Seoul part 3: On a not-too-distant war
We’re waiting patiently on our bus, parked in front of the guarded gate of a military compound.
A couple military trucks exit the gate, loaded to the brim with huge bags of dirt. Off to reinforce river banks against the North Korean invasion, no doubt.
A US soldier boards the bus and meticulously checks all our names and passports. He apologises for the delay, which he puts down to “things happening up north”. That’s it — I think — someone’s kicking off a new Korean War and we’re right in the middle of it.
In reality, what we’re visiting is a tourist attraction, albeit one with a strong military presence and a bloodied history. Tour buses operated by many different agencies arrive at the DMZ every day and the tight schedule we have to follow is meant to facilitate other tourists rather than dictated by security requirements.
Still, there is palpable tension in the air and it’s clear this is a point of friction. Our South Korean guide stresses the efforts towards peace and a Korean reunification, but cannot hide her wariness of her northern cousins.
What is the DMZ and what is the tension all about? Let’s go back some years.
Korea was a Japanese colony between 1910 and 1945. After the end of WWII and the defeat of Japan in 1945, the country was divided into a northern area, protected by the Soviets, and a southern area protected primarily by the United States of America. In 1948, the two areas officially became the states of North and South Korea, the border roughly following the 38th parallel and cutting the Korean peninsula in half.
In a world that was slowly moving towards a full fledged Cold War, on 25 June 1950, North Korea invaded a totally unprepared South Korea, conquering Seoul in 3 days and most of the peninsula in the following 2 months.
The UN and US backed the South Korean Government and helped them recoup the lost territory (thanks to a US landing at Incheon which helped retake Seoul and cut the North Korean supply lines). The momentum carried US and South Korean troops further north, well past the 38th parallel.
However, at this point China intervened to support North Korea and managed to push back US and South Korean forces. Between 1951 and 1963, though fighting continued on the 38th parallel, the situation had devolved into a stalemate. This ultimately resulted in an armistice and the creation of a Demilitarized Zone, or DMZ. A peace agreement was never reached, so the two countries are still formally at war with each other.
There’s a very good animated map on Wikipedia, showing how dramatically the battlefront swung from north to south to north to south in just a handful of months.
In fact, the whole Wikipedia article on the Korean War is thorough and fascinating: it covers rather important questions such as why did North Korea feel confident enough to start the war, why was South Korea caught by surprise and what convinced the US to take part in the conflict.
The article also offers a sobering narrative of the impact on people, both civilians and military.
While most people in South Korea go about their daily business without giving war so much as a thought, I had the impression that the ghosts of war past and the ghosts of war future are still shaping society in the country: from the huge War Memorial in Seoul, to the 21+ months of mandatory military service, to propaganda and news of defectors on both fronts.
And how could it not? Having an enemy at your border, 60km away from the capital city of your country, is an unsettling thought to say the least.
The next entry in the diary is going to be a much more lighthearted look at Hangul, the Korean alphabet.
The previous entry in the series was on being colonised.
