World Wide Willard

JSA & Panmungak

This is the tourist photo everyone comes here to take.... (tourist photo of a war zone, what am I saying?) This is the view from the steps of the South Korean Freedom House, of the various huts that straddle the MDL (Millitary Demarcation Line - the middle of the DMZ, the actual North/South Border) blue for UN buildings, grey for KPA, and beyond, the geographically close but totally inaccessible (from this side) Panmungak, the main North Korean building, on the site where the original armistice was signed, and the counterpart of Freedom House on the Northern Side (and indeed, where we would be standing if we had entered as tourists from the Northern side, instead of the Southern side). We're being watched by our US/UN guide, to make sure we don't do anything that may be interpreted as hostile by the cameras attached to Panmungak, or, indeed, anything that might look embarassing on the front page of a North Korean newspaper tommorow morning...