Bridge of No Return and observation post

After leaving Panmunjeom, we drove to the so-called "Bridge of No Return." When the Korean war ended, the two sides participated in an exchange of prisoners. The U.S., U.N. and South Korean forces returned over 80,000 North Korean and Chinese P.O.W.'s, while the North Korean and Chinese forces returned fewer than 20,000. They were brought to the bridge pictured below, and allowed to cross over to the other side if they wanted to. Once they crossed, however, they could not go back. Thus, the name.

We went from there to another observation point that looks into the North. It was a hazy day and hard to see, but one could make out North Korean observation towers and signs demarcating the border (the signs facing south are in Korean and English, those facing North are in Korean and Chinese). We could also see radio jamming towers; the North Korean government has jamming towers along its border to prevent internet, TV, radio and cell phone communication with the outside world.

Also visible was is the North Korean village of Gijong. There are two villages in the DMZ, Gijong and its South Korean counterpart, Tae-song. Tae-song is inhabited by a few hundred people who either are or are direct descendants of people who lived in the DMZ region before the war. Tae-Song residents live tax free in highly subsidized housing, in exchange for which they submit to a strict curfew (they must be in the village by 9:00 PM, and in home with the lights out by midnight) and the constant threat of aggression from the North.

Gijong is even more unusual, as it's completely uninhabited. The village houses an enormous loudspeaker, apparently the size of a house, that blares propaganda for 6-12 hours a day (hailing South Koreans to defect to the land of the "Golden, Tax-Free Paradise"). It also has an enormous North Korean flag, that is 160 meters high and weighs over 600 pounds. In the haze, it was just possible to make out the flag and the flagpole in the distance.