Seoul: Frosty relations between North and South

A jaunty DMZ sign belies the sober nature of border tensions. Photo / Jill Worrall

The timing was interesting... standing in a tunnel almost under the Demilitarised Zone (DMZ) in South Korea just as tensions between it and its aggressive northern neighbour are heating up.

South Korea had just announced its findings into the sinking of one of its warships in March with an investigation showing that the vessel had been sunk by a missile fired from a North Korean submarine. Relations between the two were now frosty in the extreme... and if you listened carefully you could hear the sabres rattling. Or that might have been the sound of hard hats hitting the props that keep up the tunnel roof - it was a bit cramped down there.

The walk, or more accurately the shuffle (partly due to the low roof but also the sheer number of visitors) is the highlight in what our guide said was one of the most popular tours on offer from the South Korean capital of Seoul.

Seoul has palaces, gardens and shopping opportunities galore but for the majority of overseas and South Korean tourists alike the sightseeing essential is a bus trip to the Demilitarised Zone that provides a buffer zone between North and South. Established after the 1950-1953 war, the zone extends for two kilometres on each side of the border, separating the two nations. They never signed a peace treaty following the ceasefire which means technically that North and South Korea are still at war and not surprisingly ensures that this is the most heavily armed border in the world.

Our first taste of South Korea's preparedness for problems with its northern neighbour was evident even before we left Seoul as we drove past the vast US military base in the city. Yongsan, which has schools, hospitals, swimming pools, restaurants and housing, is home to a large proportion of the nearly 30,000 US troops still stationed in South Korea.

North of the city it was not long before we could see the wire fence with its loops of barbed wire that forms a well-defended boundary along the Yellow Sea coast and the land. Sentry posts dotted the fence although not all are manned.

Our main destination, after crossing into what is known at the Civilian Limited Zone (where entry to South Korean civilians, other than villagers authorised to live here, is prohibited) was the site of the Number 3 Tunnel.

This tunnel was discovered in 1978 and followed the discovery of two other tunnels that South Korea claim the North had built in order to facilitate an invasion. Entry to the tunnel is beside a wooded bank studded with markers denoting the presence of landmines. An access ramp has been constructed down the tunnel which is 73 metres below ground. It stretches 1635m with visitors permitted to walk along the final 65 metres.

It was damp, warm and crowded in the tunnel...and a little eerie. Although most of us needed to crouch a little to avoid banging our hard hats on the roof supports, the tunnel is said to have been wide enough to have taken two or three soldiers shoulder to shoulder. In this way, the South Korean authorities estimate, North Korean could have moved up to 30,000 troops an hour into their neighbour's territory.

Along the way signs pointed to gouges in the rock made by drilling equipment, the shape of which, the authorities claim, is a clear indication that the tunnel was dug from north to south. North Korea has denied responsibility for this tunnel and the others, claiming variously that the South Koreans had created them and then rather bizarrely that the North was actually coal mining down there.

To support this claim, there are patches of black paint applied in places to the pink granite tunnel walls; seeing these, with the structure and colours of the granite clearly shining through, seemed graphic evidence of the weird behaviour of the North Korean regime.

In the visitor centre beside the tunnel is a display about one of the most surprising features of the DMZ. Along its 248km length (the width of the Korean Peninsula) the zone has, over more than 50 years developed into one of Asia's greatest nature preserves. This heavily forested region, only rarely visited by humans is now home to more than 30 species of mammals, including tiger, leopard and black bear and hundreds of bird species including cranes.

One of our last stops on the tour was at the Dora Observatory, lookout point across the DMZ and into North Korea. Our guide explained to us that the flag pole we could see on the North Korean side is the tallest in the world at 160 metres and was built to outclass the South Korean's flag on its side of the border. He also pointed out that the North Korean border areas are almost completely devoid of vegetation - a deliberate policy to enable early detection of any southern incursions.

Security forces patrolled the platform making sure that no-one took photographs beyond a clearly delineated yellow line on the concrete. Visiting US troops in camouflage gear strolled among them.

He also told us about ghost villages on the northern side - villages of rather smart looking apartments, where lights come on in the evening and sweepers clean the streets. However, closer inspection by the South showed that the buildings were mere shells with the lights timed to come on at the same time each night. It was mere window-dressing and about as successful as the black paint brushed onto the tunnel's walls in deceiving their fellow Koreans in the south.