Global Travel Writers: Articles http://www.globaltravelwriters.com/ Global Travel Writers en Global Travel Writers: Articles http://www.globaltravelwriters.com/EXT:tt_news/ext_icon.gif http://www.globaltravelwriters.com/ Global Travel Writers TYPO3 - get.content.right http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss Tue, 14 Jun 2011 05:50:00 -0400 Living on the fault line http://www.globaltravelwriters.com/articles/category/korea-north/article/living-on-the-fault-line/ Within sixty kilometres of Seoul, a conurbation of twenty million, Stalinist troops stand ready to... 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.  

More images.

]]> Philip Game Korea (South) Korea (North) By: Philip Game Tue, 26 Aug 2008 22:19:00 -0400 12,001 Miracles at North Korea's Kumgang Mountains http://www.globaltravelwriters.com/articles/category/korea-north/article/12001-miracles-at-north-koreas-kumgang-mountains/ Can the sound of a temple bell call forth a mountain range? It would seem unlikely. But in the case... Poets, artists and mystics have long celebrated Kumgangsan as a place of miraculous happenings. The Buddhist scripture the Avatamska Sutra records that "12,000 miracles" are created by the 12,000 peaks of this spectacular range, which is also said to be the home of the Buddha. Rugged stone sentinels, so jagged that they could have been cut out with a fretsaw, tower over the raging waterfalls and ever-changing flora of the valleys making up the 2,400 square kilometre National Park.

But while a visit to Kumgangsan is certainly a "peak" experience, getting there is not so easy, as the range lies wholly within North Korea.

Sadly, the Inner Diamond Mountains are nowadays off-limits to visitors. But the hiking trails of the Outer Diamond Mountains are ample consolation. The ascent of the Manmulsang peaks is a challenging climb along a track so steep that in places, staircases are needed. In other places, high stone steps mark out the path. All around, the pinnacles soar like stone needles from the valley floor - this would most definitely not be the best parachuting zone on earth.

If the Diamond Mountains are "the land of 12,000 miracles", could the eventual reunification of Korea be miracle number 12,001? . .

]]> Graham Simmons Korea (North) Adventure Travel Cultural Travel Destination Travel Nature and Wildlife By: Graham Simmons Thu, 15 Mar 2007 18:42:00 -0400