Inside Panmunjom, the ‘tensest’ place on earth

IT HAS the “world’s most dangerous golf course”, but tomorrow this little town will be the place of history-making talks.

The ‘Peace House’ will be the venue North and South Korea talk in. Picture: Ed Jones

INSIDE the 4km demilitarised zone of North and South Korea sits the village of Panmunjom, otherwise known as the “tensest place on the planet”.

Inside that village is a building called the ‘Peace House’ where tomorrow, for the first time in more than two years, officials from North and South Korea will sit down face-to-face and have a conversation.

It comes a week after North Korean leader Kim Jong-un suggested the two nations should open a dialogue to ease military tensions.

North Korean soldiers stand outside the ‘Peace House’ in Panmunjom. Picture: Ed Jones

A South Korean soldier stands outside a pavilion spanning the military demarcation line at the truce village of Panmunjom. Picture: Ed Jones

Kim also put forward the possibility of sending a team of athletes to compete in next month’s Winter Olympics, opening in the South Korean city of Pyeongchang on February 9.

These are the items North and South Korean officials will discuss tomorrow in the ‘truce village’ of Panmunjom.

Last week, the promise of tensions easing between the two nations were looking up as North Korea restored a dedicated telephone hotline to South Korea. It had been down for more than two years.

Mr Kim also suggested sending a team to next month’s Winter Olympics would be a “good opportunity to show unity of the people”.

Critics forecast North Korea’s participation in Pyeongchang 2018 will bring on a period of lessened tensions between the two nations.

However, they also warned hostilities are likely to return once the Games are over because the North has no intentions of abandoning its weapons programs and the United States will not ease its pressure on the country.

A South Korean official communicates on the dedicated hotline between the two nations in Panmunjom. Picture: South Korea Unification Ministry

FOUR-AND-A-HALF STARS ON TRIPADVISOR

It might be one of the tensest places in the world but Panmunjom is also a big drawcard for tourists — even earning a coveted four-and-a-half stars on TripAdvisor.

The ‘Truce Village’, otherwise known as the Joint Security Area (JSA) of Panmunjom, can be visited from both North and South Korea with both countries offering up a very different tourist experience.

Speaking to Public Radio International, Asia Society senior fellow Isaac Stone Fish has visited the village as both a North and South Korean tourist and said each side pushes a different agenda.

“Both countries want to demonstrate a different message. South Korea wants to show how dangerous it is and how they’re protecting the country and the North Korean side, strangely it’s more like, ‘look at how the South is dividing us from the North’ but it was much less tense on the North Korean side,” Mr Fish said.

The senior fellow also said there’s a big difference in how each nation cares for their tourists.

On the South Korean side, visitors must sign a document which states in part: “The visit to the Joint Security Area at Panmunjom will entail entry into a hostile area and possibility of injury or death as a direct result of enemy action.”

Mr Fish said, as well as the document the tourists sign, they’re also given “lots of speeches about the danger of the zone”.

North and South Korean soldiers stare at each other in Panmunjom. Picture: AFP/Korea Pool

From North Korea however, things are much more relaxed.

“It’s a festive experience from North Korea. The DMZ felt almost like a party, sort of like: ‘This is us defending our country, look at the other side, smile and have a good time,’” Mr Fish said.

There’s also no signing of documents agreeing that your life is in your own hands.

The only thing dividing the North and South in Panmunjom is a giant concrete line that stretches throughout the whole village.

There’s a famous conference room, also with a line through it, half belonging to North and half belonging to South Korea.

On the North Korean side, there’s a place where visitors can buy souvenirs and where vendors sell trinkets and key chains.

Tourists can also grab some North Korean alcohol — of the ginseng or snake bile variation.

There’s also a place where tourists can play golf, a course with one hole dubbed the “most dangerous golf course in the world”.

Tourists also visit Dorasan Station, a train station where people used to travel from Pyongyang to Seoul. Its platform is called Unification Platform as one day, it aims to be the place where North and South Korea will be unified.

South Korean army soldiers stand guard on Unification Bridge, which leads to the demilitarised zone, near the border village of Panmunjom. Picture: Ahn Young-joon

A tourist takes a photo of ribbons wishing for the reunification of the Koreas at Imjingak Pavilion, near Panmunjom. Picture: Ahn Young-joon

But the truce village has a sad history — serving as one of the many places Koreans have died attempting to defect to the North or South.

Ever since the armistice was signed in 1953 to pause the Korean War, there have been thousands of defections from both nations — some of which have tragically ended in death.

The number of people defecting from North Korea has dropped steadily in the past five years, as Kim Jong-un tightened security around the DMZ.

Late last year, a North Korean soldier was shot and wounded after trying to defect from the rogue nation.

The 24-year-old soldier, only known as Oh, bolted from a guard post at the northern side of Panmunjom to the southern side of the village, South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement.

He was wounded but has since regained consciousness after undergoing treatment and numerous surgeries.

The DMZ is guarded on both sides by hundreds of thousands of combat-ready troops, razor-wire fences and tank traps. More than a million mines are believed to be buried inside the zone.

A North Korean defector lies wounded after getting shot at by his fellow soldiers. Picture: AFP/ UN