To the DMZ......

  Today I had a very unique and special experience. I was actually able to go into the 'citizen restricted area' in the DMZ. The reason I was able to go into this zone was because from this year I am participating a NGO group's project which is to study the environmental society  in the DMZ. 

  So what is DMZ and what is so special about it? 


  The Korean Demilitarized Zone(DMZ) is a strip of land running across the Korean Peninsula that serves as a buffer zone between  North and South Korea which runs along the 38th parallel north. the DMZ cuts the Korean Peninsula roughly in half, crossing the 38th parallel on an angle. With the west end of the DMZ lying south of the parallel and the east end lying north of it. It was created as part of the Korean Armistice Agreement between North Korea, the People's Republic of China, and the United Nations Command forces in 1953.

  To rephrase this DMZ(Korean Demilitarized Zone) is a kind of a belt that penetrates the Korean Peninsula from West to East roughly around the 38th parallel on the angel. This zone acts as a buffer between the North and the South  giving the each side time to notice and prepare for one side tries to start a war.  The basic structure of this zone is shown by this picture. 

  So now we know about what this DMZ is what is the fuss with this? The answer for this question requires a bit of historical knowledge about the Korean War. The Korean War started in 1950 and was ended in 1953. The part where we have to focus on is the year this war ended ; 1953. So this DMZ was established in 1953 and for 60 full years any human activities was restricted leaving this strip of land untouched of any human company. In this 60 years this zone was able to recover their original state while the other parts of the world was being destroyed by us humans. For this reservation this zone is in a very subtle position in both political and environmental state. This also serves as  a reason why we are doing a research project here. 

  Due to the fact that today was the first trip to this Zone we didn't start right onto the research but had a look around this DMZ. Tasting the atmosphere of the surrounding environment. During this tour I was astonished to see so many creature living in this environment and was able to really feel for myself how much environment destruction have progressed in our society. 

  The teachers(?) at there told us that we only brimmed the surface of the whole yet. I'm so excited and looking forward to the next investigation already!  :)