Happy tourists in "the most terrifying area in the world"

SeoulPark is probably in his 60s. He doesn't talk much, but he likes to surprise people with his bird. A very pretty parakeet that he leaves on the shoulders of tourists. The clueless tourists are surprised when they notice a pat on their back. When they turn their heads, they find a colorful bird perched on their lips. Many believe Park does this to make money. He doesn't. He simply leaves the bird for a while, goes for a walk, and comes back to find his winged friend. It seems like a comical scene outside a lovely café. hipsterA small building with glass walls that reveal the minimalist interior design. Inside, a young woman with a modern hairstyle is preparing all kinds of coffees. Dutch Black, flat white, affogatos...with a bagel With a coffee with funny drawings in hand, many young people sit on the benches and play with Park's bird, taking photos to upload to Instagram. You'd never guess we're in a place Bill Clinton called "the most terrifying area in the world" in 1993. We're in the demilitarized zone separating the two Koreas, known as the DMZ. Overlooking North Korea, there's a café hipster.

In 2018, an agreement between the two governments eased border surveillance. Soldiers grew bitter in the barracks, and tourism arrived. This agreement is currently being reconsidered by the Southern government, to avoid a Hamas-style attack from the North on the Gaza border. Many tourists seem to forget this, but it remains a dangerous border. At 7 a.m., for example, a group of visitors departs from the capital, Seoul. Paul, the guide, asks those present what they expect from the day, and a group of French people shout, "Have a good time!" like someone going to Port Aventura. Two veteran Americans look at them disapprovingly, and Paul warns them. "It may not seem like it, but it's still a very dangerous place. One mistake, one provocation, and boom," he says. Who knows if active surveillance will soon be restored and tourists will no longer be welcome.

The DMZ can't be visited alone. But instead of encountering a lot of discomfort, armed soldiers, and tension, visitors find elegant cafes, a Dunkin' Donuts, and a somewhat ramshackle amusement park. If anyone was expecting an aggressive border crossing, they don't find it, as the soldiers are in hidden locations. You can hardly find them. "To enter the central part of the DMZ, you need permission from the army. They have to check all the tourists' documents and take turns entering. You might find yourself arriving at 10 a.m. and not getting a turn until 3 p.m.," Paul reasons. But since everything depends on the Ministry of Defense, sometimes groups that have been waiting for hours to enter discover that the gates are closed that day. Or they receive a last-minute call telling them they can enter earlier than planned. To make the wait more pleasant, a strange tourist complex has grown up around the DMZ entrance gates, where everything from an open-air art museum that calls for peace to restaurants fast food, statues commemorating those killed in combat, and an old locomotive riddled with bullet holes, as it was attacked by North Koreans in the 1950s. Once you cross a bridge with military checkpoints and reach the DMZ, the surprises keep coming. At the entrance to one of the tunnels that the northern regime dug under the border in the 1990s, now uncovered, a bus drops tourists off in front of signs where they can take photos with drawings of bones wearing soldier helmets and three large colorful letters: DMZ. Instagram in a war zone.

Yes, the DMZ has changed a lot in recent years. Just a few years ago, this elegant café hipster So fashionable now was a tavern built in 1972 where many elderly people, displaced by the war from the north, would gather and come to see Makgeolli, a Korean alcohol made from rice. They spent hours gazing beyond the thorny threads, toward hills with almost no trees. Toward the north, where they were born and knew they would never return. In 1972, when it became clear that the border would not move, the South built this entire compound called Imjingak for refugees from the North and war veterans. A memorial space with monuments to the fallen, where ceremonies are still held. But in February 2019, the entire area was renovated to become a tourist gateway. And the tavern was renovated and converted into this café that delights young Koreans, who post photos on social media "in the most dangerous café in the world" making jokes about it. Crash landing on you, a Korean romance series about a rich girl who, while paragliding, ends up being dragged north, where she falls in love with a communist soldier. No, this can't be the most dangerous cafe in the world. Who knows what it is, in fact. But the famous border that separates Korea, dividing siblings and families, has become a tourist attraction. More than a million people visit it each year, mostly Koreans and Americans.

Offers for visiting the DMZ have multiplied over the last decade. South Korea has established itself as a tourist destination thanks to K-pop, TV series, its history, and its rich cuisine. And visiting the border has become another stop on many of those trips. However, you must register a few days in advance so that your passport information can be checked by the Seoul government. Passports are handed over to military authorities at the entrance to the zone, a place that looks anything but a military installation, as it's full of souvenir shops. There are rules, such as not wearing overly extreme clothing, such as short skirts, and no clothing with military camouflage prints. There are hundreds of offers for day trips from Seoul, with prices ranging from $40 to $400 for a full day. From Seoul to the border is barely an hour, so some tours stop along the way at a waterfall, a bridge hanging over a valley, or the memorial to a British battalion captured by the communists in 1951. Others take you to one of the four tunnels that North Koreans built to try to smuggle spies into the South. When you go underground and advance to the end of one of these tunnels, the guide reminds you that you are just over 70 meters from the North. Being able to visit all the points on the tour, however, does not depend on the guides. Since you visit the border of two states that have been at war since 1953, the border is occasionally closed, and the tours must refund part of the money to tourists who, sadly, cannot enter. A lethargic, frozen war, with occasional incidents, but a war nonetheless.

One of the highlights of the tour is a visit to Panmunjeom, a complex of buildings where the 1953 armistice was signed. That is, the treaty that agreed to create this 258-kilometer-long, four-kilometer-wide zone. A demilitarized zone where a host of wild animals seem to live peacefully, including the endangered Asiatic black bear, since between the two borders, there are hardly any humans and no one can hunt them. Well, as long as they're not big enough to trigger a mine. The Panmunjeom complex is the only place where you can see soldiers from both armies standing guard, separated by a few meters. It's there that Donald Trump greeted Kim Jong-un in July 2019, hopping across the border into North Korea. In July 2023, the one who made the hop was an American soldier, Travis King, who for unknown reasons decided to cross in the north. Occasionally, incidents like this occur, as Panmunjeom is just a few meters away from the two states. In 2017, a northern soldier crossed the border. Despite being shot by other communist soldiers to prevent him from escaping with a wound, he was able to desert. Since this is the only area where the border is actually open, tourists aren't always given permission to visit. Often, guides don't know if they'll be allowed to enter until they're at the DMZ gate, because when you least expect it, an incident reminds you that it is indeed a dangerous area, such as the argument between soldiers over whether a tree could be cut down in the demilitarized zone that ended with two US soldiers killed by axes in 1976.

One kilometer from Panmunjeom is the famous bridge of no return, which has only been opened occasionally for the prisoner exchange. And there's also a village called Taesung. Yes, inside the DMZ is a village of 190 people, mostly farmers who enjoy a special status. In fact, unlike the rest of Korea, they don't have to perform compulsory military service. And they don't have to pay taxes, since they live in no-man's-land. It seems attractive, but there must be some benefit to living within arguably the most fortified border in the world. Four kilometers away, there are antipersonnel mines on both sides. Living in Taesung isn't easy, but tourism has changed their lives. Sightseeing tours always stop at the village gates, where there's a supermarket where you can buy products made in the DMZ. Soybeans, ice cream, ginseng, chocolate, liquor—products with a good reputation, since without factories nearby, there's little pollution. Now, despite being in a neutral zone, Taesung is connected to the south. In fact, the Seoul government installed fiber optics a few years ago. The northern regime also controlled a second village within the DMZ called Kijong, where scenes that were surely not very real could be seen. A happy village that is now empty. To see the north today, you need to do so from two observation points, Dora and Odu, with binoculars. In the north, you see few cars and many bicycles. Few trees. And a giant flag, atop a 200-meter tower, defiant.

The tour offer Travel from Seoul is very generous, but there are also tours in the north. Some international agencies, such as Koryo Tours, have managed to reach an agreement with the northern regime to organize trips to that state, where tourists must always be supervised by local officials. These trips sometimes include views of the DMZ from the north. A border that has evolved to become the strange place it is today. The residents of Taesung explain that, fortunately, they no longer have to be evacuated from time to time due to military escalations and that procedures have been streamlined so they can enter and exit more quickly, something necessary given that their town doesn't have a hospital. But what they are most grateful for is that, with the 2018 agreements, both governments agreed to stop torturing each other with a particular weapon of war: music. For years, on the border, the two enemies competed to see who could cause the most headaches to the others using large loudspeakers. Those from the north used to broadcast speeches by their leader and patriotic songs. Those from the south responded with popular songs. One of the last ones they used was the great success of Korean music, the Gangnam style by singer PSY. Surely, the northern soldiers who heard it didn't understand much of the lyrics, which mock the luxurious lifestyle of Gangnam-gu, a wealthy district of Seoul. The end of the music war was also key to allowing more tourism, of course. It wouldn't be pleasant to try to visit the area with these speakers blasting.