I went to the Border of North Korea ALONE 🇰🇵

Added: 2026-06-01

[00:00:30]It's currently 4:40 a.m. in the morning and I have a Uber to catch around 5:20.

[00:00:36]So, let's get ready.

[00:00:41]Now, the craziest part about this whole thing is that I don't even look like this. I really You will love We are So, who's ready to go on an adventure? I'm never saying that again. I thought about saying that for days. Okay, so it's currently 5:29 and uh I had an Uber to catch at 5:20. So, there's still certain things I need to do like eat, but you know, things happen. Okay, so my Uber's going to be here in around 4 minutes, but I want to note that you should pack everything. I'm going to transition you guys into a video from yesterday that I pre-recorded just so you can see kind of what I packed. And I do mean come prepared. I'm not like a hoarder or anything. I'm just prepared. But over here, I brought my bag from breakfast to lunch, as well as some snacks, a KN95 mask, as well as some liquids. I brought my earphones for recording, my passport because the guards, the soldiers or the tour guards, whomever will actually check your identification. It's not just good enough if you bring your ARC or, you know, your SS or basically just any other form of identification. You have to bring your passport. I also brought my tripod cuz, you know, duh, I'm filming. But over here, I'm bringing my glasses, my earpods, my portable charger that also doubles as a taser.

[00:03:04]I'm joking. It's not a taser, it's just a flashlight. But um I also brought some coins just specifically for the observatory specifically like the observatory like binoculars, some aquaor because if you know you know and uh yeah my wallet which comes with the air tag and some cash in there just in case as well as for the observatory. So yeah bring everything and yeah uh just for context just make sure you bring everything uh earlier cuz I'm practically packing a day earlier just so I have everything so I know I'm prepared for just anything really. So just keep that in mind.

[00:03:58]>> Girl, you're out.

[00:04:06]The Korean demilitarization zone is not just a border. It's basically the physical scar left behind by the Korean War. And understanding it means understanding how Korea was divided in the first place.

[00:04:36]And when I mean by much further back than just the Korean War, I'm specifically talking about when Korea was a unified nation, not separated between North or South Korea, but truly a unified nation. And this was prior of 1910. In 1910, Japan had annexed Korea and much of Korean life such as culture, language, and identity was completely changed. Many Koreans were forced into labor, political resistance was crushed, and Korea simply became part of Japan's imperialistic game. But all this changed on August 15th, 1945. And in August 15, 1945, Japan has surrendered in World War II, prior of two of the most historical and horrific events within human history. that being Hiroshima and Nagasaki both separated on August 6th, 1945 and also August 9th, 1945. And after August 15th, 1945, once again, practically everything had changed.

[00:05:33]But once Japan lost control, Korea suddenly had no governing authority. Two global superpowers stepped in, the United States and the Soviet Union. To quickly manage the surrender of Japan's forces, Korea was temporarily split at the 38th parallel. Soviet forces occupied the north while American forces occupied the south. This division was originally supposed to be temporary, but the world was entering into the Cold War. The Soviet Union supported communism in the North while the United States supported anti-communist government systems in the south. Soon two separate governments formed. North Korea founded on September 9th 1948 led by Kim Song officially named the Democratic People's Republic of Korea or DPRK a communist government backed by the Soviet Union and then later China South Korea founded on August 15th 1948 led by Sungan Ray officially named Republic of Korea or R backed by the United States and United Nations allies. Both governments claimed they were the legitimate government of all Korea. This tension exploded into war.

[00:06:47]So, I just got off the bus. They're telling us to go up this mountain, and I'm not really sure what this mountain is, but I'll see you guys up there.

[00:07:09]So here I'm actually on top of the suspension bridge. It's quite windy up here and if you can see lot of stuff going on, a lot of vegetation and it's quite high up in the air, but I think we'll be okay.

[00:07:47]On June 25th, 1950, North Korean troops crossed the 30th parallel. And when they did that, that officially started the war that we know today as the Korean War, spanning from 1950 to 1953.

[00:08:04]North Korean troops actually advanced quite rapidly, capturing much of South Korea and actually soul as well. And when this happened, the United Nations had stepped in. And when the United Nations had stepped in, the United States also stepped in. Well, the United States actually stepped in. Many historical figures actually come into play such as Ma Dong, Joseph Stalin, Douglas MacArthur, as well as Harry S.

[00:08:25]Truman. It's also important to note that the suspension branch is used by some North Koreans to escape and seek refuge sometimes in South Korea. It's not the primary source cuz, you know, it is also a tourist attraction. So, it's just important to note that.

[00:08:43]Now there was a major turning point which was the battle of Injon in September of 1950. General MacArthur launched a surprise amphibious landing in Injon. This dramatically changed the war. UN forces pushed North Korean troops back northward. While UN forces eventually crossed into North Korea. Now China also enters the war. As UN troops approached the Chinese border near the Yalu River. China intervened massively in October of 1950. Hundreds of thousands of Chinese troops entered Korea. The war shifted again. Soul changed hands multiple times. Millions died and cities across the peninsula was devastated. Eventually, neither side could fully win.

[00:09:25]Eventually, the fighting slowed near the same place the war began. And in 1953, a ceasefire agreement created what we know today as the DMZ.

[00:09:38]I'm actually here at Eng Park or the bridge of freedom and just take a look for yourself. If you can see, there's a ton of tour buses. There's actually some restaurants over here as well. And believe it or not, there's actually an amusement park right behind me. So, I don't really know what to think. I'm just going to say consumerism has gone its toll.

[00:10:03]They're playing Dual Lia.

[00:10:28]So, initial reactions from just getting off the bus is that this somewhat feels like a tourist attraction. If you look behind me, you can quite literally see an amusement park. You can see over here restaurants and tour buses from like all over the world. You see a lot of people from all over the world as well. Uh from European countries, African countries and so on and so forth. And I've lived in Seoul for so long, which is somewhat of a homogeneous country. So seeing so many different people from so many different places, it kind of reminds me of of America. So my initial reaction, just about to put it in a nutshell, this place kind of reminds me of Stick Flats.

[00:11:05]And I'm not trying to sound crass, but this does somewhat feel like a tourist attraction.

[00:11:18]So over here you can see some of the candy that they have. Uh pretty sure this is mostly northern candy. Over here you can see some of their uh drinks or very common drink here in South Korea is actually soju. So pretty sure over here one of these is similar to that. But yeah, that's it's like the first display case you'll see when you walk in.

[00:11:44]Over here you can see the female uniforms more clearly. It comes with a hat as well as a belt. Over here you have elementary school uniforms. I believe this one is male and this one is female.

[00:11:59]So this is the souvenir shop. If you look inside, there's obviously certain things that you would assume would be in a souvenir shop that is inside here.

[00:12:07]They have some pottery over here. Some uh little miniatures uh clay models. I think these are made out of clay. I believe they sell rice here as well, but I haven't ran into it.

[00:12:18]Over here you see some army soldiers uh figurines over here. Uh you obviously see some tote bags and some more hats.

[00:12:27]You see some silverware over here as well. Uh so a plethora of different items that you can definitely collect as well as buy. So I definitely will go check this place out before leaving because this is definitely uh a go on the bucket list.

[00:12:44]So I probably just had one of the most meaningful experiences in my entire life. I just got to sit down and watch a pre-recording video about life in well can't say that uh North Korea and I actually got to hear and speak to a defector as well. And a defector is basically someone who abandons their loyalty to one country, political party or organization in favor of another one which is often deemed as like illegitimate or illegal by that original country. And I did not record her speaking, nor did I record her um at all or taking photos of her just for confidentiality as well as her privacy and her safety. So in that sense, I got to ask her a lot about uh life living in North Korea. I got to ask her a lot about just life in general, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

[00:13:30]And I got to ask about her childhood and if she remembered anything. And practically what she told me was that the unit leaders that would check up on families every single quite literally day to make sure that everybody was in the house. She talked about it was practically a surveillance state. So while some people might call it a totalitarian kind of society was practically a totalitarian society in a sense because they were constantly over surveillance. So, uh, apart from speaking with her about her childhood, I asked her a lot about faith as well, specifically if they had some sort of theology, whether it be monotheistic or polytheistic. And she somewhat kind of deflected the question, but she did talk a lot about her overall kind of adaptation to life outside of it, uh, North Korea in a sense where she talked a lot about, uh, moving around.

[00:14:24]She lived in Cambodia and various amount of other places. uh speaking about adapting. She found it quite shocking because of the propaganda that she was kind of fed growing up about life outside of North Korea. And what she practically told just it's raining right now, but what she practically told me as well as the others is that it was very jarring to see that life was not necessarily what they said it was. And yeah, it was quite literally an amazing experience.

[00:15:44]Yeah.

[00:15:53]So, the tour guide is currently talking, but I'm getting ready to cross the unification bridge or the security area.

[00:15:59]They're going to look at our passport, so I can't record this because they can find you up to 100,000 100 million. I think that's what he said. So, you can't report because number one, they're working. Number two, this is quite competition.

[00:16:13]I'll see you guys now.

[00:16:22]That one that tells you guys how far you're from. It's going to appear on your left side as well.

[00:16:32]Did you guys get the pictures >> in 1978 while we heard about that they were building in 1974 eventually 4 years after that we were able >> Okay, so I'm currently where they had built the tunnels. Now, the tunnels were built by North Korean soldiers in order to sneak into South Korea. They sometimes snuck around thousands of soldiers an hour. And it's about 1,630 m in length, so it's quite long. And we have to wear helmets here. And I just got off the bus. It was all quite literally crazy. But uh it they told us that to take off our jackets and that we're going to have to wear helmets. So to take off our headgear that we're currently wearing. And on top of that, uh, it they said it's gonna be quite tight and claustrophobic at the same time. So, uh, those are just very important things to note.

[00:17:33]>> And what I can say from specifically that experience and going down, it's like a full-on workout, honestly. And on the walls of the cave, you can practically take bits and pieces of like the residue and actually put it on your hand. So like this is like what the tour guide or others were basically saying just do when going because like proof that you actually went. But it was quite remarkable because on the end of the tunnel there was like two metal plates uh actually blocking you from going all the way. But there was just a big enough square uh for both the actual metal plates that you can see directly into North Korea. So I think that was North Korea. I don't know what else it would have been, but I would say also like a 10 out of 10. So, yeah. On to the next one.

[00:18:20]>> So, walking down those tunnels just to kind of further uh get you guys to understand a little bit more of what it was like. It was almost like I was in a video game a little bit. But, uh it was still very surreal actually being able to be in the same tunnels as North Korean soldiers once were. But right now, I'm in an observatory like area right outside the Dora actual observatory. And right outside the door observatory here is this one where you can actually see replicas of very important and very historical sites. So if you look over here the demilitarized zone the DMC and the famous bright blue buildings the conference row belong to the United Nations commands or the UNC/South Korea while the white or grayish buildings in the backgrounds belong to North Korea.

[00:19:11]So regarding the stalemate which began in 1951, frontline stabilized around the 38th parallel and peace talks and negotiation also took place. Uh warfare during this time period was particularly trench warfare as well as attrition and negotiations actually went on for roughly 2 years.

[00:19:34]Moreover, it's important to note that on July 27th, 1953, the Korean armor test agreement was actually created at Pimujang. An important signatures to note that was actually signed it was General William Harris Jr., which was a UN commander as well as Kim Song. It's important to note that South Korea actually did not participate within the agreement. But what this agreement did was actually stop active fighting, create a ceasefire, as well as establish what we know today as the DMZ, which is the demilitarization zone. So there is no official peace treaty actually in play, but it's also important to note that North and South Korea are also technically still at war today.

[00:20:21]The DMZ is about 250 km long and about 4 km wide, stretching across the Korean Peninsula, roughly follows the old 38th parallel, though not exactly. It was created by forcing both militaries to pull back 2 km from the front lines.

[00:20:36]Ironically, despite being called demilitarized, it's one of the most militarized borders on Earth.

[00:20:45]And that's why we weren't allowed to take any photos or videos inside the actual observatory for reasons that are particularly legal in nature. So, uh, the entire area was heavily guarded.

[00:20:57]There was practically cameras in every single wall from the entry to the exit.

[00:21:02]So when we first walked into the observatory, it just reminded me of a normal observatory until we actually walked into the auditorium, which we ran into some I think Polish soldiers who were sitting down and having like a meeting. But they left quite quickly as the tour guide who was leading kind of our tour uh kind of told us about the cities specifically with the North Korea as well as the one that we were seeing through the auditorium glass. I'm not going to say which city for like I think legal reasons. I'm not trying to get in trouble here. So, um, what happened after that was we got to go on to the balcony and when we got onto the balcony, we got to see North Korea with our own eyes and we got to look through the observatory binoculars as well. And that's when we really saw North Korea.

[00:21:46]So, the majority of photos and videos that I saw online were often either cloudy, foggy, or fake. um oftent times not even looking into North Korea because it's so cloudy or foggy that they're actually just looking down at like the infantry like uh kind of tunnel area where we kind of were originally and not actually inside North Korea. Uh so the day that I went was actually sunny so we got to see practically everything. So, um I got to see uh one of the North Korean cities with the flags as I got to see um some farmers, some sharecroers, some motorcycles. I didn't see any cars cuz cars are considered to be owned by people of like a wealthier social status um or just status in general. Um and it was quite bizarre because you register their existence, but then they don't necessarily register your existence.

[00:22:41]like it's like it's just a weird psychological thing when you kind of process it. But apart from that, like I noted before, it was heavily guarded and uh there were no photos or videos allowed. So, uh I did not get any photos.

[00:23:00]So, the photo I'm about to show you right now is completely and 100% AI generated. I have put it through a AI generator after I saw what I saw. This is completely fake.

[00:23:11]I did not get a photo because how would I get in how how would I have gotten a photo?

[00:23:16]Exactly. So, uh how would Exactly. Um so, the photo I'm about to show you right about now is 100% completely AI generated. Uh but as you can see, this is what North Korea would look like if it was a real photo because it's technically definitely not one. And you can do that what you will. So, yeah. Uh you obviously can see uh it's quite sunny. You can see the flags. Uh you might not be able to see farmers or kind of u various people, but you can definitely see the terrain as well as kind of what the geography is like specifically around it. So do that what you will. And um it's 100% AI.

[00:24:05]It's also very important to note that while the majority of the conflict had ended around 1953, there was still violence around the area. Specifically with events around the 1960s as well as the 1968 with the Blue House raids where 31 North Korean commandos actually entered Soul trying to assassinate the president during the time which was just insane. And then also in 1976 with the axe murder incident where North Korean soldier where US soldiers and southern South Korean soldiers actually were trying to chop down a tree that was blocking visibility and North Korean soldiers do what one does with an axe with intention assault and battery. So yeah um there is it it it's still a very dangerous area but uh somehow it's also somewhat of a tourist attraction.

[00:24:56]When it comes to reflecting on the DMZ, specifically in the lens of South Korean citizens, it represents multitude of different things. It's quite multiaceted. It represents division. It represents hopeification.

[00:25:09]It represents pain. It represents tension. It represents a loss of quite literally culture, tradition, as well as identity.

[00:25:19]But it's also very important to note that while the DMZ is holds a lot of trauma as well as tension, it also holds a lot of beauty. It's quite sublime in a sense. You can quite literally see endangered cranes to rare mammals to wetlands to forest. It's what environmentalists call a accidental preserv. It's beautiful truly cuz humans stayed out of it for decades and it's almost like a full cycle of life in dust to dust.

[00:26:01]Okay, so I finally just made it back to my room after a bus ride that was long but at the same time kind of short. So I'm still unpacking that, but I'm also still unpacking the entire thing. So, uh, yeah, I just wanted to stop and just give somewhat of an explanation as to why I went to the demilitarization zone today. And it's quite multiaceted. It's similar to that of the whole reason as to why I went to Seoul uh for my second semester of my sophomore year of college. And it rep and it's for specifically two reasons overall. It's first personal reasons as well as academic reasons. and the academic reasons being that I get to be in a homogeneous country and live among the people to understand people the best of my ability as I'm a firm believer that you can never really fully understand a person even if you just walk in another person's shoes because you're just only walking in another person's shoes. Uh but it's also to form an intercultural competence as well. So that's many of the reasons as to why I wanted to come to this country and also to go to such a historical event and learn more about the Korean War and the country that I'm actually living in today. But for the personal reasons, it has a lot to do with how one interprets the past or just interprets life in general as there's not much in this world that is perfect.

[00:27:22]But one thing in my opinion that is perfect is the past. And that is something that cannot be improved upon.

[00:27:29]So it is up to you to decipher how you will interpret it. Whether you will love it, whether you will hate it, whether you will learn from it, whether you will deny it, whether you will just burn it, whether you forget it, it's up to you.

[00:27:45]and getting the opportunity to go to the demilitarization zone, it really allowed me to see in somewhat of a drastic way that kind of ideology of mine kind of in the forefront. And I saw how a place that is marked by its past overall developed and gain life in obviously the actual physical sense but also somewhat in the overall just atmosphere as well. And it brought quite literally some people around me to tears especially hearing from the defectors. So it was a beautiful experience but I cannot lie but the leading cause of to why I went to this place and specifically alone was this might sound outland outlandish to everyone and that's rightfully so because it is quite literally crazy. Um it's it's because of a story that I created when I was quite young. not really young, but young uh that I think about every single day.

[00:29:05]And realistically, I can't live without it.

[00:29:12]And it was heavily inspired by specifically North Korea and totalitarian societies and regimes as well as fascist societies and regimes.

[00:29:24]And I'm not one to critique the way one's life goes.

[00:29:32]Um, just trusting the flow of one's life. Uh, but I didn't also think I was going to be able to go to this specific spot so young at the same time. So, whatever. I didn't make the choice. I I um but it it was it was for one of one of many stories I want to tell one day as I want to be a storyteller. and I got the chance to see a place that inspired quite literally the one of, if not the most important aspects of my entire life. And as a person who wants to be a storyteller one day, it was everything to me. It was pure inspiration.

[00:30:23]It was just gold really. But yeah, um I didn't get to take photos obviously. I said that beforehand because of confidentiality reasons, but I did get to take a photo with one of the characters. This is just a concept drawing. Uh I'm not going to describe the story and obviously the face is inverted, but um I wouldn't worry about anything I'm about to say right now until the future hopefully.

[00:30:47]Um, but yeah, that that character's name is Drainy Fam. She was born in the 2,100s in sector B16. That is all I'm going to say. I know that makes absolutely no sense, and I don't expect it to make any sense to anyone. Uh, but uh, yeah, I got to take photos with other uh, concept drawings I drew. Uh, but yeah, getting the opportunity to see a place that inspired something that quite literally saved my life.

[00:31:24]I'm still processing it. So, yeah.

[00:31:30]So, yeah, I do want to thank you all so much for taking the time to actually watch this video. Whether you found it to be just something to watch during lunch or you found it to be somewhat of like, I don't know, profoundly provocative narrative. Um, I truly do hope you took something away from it. So, thank you guys so much for watching. Uh, hope you learned a lot.

[00:31:50]Sorry I couldn't film certain things and sorry about the audio. I need another mic. But yeah, thank you guys so much and I'll see you guys later.