Can you fart in North Korea?

This past weekend I travelled to Seoul with some other foreign teachers. I was super-excited to visit Seoul and the highlight was staying in an area of the city called Itaewan or the "Foreigners District". It was totally mind-blowing to be able to walk down the street and address questions in English to just about anyone. It easily could have been downtown Toronto.

Itaewan wasn't a nice part of Seoul by any stretch of the imagination. We didn't book a hotel, so when we arrived late on Thursday night, we had to walk around and find a place. This wandering lead us to a place called "Hooker Hill" (which really explains it all). I never thought I would ever see Korean transvestites, but that just goes to show how full of surprises Seoul is! It was extremely comforting, though, to see white people and names that I recognized (Starbucks, Quiznos, Subway, Outback Steakhouse, and so on). 

Our first day there some of us went to Changdeokgung Palace. It was originally constructed between 1405 and 1412 and it was Korea's centre of power from 1618 to 1896. I think that the highlight of the palace was the Secret Garden. 

On the second day, we went to Panmunjon at the Demilitarized Zone. This is the only area of the DMZ where tourists are permitted. The DMZ is a strip of land 4km wide and 248km long adn divides the two Koreas in half. It is one of (if not the) most heavily fortified borders in the world. 

On the tour, we were able to enter the UN's Blue Building where talks between the two countries take place. We were accompanied by a South Korean soldier the entire time (known as ROK soldiers which stands for Republic of Korea, the official name of South Korea). The rules were pretty strict, for instance, we could only take photos in certain areas and we even had to put them away at certain points. We couldn't point or motion to the North side, we had to walk in lines two people wide, we had a dress code, we couldn't touch or lean up against anything, nor could we walk behind or touch any soldiers. We were also recorded while inside the Blue Building. At one point, we weren't allowed off the bus because we were being watched by 90 North Korean soldiers and we didn't have enough ROK soldiers with us to protect us. 

It was such a strange experience. For a Canadian, I think it's hard to really understand that you may be in real danger or that you're that close to real danger. The threat of North Korea remains a big issue in the region and conflicts flare up from time to time. Shots were most recently fired in 2001 and 2006. Also, some of you may remember hearing that a boat of North Koreans made it to South Korea, were sent back to the North and were killed. In addition,  a tourist was shot in North Korea very recently when she accidentally wandered into a restricted area while on a morning hike. 

Many Korean that I've talked to wish to reunite someday. I think that they don't distinguish between "North Korean" and "South Korean". However, the new President of South Korea is not interested in reunification so only time will tell.