Weird, right?


Our guide, the major, climbing the steps to the main building.


And here's something you don't see everyday. Some men who'd had a meeting were allowed to cross the DMZ on foot. This was more than a little surprising to see.


Outside the front gate to the DMZ area - the green sign indicates that you're only a 70 km drive from Seoul. Very, very strange.


In Kaesong, somewhat near the DMZ, we stopped for a short visit. Here is another great Great Leader monument. Apparently the city has two generators for power cuts. One to fuel the hotel where foreigners would stay, the other to light this monument.


While in Kaesong we visited the Museum of American Aggression, or the Museum of U.S. War Crimes, or something along those lines. Though we saw little actual evidence that the U.S. had commited any of the atrocities they suggested, there were a number of lovely paintings of the events on display. Notice the expressions of the faces of the American soldiers.