 South Korean sentry stands duty in Panmunjom, at the precise divide between the two Koreas |
Sixty kilometres from Seoul, a metropolis of twenty million, Stalinist troops, pumped up with fear and loathing, stand ready to shoot on sight to defend the impoverished hermit kingdom of North Korea. South Korean tour operators – you can’t go it alone here – show you the propaganda theme parks along the Demilitarised Zone, the no-go zone dividing two Koreas: observation towers and an enormous train station where no tickets are ever sold.
At the Panmunjom border post, theme park gives way to chilling reality. We enter the cabin in which both sides meet for talks. Beefy South Korean guards stand alert, faces blank behind aviator sunglasses. The 1976 axe murder of two American officers and other, more recent, fatalities demonstrate the naked xenophobia of the North Korean military.
Back in Seoul, on a sultry summer evening, rock concerts and food festivals get underway in parklands across the city; an occasional white-gloved policeman appears positively inoffensive. The contrast is overwhelming.
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