We were so excited to arrive in South Korea as we
were anxious to visit the birth country of our son-in-law, Sae Cho (Brittany’s
husband) and we were not disappointed.
We docked at Incheon, the largest seaport city in Korea with a
population of 2.5 million. Human
settlement at this location goes back to the Neolithic Period and Korea has a
4,000 year-old history. Incheon is
considered to be a part of the greater Seoul metropolitan area due to part of
it bordering the capital and their subway systems are connected, but it is
actually a separate jurisdiction.
Korea, of course, is a divided nation. With a total population of just over 73
million, South Korea has 49 million of this total and Seoul alone has 24.5
million residents. Korea is a peninsula
jutting down between the Yellow Sea and the Sea of Japan and has only been
divided since 1940, being a united nation since the Middle Ages with a common
history and common culture. Also, a
common enemy, Japan, which occupied but also modernized Korea, building a
network of roads, bridges, railroads and heavy industry. During WWII, no battles were fought on Korean
soil thanks to the connection with Japan.
Unfortunately, by the end of the war, Korea was
controlled by the Soviets under communist ruler Kim Il-sung. After Japan was evicted Soviet entry led to growing
disputes with the southern part of Korea. Moscow scuttled the United Nations
trusteeship and the economy went into a freefall. In 1947 the UN committee on Korean sovereignty
sought recognition for a unified Korea but the Soviets refused to reconcile and
the U.S. only recognized the south.
North and south went to war in 1948 with Premier
Joseph Stalin and Chairman Mao Tse-tung’s blessing and support of Kim. A combination of U.S. and U.N. forces were
deployed in Korea in the fall of 1950, led by General Douglas MacArthur,
landing at Incheon. It was a brutal war,
with the tide changing several times and resulting in over 120,000 combatant
deaths. Finally, in 1953 an armistice
was signed with the dividing line being the 38th parallel creating
North and South Korea. The South Korean
people were thankful for the U.S. sacrifice in helping to keep communism out of
their country and many of the Koreans we met on our tours expressed that thanks
verbally and in their actions. It was
quite satisfying to finally be with people on the other side of the world who
actually like Americans.
Syngmon Rhee ruled South Korea from 1948 to 1960
but it was far from a model democracy.
Elections were controlled by force but he was ousted after the 1960
elections and new President Park Chung-hee instituted a 5-Year Plan calling for
economic reform, a restriction on imports, a reduction in domestic consumption,
providing cheap government loans and tax breaks to stimulate industrial
production. As U.S. and Japanese
relations improved and American involvement in the Vietnam War escalated, the
South Korean economy boomed. In the
1960’s S.K. GDP rose by an average of +8% a year. Their economy was based on the Japanese
pattern and continued rapid growth throughout the 1970’s with huge increases in
industry. Samsung became a giant company
representing 25 % of the total GDP of South Korea. The middle class increased by 50 % and
agriculture, like most developing nations, shrank as a percent of GDP. In 1960, agriculture was 60 % of GDP. By 1970 it had shrunk to 37 % and today it is
only 5 %.
While the growth rate has slowed in recent years
and S.K. went through a tough year requiring assistance from the International
Monetary Fund, today the balanced economy provides a per capita income of $
32,000.00 and is the 15th largest economy power in the world. The
first woman president of South Korea and a staunch progressive conservative,
Park Geun-hye, presides over a prosperous country with a GDP that is twenty
times larger than the dysfunctional and communist-controlled North with its
decidedly wacko dictator, Kim Jong-un.
Last month, Kim killed his own uncle, whom he thought was attempting to
overthrow his government. He keeps sable
rattling and threatening world peace and action against South Korea and Japan
by firing dud missiles into the Japanese Sea and Pacific Ocean and proclaiming
his right to be a nuclear power.
Despite the disparity between North and South, the
sincere and stated objective of both halves is to be united again into one
country. It is a consistent theme in every presentation and outward signs of
the unification movement were everywhere we visited. Our tour guide believes unification will
happen within ten years. Our expert
lecturer doubts that timing unless there is regime change in North Korea.
We visited two sites that highlight the division
between these two countries in the Demilitarized Zone. The DMZ is the strip of land and river
running across Korea roughly following the 38th parallel. It is 160 miles long and up to 2.5 miles
wide. A high metal fence with razor wire
tops runs the entire length on either side of the DMZ with guardhouses and pill
boxes every few hundred yards. It is
manned, day and night, by the armies of both countries, each “protecting” their
own side. Civilians are not allowed in
the DMZ but we got special permission to pass through it on our way to the
North Korean side to visit and go down into Tunnel # 3. The 3rd Tunnel is one of four interdiction
tunnels constructed by the North Koreans after the Armistice was signed and
were first discovered in 1972. The first
of these secret tunnels were found based on information received from a North
Korean defector and the last one was found in 1992. No one knows exactly how many more they might
find but the search continues for what some believe might be twenty more.
The 3rd Tunnel is about six feet tall
and six feet wide and has the capacity to move between 10,000 and 30,000 troops
an hour from North to South Korea, entering south of the DMZ approximately a
half mile past the Military Demarcation Line (MDL). The tunnels were used for numerous incursions
by the North and those incursions, along with firing across the DMZ has
resulted in 120 south military deaths along with 20 U.S. soldiers from 1953 to
1999. No large scale invasion was ever
attempted and now the four discovered tunnels are blocked to prevent further
use. The tunnel was chiseled by hand
tools at a depth of 240 feet below the surface through solid granite and runs
approximately 1.5 miles under the narrowest parts of the DMZ.
Our first stop was the “Freedom Bridge”, the
wooden bridge over which tens of thousands of Koreans escaping the communist
North fled right after the Armistice was signed but before the borders were
closed and the DMZ was formed. Then we
traveled through the heavily guarded DMZ and thorough passport inspection
stations to the 3rd Tunnel and went down inside to transit a 600
foot section of the actual tunnel.
Sorry, no photos allowed of the tunnel and I was not supposed to take
photos of the DMZ from the Unification Center, but I did not know that so you
can see those foggy shots below. My bad.
Seoul was a city we would like to have seen more
of but we walked the streets of Incheon deep into the local neighborhoods to
try to find some authentic Korean clothing items. All we found was Western shops full of Western
clothes; LaCosta, FootLocker, Nike, Levi, L.L. Bean, etc. We couldn’t even find a T-shirt with “Korea”
on it but we saw NY Yankee caps, I (heart) NY tees….hell, even a Georgia
Bulldogs sweatshirt. What!!?? So we left with a few magnets and a couple of
DMZ T-shirts from our tour. Oh well,
maybe next trip.
Below is the difference between the Korean
alphabet (26 letters) and the Chinese “alphabet” (4,000 characters). Think back to your time in the first grade….which
would you prefer to learn?
한반도 비무장지대 (Korean) : 韓半島非武裝地帶 (Chinese)
I will give $ 20.00 to the first person who can provide me with the correct translation of both. Sailing for Dalian,
China and will be there at noon. Until
then,
God Bless you all.
Petitions on the MDL fence for a unified Korea
Spirited photo of the DMZ on a really foggy day
MDL on the South Korean side of the DMZ
Statue symbolizing the hope of the Korean people for unification.
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