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Article: DMZ holiday. (description of a tour of the Demilitarized Zone in Korea)
- Article from:
- Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists
- Article date:
- May 1, 1998
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1998 Educational Foundation for Nuclear Science, Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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It is certainly one of the strangest guided bus tours anywhere. I got up early one morning and stood in line at the tour operator's office in downtown Seoul to have my passport checked, then boarded a northbound bus full of Japanese tourists. Passing through Seoul's northern suburbs, marked by a massive anti-tank wall and studded with tightly packed warehouses and apartment buildings, we came to wooded hills. A closer look revealed trenches, machine-gun nests, and sandbagged mortar positions among the trees.
"When we stop at rest area you may buy refreshments, but no alcohol," the tour guide announced in erratic English. "Alcohol prohibited. Maybe it makes you ...