I really love heading up north from Sokcho. You go up this long and winding road that parallels the sea and swings through little fishing villages and beach towns that litter the coast, and then, before you know it, you are there, at the last point in South Korea, the farthest north one can get with out heading into the D.P.R.K, or as it is more commonly known, the Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea.
This was my second visit up to the border, around fifty miles north of that mythical line in the sand, the 38th parallel.
Just like the last time I was up here you could not see anything going on on the northern side of the border. From where we were it looked completly peacful, covered in trees with an incredibly long, clean beach reaching from the border checkpoint to some rocky islets that were obviously part of the D.P.R.K.
Pictures-
1. This is what remains of Route 7. It sits here, at a lonely bend behind the observation platform. From looking at it now you would think that it was just a little overgrown road, but this road has seen a ton of traffic in its day as it was the main axis heading north on the east coast.
2. The north will do almost anything for a few dollars. Do you remember the stink they put up about the 25 million bucks in that bank in Macau? Well any way here at the border one can buy foodstuffs directly from our fraternal socialist comrades. Yes they may not have enough food for their own people but they can export soju and pretty good beer to their capitalist enemies in the south.
3. Proof that one only needs to wait a few years before the walls come tumbling down.
4. And to the right of the sign, the passport and control center for travel to the north, I sincerely doubt that the north has the same type of facility on their side of the border.
