Visiting the demilitarized zone (DMZ) between North and South Korea is one of our top travel highlights so far. We took a DMZ tour from Seoul with Panmunjom Tours, an agency we picked based on positive reviews we’d seen from other bloggers. This was one of the most expensive things we’ve done to date at about $100 USD per person, but was absolutely worth it for such a unique experience. Here’s a rundown of our DMZ tour:

Q&A With a North Korean Defector

We hopped on the bus bright and early and were greeted with an exciting surprise – a woman who defected from North Korea would be joining us to talk about her experience escaping the country! I’d heard that Panmunjom Tours was the only company that offered this unique opportunity to hear from someone who’d fled North Korea but was too late to book their popular tour with a defector. Much to my surprise, we got to hear from one on our own tour! We spent much of the hour long ride from Seoul to the DMZ doing a Q&A session with this woman.

Escaping North Korea

She fled form North Korea in 2009 with her daughter (who was 19 at the time). They were able to escape through China; during the winter, when the river between China and North Korea freezes, some people are able to escape by ice skating across the river in the middle of the night. They had to pay off Chinese guards the equivalent of about $500 per person at the border to get in. This woman has an uncle in China who helped her plan her escape and met her when she got to the other side. From there, she had to quickly get to Southeast Asia where many countries have North Korean refugee camps. China will send refugees they find back to North Korea were they will likely face hard labor or even execution for their escape attempt, so she wasn’t able to stay there with her uncle. It took her 5 months to make it to her final destination, South Korea.

Life in North Korea

We also learned a bit about life in North Korea. She said she was the breadwinner in her family; her husband worked for the government but did not get paid. She made some money selling second hand clothes in the local market. She had been able to save up a large sum of money over several years which she planned to use for her daughter’s education. However, the government at some point devalued the currency and she lost nearly all of her savings. This was one of the catalysts for her to finally leave. Her daughter was also a driving force behind her decision. She expressed frustration about the government; under Kim Il Sung people were happier, but when Kim Jong Il took over his focus on building nuclear weapons took away a ton of resources that had previously gone to the people. She mentioned that more and more, North Koreans are become aware of the outside world. For example, it’s illegal to watch TV and listen to popular music, but many people are able to access pop culture that’s been smuggled in and watch it secretly (“after midnight,” she said).

Adjusting to South Korea

She said it’s been a bit challenging to adjust to life in South Korea. There are a lot of cultural differences that take getting used to, including some language-related challenges. Although both sides speak Korean, there are regional differences and some words that she hadn’t heard before. Overall, she is happy and hopes that one day both Koreas will be reunited so she can return to her hometown to see the family she left behind. She wasn’t able to tell anyone about her plan to leave for fear of punishment and hasn’t had contact with them since she left because it could put her and her family in North Korea in danger.

Freedom Bridge

Our first stop on the tour was the Freedom Bridge which connects North and South Korea. It’s currently blocked off, but if the two countries are ever reunited it could be used for access between them.

3rd Infiltration Tunnel 

After the Korean War, during a time the two countries were engaged in peace talks, North Korea built several tunnels under the border to infiltrate South Korea. South Korea has discovered four tunnels starting in the 1970s. The 3rd Tunnel is particularly  well-known because it’s closest to Seoul.  Visitors are able to enter the tunnel and walk until a point where it’s barricaded. We had to wear hard hats in the tunnel as it’s very low. No photos are allowed in the tunnels.

Dora Observatory & Propaganda Village

Dora Observatory allows visitors to peer into North Korea’s “Propaganda Village” through binoculars. After the Korean War, North Korea built a fake town to encourage South Koreans to defect. They play propaganda music for several hours a day, attempting to entice people over the border. To this day, the village remains empty. There are no homes or businesses, only empty buildings built to lure people across.

Dora Station

Dora Station is the last train stop in South Korea and it’s fully set up to begin running trains into North Korea – it even has an empty customs office ready to go should the peninsula be reunited. South Korea has petitioned the North to allow them to connect their railways so that South Koreans can link up with important trade routes that cross Asia and end up in Europe (like the Trans Siberian railway). For now, they are cut off from land access and hope to change that. They’ve offered to help North Korea with updating their transit system and are hopeful they will accept the offer in the next few years.

Camp Bonifas

Camp Bonifas is a UN military outpost that also serves as the orientation zone for visitors about to enter the Joint Security Area (JSA). US Soldiers conducted a briefing on entering the area and gave us historical information about the JSA and major events and conflicts that have happened there in the last few decades. Before being allowed to enter the JSA ourselves we had to sign agreements that start off with: “the visit to the Joint Security Area at Panmunjom will entail the entrance into a hostile area and the possibility of injury or death as a result of enemy action.” Thankfully, that didn’t happen to us. From Camp Bonifas, we transferred to a UN bus and were off to the JSA.

JSA (Panmunjom)

The JSA is comprised of several buildings shared between North and South Korea that are primarily used to hold talks between the two countries. We had to walk in two straight lines into the building, where we were able to technically step into North Korea by walking to the side of the building on the north side of the line of demarcation. We posed for pictures in North Korea with a South Korean soldier guarding the building. It was a fascinating experience: being in one of the most heavily militarized areas in the world, stepping foot into North Korea, and being part of a giant tourist group at the same time. There was a notable adrenaline rush when stepping into the buildings and seeing the North Korean soldiers guarding their side.

Camp Bonifas Gift Shop

From there, we went back to Camp Bonifas to check out the gift shop. We bought some North Korean wine because when else will we ever be able to try that? It wasn’t good, but it wasn’t terrible.

Overall, this was one of our most memorable days and we are so glad we were able to go during our short time in Korea. We highly recommend this tour as it affords a great opportunity to learn more about the history of the Korean Peninsula.