The World's Most Bizarre Giftshop

Since 1953, the DMZ has become the world's most heavily armed border in the world. And as if the idea of touring a legitimate front line of an international conflict doesn't require enough suspension of disbelief, the idea of a gift shop commemorating that tour makes this the most astoundingly weird gift shop on the planet. The gift shop is utterly symbolic of the oddity that is the Korean Demilitarized Zone, or "DMZ". Tourists take pictures with North Korean soldiers. Each side in the conflict has their own competing villages designed to demonstrate the benefits of their side of the border. Nothing is out of bounds for competition, right down to the competition for which side has the largest flagpole or heaviest flag.

On July 27, 1953, a cease fire ended hostilities on the Korean War with the front near the 38^th parallel north. While an armistice was established, a formal peace treaty has never been signed and as such a state of war still officially exists between the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea) and the Republic of Korea (South Korea). Indeed South Korea never signed the armistice.

Around the 38^th parallel, and created by the armistice, is the area known as the DMZ.

With the cease fire, each side agreed to move their troops back 2000 meters from the front line, and thus creating the DMZ. It is as a four kilometer (about 25 miles) wide buffer between the two nations. There is also the Military Demarcation Line (MDL) which is the official marker of where the front line was located at the time the armistice was signed. It runs along the 38^th parallel at an angle.

Inside the DMZ, in the remnants of the village of Panmunjeom is a place called the Joint Security Area - the only place on the peninsula occupied by both North Korea and South Korea and the place where all negotiations have occurred since the armistice. Inside the JSA conference room, one can freely walk from one side to the other, over the MDL and in effect cross the border into and out of both Koreas.

The ordinary traveler to South Korea can actually visit this secure, but dangerous, front line border. One must travel to the DMZ with a tour - the most common of these for speakers of English are arranged by the USO, although some Korean tour companies offer tours as well. North Korean tours are also organized through their side of the DMZ.

Along with accepting the risks of taking the DMZ tour, the visitor is given protocols for dress and behavior while there and asked to sign waivers limiting liability. This is, in fact, a war zone and the slightest offense to sensibilities could ignite, at the very least, a minor hostility.

As the bus tour of the DMZ comes to an end - the bus inevitably, and surreally, ends at the Mad Merry Monks of the DMZ gift shop. It sits just outside the JSA and on the South's side of the DMZ. One can buy shot glasses, jackets, caps, and the obligatory T-Shirt. Even though you're required to certify you haven't drunk any alcohol the day before entering the DMZ, you're more than welcome to enjoy a beer. The gift shop is located in a former monastery near the site where American soldiers were hacked to death with their own hatchets as they attempted to cut down a tree.

You can buy your loved ones some perfume. Why not play a hole of golf? And of course, MasterCard/Visa are welcome. Of course. Welcome to the Korean DMZ - the oddest war zone in the world. Welcome to the world's most bizarre gift shop.

WEB RESOURCES

http://www.samizdata.net/blog/archives/2007/01/a_trip_somewher.html
http://www.aasianst.org/EAA/dmz.htm
http://wikitravel.org/en/Panmunjeom
http://www.salon.com/wlust/feature/1999/02/03feature2.html
http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/military/stories/MYSA011407.1Q.dmz.1968b40.html