It Was Kinda Odd
- gldobbs
- 3 days ago
- 6 min read
October 26, 2025
“If the bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki had seemed to inaugurate a brand-new chapter in the history of warfare, supposedly making all other weapons obsolete and creating a world where military power rested only with the richest, most technologically advanced nations, then the Korean battlefield defeats of early July 1950 shattered that belief”
― David Halberstam, The Coldest Winter
Very early in our marriage we had the opportunity for some overseas travel. One of the countries we visited was East Germany before the Berlin Wall fell. It was a surreal experience. West Berlin was a glittering metropolis every inch the picture of the triumph of the West and Democratic Liberalism. Yet here was this enormous concrete barrier that divided the city in half. On the Western side you could walk right up to the wall and there were various platforms you could climb to look over to the other side.
What you saw was a series of barbed wire fences, tank traps, sentry towers, and a forbidding “No Mans Land”. Beyond this area which extend 500 yards were dilapidated apartment buildings with evidence of bullet damage from World War II some 60 years prior. We took a tour of the Eastern side and the heavily regulated guide explained the wall was to protect the East from us in the West.
Yet all of the mines, machine guns, and barbed wire were on the Eastern side. The facts were obvious. It was designed to keep their population in and prevent escape. It was a sobering and sad affair and the prevailing wisdom of the time was it would never come down.
But, it did.
So it was we left by bus for the short drive to the border. Seoul is very close to the DMZ and can be easily reached my the North Korean artillery today. We expected to find a similar sobering visit as the Berlin Wall all those years ago.
We did not.
In order to understand what you are looking at, a brief primer on the Korean conflict is helpful. This is simplistic to the extreme, but useful. Here are the key points
Japan had brutally occupied Korea
• August 22, 1910 – The Japan–Korea Annexation Treaty was signed, formally annexing Korea to the Empire of Japan.
• August 29, 1910 – The treaty officially went into effect, marking the start of Japanese colonial rule.
• August 15, 1945 – Japan surrendered at the end of World War II, leading to Korea’s liberation (celebrated as Gwangbokjeol or “Restoration of Light Day” in South Korea). So, the occupation lasted 35 years in total.
At the end of WWII, the world was literally broken apart. The USA found itself in a leadership position it was not in only 5 years earlier.
The Soviet Union, under Stalin, wanted all of Korea. The U.S. said no and they drew a line across the country arbitrarily at the 38th parallel dividing the country in half.
On June 25, 1950 the North Korean Army, with the approval of Stalin, launched a surprise attack on the South. They very nearly took the entire country.
A coalition of of 67 countries, led by the USA, and under the auspices of the United Nations fought back and nearly advanced into China. They were lead by the aging and vainglorious General Douglas MacArthur.
It was November, 1950. MacArthur told the press that “The Chinese would not get involved and our boys would be home by Christmas”
He was wrong
The Chinese invaded with 3 million men in late November, the middle of winter.
We were beaten back brutally to the 38th parallel.
The remaining 2 years of the conflict was a back and forth stalemate of battles across what is now the area of the DMZ.
MacArthur wanted to use nuclear weapons. Truman fired him.
On July 27, 1953 an armistice was signed in a tent at Panmunjom. Neither side won
Technically we are still at war with North Korea. An armistice is not a peace treaty. the butcher’s bill was wildly high for such a short conflict. In the end, 33,793 Americans died. Millions more Koreans and Chinese perished.
So it is with this history of fratricidal conflict we arrived at the border. It was then the odd nature of the tour began. Only two of the five stops had anything to do with the conflict.
The first was a red suspension bride across a gorge. A battle did happen here, but many battles happened everywhere in this dense mountainous region at the border. It was pretty, but incongruous with what we were there for to see.
Our next stop was Imjingak Park. This area is very close to the border but not enough to see North Korea.
There are a series of somber monuments here including a site for relatives of citizens of North Korea who are trapped inside to worship together figuratively.
A monument to the “Comfort Women” is here. These were thousands of women kidnapped and sold into sexual slavery. They suffered horribly and those that did manage to escape were treated as outcasts by their families.
A train that used to serve the entire country taking passengers back and forth reached its last point north here.
There are other poignant monuments to the suffering.
And there was a active amusement park with rollercoasters, merry go rounds, and other brightly lit up rides.
As I said, it was odd.
Finally, we crossed into the military zone. The bus was inspected by South Korean soldiers. Here we were informed no pictures were allowed and they were very, very serious about it. So the pictures shown were obtained from Google again.
We climbed to the top of an observatory and looked over the no man’s land filled with millions of land mines. There was North Korea. In the distance there was a village that we were informed was mostly empty. You could see the line of barbed wire dividing the land and in the distance a huge flag pole.
Apparently in the past the South and North Korean got into one of their many childish spats each trying to raise a bigger and bigger flag. It became ridiculous.
It was hard to know what to feel. What is the possible gain North Korea feels it is has by locking it’s 26.5 million people in such a desolate cage? Why are they so afraid of us?
Today, North Korea is the only remaining Stalin era government left on the planet. It is completely isolated and desperately poor. The whole thing is just sad.
We went back to out bus passing various corporate sponsorships on the Southern side of the border. Why is there a statue celebrating FIFA, the world soccer federation, here? Why are there dioramas of plastic animals in the woods around the monuments?
The Berlin Wall fell. The Soviet Union is gone. Stalin is reviled in history as a monster. Yet the North Koreans hang on.
I talked to the tour guide about it. She said polls used to show a 90% desire for reunification. Now it is only around 60%. Young people simply don’t care. It's ancient history.
The issue is an annoyance to them, nothing more.
Postscript -
If there is any credible evidence to a victor in the conflict, the very existence of Seoul stands as evidence of that triumph. Seoul has lifted itself out of the ashes of that conflict to become a global economic powerhouse. Today, at the Asian Pacific Economic Conference leaders from around the world, including Trump, have come to Seoul to plan for the future.
As the brilliant lights of the city burn around this meeting, North Korea remains in the dark.
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