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HELLO from KOREA

Hello-Eng(3.3) - Korea.net

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The DMZ and<br />

Panmunjeom<br />

The Demilitarized Zone<br />

(DMZ) remains a scar on<br />

the consciousness of the<br />

Korean people, but it is<br />

undeniably fascinating as<br />

the last physical vestige of<br />

the Cold War, a tense flashpoint<br />

for possible hostilities,<br />

and an arena for subtle<br />

rivalries between North and<br />

South Korea, and all this<br />

only 44 kilometers <strong>from</strong><br />

Seoul.<br />

Geographically, the DMZ<br />

is a four-kilometer-wide<br />

strip of land that stretches<br />

250km (155 miles) <strong>from</strong> the<br />

east to the west coast and is<br />

divided in half. The zone is supposed to be neutral, but since 1974 UN<br />

and South Korean authorities have discovered several tunnels penetrating<br />

the southern half, presumably, for the transport of North Korean troops.<br />

Visitors can witness with painful clarity the backbreaking, yet futile, toil<br />

that must have gone into boring through the solid granite.<br />

It is easy to arrange a visit to the DMZ. Tour buses regularly travel<br />

along Tongillo (Unification Highway) and cross Freedom Bridge into the<br />

village of Panmunjeom, the site of the armistice negotiations that ended<br />

the Korean conflict in 1953. But the two sides are technically still at war;<br />

they are merely observing an extended cease-fire. Panmunjeom is also<br />

the seat of the intermittent dialogue between the Democratic People's<br />

Republic of Korea (North Korea) and the Republic of Korea (South<br />

Korea).<br />

79 _ Places

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