Korean Demilitarized Zone/Heartbreak Ridge

So today we left at 6AM to drive up to the DMZ. It's a long way up there. We went to the Ulchi Observatory and looked across the DMZ into N Korea. It was pretty cloudy, so we couldn't see anyone over there. But at the closest point, N Korea is 780 meters away. But there's a lot of landmines between us and them as well. It was just an ominous place to be. These are all just kids watching their less-nourished cousins across a chasm of 55 years and counting. Will this place ever heal? There's a lot of hate and resentment aimed south, but as long as Kim Jong Il is in charge (if he's not drooling into a cloth) things will be strained around here. Maybe someone will be able to turn things around one of these days, but 22 million people will be hungry and poor until then.
The soldiers gave a nice briefing on what we'd see on a clear day and were really nice and professional. It's a boring, thankless job sitting in the ROK army on a line for 2 years. But they do it because they have to. Freedom doesn't defend itself around here.
It was a long, windy road to the next location as well- the Infiltration Tunnel #4. They discovered it in 1992 and it scared a lot of people- to think that for 10 years N Koreans had been digging through solid granite to get to S Korea so they could attack. We went in 300 meters to the tunnel they had been digging. It was amazing. It's been sealed off and they have detection systems in there and probably explosives as well- so they can't use it again. Imagine your life was spent digging a tunnel to S Korea so you could attack it- because if you didn't dig, you didn't eat. Or they'd just shoot you.
Then we went up to Heartbreak Ridge. Here, the 2nd Infantry Division with a brigade of French Soldiers, killed or wounded 21,000 N Koreans at a loss of nearly 1,000 themselves. But the sheer steepness of the terrain boggled my mind. Amazing- and they fought with tanks and stuff there from Sep to Oct 1951. Makes me glad I did all my fighting from the air. On either side of the road, there were minefields. There's estimated to be at least a million landmines over here. They'll never be able to clean those up, either. They're still finding bombs dropped from the 1950s when they do construction around here. So we didn't do much wandering around out there. And the barriers are closer together there. The ones they set with charges and the roads become blocked. Americans never had to think about stuff like that.
Someday, this land will be healed.