PHOTOGRAPHS: CHRIS ZEIHER/LONELY PLANET
Attempting to warm myself on a cold morning in Seoul, South Korea, I clutched a piping-hot coffee as I located a small tour bus marked with three letters: DMZ. The ‘Demilitarised Zone’ is one of Korea’s most popular attractions, but what makes a visit to this buffer zone of 2.5 miles between North and South so fascinating?
I’d heard stories of K-pop being blasted over loudspeakers as the South attempted to block out the din of constant propaganda messages from the North. But at Imjingak, a park dedicated to the millions of South Koreans separated from their families, it was oddly silent. The audio war seems at an end, and the park itself is now a mixture of memorials and carnival rides. Ribbons tied to the border fence sport messages of peace and flap in the cold wind, as merry-go-round music softly plays in the background. Weird.
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June 2019
 
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