Welcome To Kim Jong-un's Hermit Kingdom

The demilitarised zone is actually quite peaceful, for all the buildup about it. Not surprising: the anti-US, anti-South Korea stuff on display. Surprising: the zone is a haven for wildlife.

- Dr N.J. Nadarajan

The border between North Korea and South Korea is one of the most heavily militarised places in the world. According to former US president Bill Clinton, it is the “scariest place on earth”. It has that kind of impact on most people. Both sides of the border brim with hundreds of thousands of soldiers armed to the teeth. There are barbed-wire fences and walls, mines and heavy artillery. Yet, ironically, it is called the demilitarised zone (DMZ).

As the Korean War ended without a peace accord, the two Koreas remain at war, technically. Both countries, however, agreed to a ceasefire, and one of the provisions of the ceasefire agreement was the creation of a strip of no-man’s land on the border. The DMZ is a 4km-wide buffer zone between the two Koreas, stretching nearly 250km from the mouth of the Han River on the west coast of the Korean peninsula to a little south of the North Korean town of KosÅng on the east coast. It divides the peninsula across the 38th parallel. Through the middle of the DMZ runs the military demarcation line, which is the actual border between the two countries. Panmunjom, the ‘truce village’ that houses the joint security area (JSA), is here.

The DMZ lies 160km southeast of Pyongyang, a three-hour drive on the Pyongyang-Kaesong motorway. It is a two-lane highway, extending as far as the eye could see. It is in reasonably good shape, although not as good as the ones in the capital city. Traffic is sparse, mostly tourist buses and rundown military vehicles.

In the villages along the motorway, time seems to stand still. It is extremely basic living, with mechanisation virtually absent. Manual labour is the norm. There are old women working the paddy fields and men transporting goods on bullock carts. In the fields and on the mountains that dot the landscape, there are messages from Kim Il-sung and Kim Jong-il in red and white, exhorting everyone to work harder for the fatherland.