A Glimpse into North Korea (a tour to the DMZ from Seoul, South Korea) 🇰🇷
Coming up in this video we take a look into North Korea we decided to take a cluke tour to the DMZ which is the demilitarized zone its borders between North and South Korea we weren’t
Sure what to expect from the DMZ tour would it be somber tense and surprisingly it was both but also it was laced with a big dose of resilience and hope join us as we recount our cluke experience
From the informative ride to soul to the chill of the third infiltration tunnel we share some unexpected Lessons Learned in this unique land caught between two worlds this is the DMZ the demilitarized zone at the border of North North Korea we do travel a lot and there’s there’s lots
Of things that we wanted to see and achieve in our travel Journey we’re nearly 3 years in one of the things we always wanted to do was to come here to Korea not just to see the city but also to see
The the MZ is such a famous point it’s actually one of the most and heavily militarized borders in the world so it’s a big uh big opportunity to go and see that so I’m very very EXC okay so
It looks like our meeting point is here it’s at um the Metro exit number n and uh we’re still waiting to connect our we’re supposed to be catching the bus in about 15 minutes you used to
Be able to get yourself to the border and wait to get daily tickets but due to the ongoing tensions that are happening right now you do have to take a tour so you can take a look in the video our
Video description and you can find a link to the tour that we took or to others that may interest you but keep that in mind and book ahead another thing to keep in mind also is that um there could
Be a chance that the day that you have a booked tour that the DMZ is completely closed down due to ongoing issues at the actual border and also depending what time your tour bus gets there there
Are only a limited amount of spots per day and not every tour bus tour group actually is awarded the tickets but if you book through cluke and you use Dora like we did your chances will be even higher all right we yeah very attractive bus yeah kind of like reminds me a little
Bit of like a India yeah right like colorful patterns and prints and everything okay so so far um we’ve had to fill some information on um a paper giving our names our nationality and our passport numbers um and then when we get to the Border uh she’s already
Take gathered our passports just to show them all to get a passport uh ticket for all of us to enter because it is kind of crossing the border so we are ever so slightly on the border and in the country so that’s why they need the passports right now and it’s
Been an hour good morning again everyone nice meet you building over there people already inside the building here so I think we’re going to stop at the restroom and get some coffee and then we see you here again see you here again 9:25 so we’ve just stopped at the DMC um area
Before before where they buy tickets right now we’re going to grab a coffee and get back nice this is funny this one I have my friend Rachel was gave me that a long time ago I have that so this is the money
Going it’s cute look over there they have like the abusement part yeah I know didn’t expect that [Music] so now minut please follow me all right everyone uh so here is that so we have our entrance time and uh the entrance time will be for 1010 for us we’re really lucky um
But yeah so a couple things that we’ve I wanted to mention um you’ll notice throughout Korea uh in Soul and many different areas that you’ll see these statues here that I’m about to show you um
So during the invasion of uh Korea by Japan many women were uh uh basically abducted and taken to Japan and forced into female slavery a million they say about 200,000 women but uh to this day
Japan has never um acknowledged that so every once a week uh people were going in front of government buildings uh to protest and so now they’ve put uh all these different statues with young girls facing different spots um in honor of that and especially facing uh the North Korean [Music]
Border like entry the buper and there a power there pictures and also you can have a gold there the ribbons that you see lined on along the fence here are from South Korean families which ing for peace with North Korea and also for reunification with their family members there are
Many families that are still separated to this day so a nice story about this train here so there’s the DMZ DM military demilitarized zone where um they found this train it was sitting there for
Like a super long time so they ended up going and um bringing it over here but it was intertwined and intertangled with a tree and so when they up when they brought it here they decided to uproot the tree to keep it intered with it so it’s really really interesting so another thing
To keep in mind when you book these tours whether you’re going to use cluke or any other uh type of Tour company um the the guides have to arrive and there’s a limited amount of tickets that
They issue every day and so um sometimes if you come for your tour they might get a later date or time so uh you know if you if it says your tour is going to end at two you might not
Be back until 6:30 because your entrance time might only be 2:00 um so definitely keep that in mind don’t don’t squeeze these TS in tight if you have a flight later on or you’re going to be
Rushed okay so that’s the number one thing also the other thing to keep in mind as well is that it’s possible that you could arrive and they you won’t have your uh opportunity to go in at all
Because um like they said there’s been a couple times where South Korea I sorry North Korea has flown drones so they had to shut everything down get everybody out because they had to shoot down
The drones so um you have to be flexible you have to be prepared for that to happen I don’t think it happens very often um however Dora our tier guide she’s really amazing and she uh has some seniority so she’s always pretty good at getting the earlier tickets another really cool thing is
That you can um well technically they stopped the sale of currency and um but you so there was a new president that came in last year and uh you were not uh he wanted to stop the sale
Of being able to purchase North and South North Korean money but there is still some left here and so they’re still um just selling it basically until they run it not supposed to be but they are
And uh we got a note so that’s really cool I’ll show you guys that later so this is where we can buy North Korean currency which we are very much interested in doing so let’s go have a look did you did you tell everyone about the random American Tourist who decided to break
Cover and uh yeah try and run across the border to nor well I think you guys probably know that from the media but there was Donald Trump came back and and had a meeting with um with what’s his name Kim
Jung-un Kim Jong-un and they stood like toe to- toe at the border and um after that that was in 2018 and so you could actually go um previously before the pandemic you could actually go and see
That spot uh but what were you saying yeah so I think it’s called the peace Village but it’s the any place where negotiations between North Korea and South Korea will take place and previously obviously tourists were allowed to go there as Jen said and one guy um forget his I don’t forget what
The name was but he just decided to like break cover and try and go across Sak which is quite phenomenal because actually the demilitarized zone has one of the biggest concentrations of landmines in the world like the artor guide was saying if they tried to clear them it would take
Up to 200 years them so um this guy was pretty to be doing that so that guy that guy made it bad for all of us so now we can’t experience that so as a tourist be mindful and respectful
In other people’s countries and if it says don’t film don’t record don’t go here don’t go there don’t do it I wonder though I wonder if he’s in jail he’s probably in prison oh without a doubt
He’ probably and I don’t think he’d want to be in prison in North Korea but no yes I’m believable story though I mean I do remember vaguely hearing about something like that but I don’t really uh
Know I know until she told us but also didn’t know about the mines we’ actually been to one other country which has a large amount of mines too which is Cambodia but they’ve removed a lot
Just some near the bord OB the DMZ they’re not going to do that here because technically the two countries are still at War um officially they’ve not uh ended the war so yeah so this is the main
Like facility area tons and tons and tons of tourist uh tour buses I think you can get like when I was looking you can get a round trip bus us just to come here without a tour or anything
But I really don’t know what should do so this is all just the main area the freedom Bridge um the Train the quite H at the moment we’ve got the sun there and we can still see the moon on the
Other side so that’s kind of kind of act for the moment I guess the two sides in view it’s true 16 35 m 16 35 mes here is every 2 m the place so when they use a Dynam here this water pipe water
Is p outside here from you is only 170 m away just so few steps away from North Korea today but see okay so we had an amazing time down there I I guess not shouldn’t say amazing but
Um it’s really well put together it definitely is strenuous definitely on the way up for sure and when you’re down there standing upright is very difficult that’s right so I’m about 5 6 and a
Little bit and um I had to be like this like most of the time you can’t bring anything down with you all phones hats everything cameras you have to put in the locker um which is great because if
Not most people don’t listen to the rules so and uh obviously it’s still military zone so yeah and we got some T-shirts uh Leon and I got matching ones you can’t see the back but uh it’s a got uh
Some writing on the back which you can’t see and what else did you get there babe the store which was pretty cool I also got some uh just real quick snack some boiled eggs that’s so cool
Never seen that before in Canada uh in Canada we have them but like in they’re in the cooler and they’re pre peeled you yeah yeah yeah for sure that’s cool I mean eggs are great source of has been a country I’ve always wanted to visit um we definitely will be returning to explore
More of uh the country but uh I highly encourage you if you come here to make sure you come and pay a visit here and also support the experience and um the cause here because as you know uh
You know North Korea is not just North Korea it represents communism and um not sure your political perspectives and we don’t want to talk too much politics but it is uh not just as simple as a Korean issue I think uh we’re all starting to realize more more know that it’s becoming
A more prevalent worldwide issue so yeah just want to show you guys the Bild we not because we are supporting oh yes but it is H this is the older one so I guess they had all of the bills
And then in North Korea they stopped them and then recycled all of them and like I was saying in the other earlier in the video um when there was a different government over a year ago they
Were trying to work more on piece and talks and whatever and um so they allowed different types of trade and different kinds of things and uh but now with the new one they said no not allowed so
They’re just s like selling out what they’ve got left basically so if you want to get one you should probably come soon so this is what it looks like here what you what you can notice on
This bill is that that’s the the father what’s his name there um the father of Kim Jan but I can’t remember this is what we paid it was 12,000 uh and then there’s their bridge I think yeah interesting
I think they try to say that it’s worth like $400 yeah but it’s not doesn’t have much about Okay so this is interesting so it’s a hardboiled day we’ve never seen it kind of look like this before how
Mine looks inside different color it comes out very easily um I don’t know how how would they have managed to make the color like that unless it’s a different type of I don’t understand I’m
Not sure I like it to be honest I know so uh on the benches here this is the smoking area it says DMZ the shape of the benches and it’s got all the flags look from you look babe you’re over
Here no right beside Canada huh I don’t know my Flags well but I know this [Music] one look different stay there stay there did you see this you see this yeah it seems a bit R did they win ever or like maybe
They okay so we just found out about the eggs so they actually roast the eggs and um she said that sometimes they’ll even just um put them in in like the sauna and just let them cook like that so that’s the difference um but they’re white chewy which is different
I think maybe you’d have to have a couple and you know maybe some salt a quiet taste this is a fire Beacon so they would light the fires if there was any problems to warn one another what’s this out here so this is all outside the Dora exploratory here
These guys have the best spot right there take I think the other direction you weren’t allowed to fil look there’s the villages so those Villages that you can see you probably can’t see right there out there that’s all North Korea all of these see the flag there can you find the
Sign that she said I’m trying to look for it so South Korea built a sign I’m going to try to see if we can see it that is very similar to like the Hollywood sign and it what does
It mean North North Korea better is said yeah North Korea is the best or something like that yeah on the other side oh yeah River interesting story here so this is the South Korean flag and they erected a flag pole um just to mark their area and then when North Korea saw that
Of course they had to turn around and also erect a flag pole that was even higher no just want to show that you can okay so okay so now we’re at the uh local community area there’s a village that grows three different
Main produces here there’s ginang soy beans and what was the other one and uh rice sorry and so uh here um those are the things that they grow here it’s only a group of 700 people um and they
Are farmers and they take care of the lands here and they um most of them are ex uh military so and they have the very small community so oh yeah we got those at the restaurant yeah so we’re taking
A look uh we heard that there’s some really good chocolate covered soy beans so that’s what we’re going to take a look at and it’s also great to support these guys as well you wi over here wi
And in I made wine there and this is a soy bean chocolate and the black bean chocolate here so different color having a different flavors for your information this red one is a milk chocolate
With a black bean milk chocolate with a black bean white one is a white chocolate with a soy bean or so yeah that’s another thing so um they changed all of the barbed wire covering the entire place um once and when they did they preserved some of the pieces of the original
That you can buy so I think we’re going to look for that too I yeah we’re bit to we travel all the time this is it here oh it’s like a plaque kind of thing oh yeah we
Can’t do that that’s a real shame oh that’s a little bit too big for us I don’t know why I expected but I would definitely buy that if we had somewhere to put it 100% I would that’s
Incredible okay all right let’s get some beans and then there’s a garden outside so go take a look how much is it I don’t know find out a Myster got these two 20,000 so 10,000 each do you take the carard yes sir thank you look french fried almonds oh
Interesting cool okay so let’s go outside we’re going to take a look at there’s some pretty flowers let’s go see what’s going on Outside bless you take a photo in the flower heart excuse me quick before my start quick flower art oh yeah baby all right there we go hold [Music] on AO [Music] bomb sign there it’s got uh you yeah says what it’s cross I wonder if it’s ah Christian yeah yeah a Christian Yeah we loved this tour it was fantastic this is why we came to kop is cool and all the other cool things here in Korea are amazing too but uh this is what it was all about for us for
This trip so we hope that you enjoyed it and uh we’ll see you soon but not soon enough so we will leave in the video description a link to cluke uh which is who we booked through they’re fantastic platform if you’re traveling Eastern Asia you can get tickets you can get um
All sorts of different things you get SIM cards it’s fantastic so I encourage you to use that um link and to definitely get the app you can get better prices on theater tickets tours SIM
Cards and everything um and so if you click the uh you can get our tour that we had here or a vast array of other ones we encourage you to book ahead of time we wanted to do a bigger
Longer more thorough uh tour unfortunately was only available tomorrow but we are headed to our next country tomorrow so um yeah and also don’t forget to check our website at closes.com so you can definitely find more information there you can also find links to the CL website there as
Well so yeah thanks again for watching thank you again and we’ll see you soon but not soon enough
The Korean Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) is a strip of land running across the Korean Peninsula that serves as a buffer zone between North Korea and South Korea dividing Korea almost in half. In this day tour from Seoul we learn about the history and ongoing conflict between the 2 sides and look into the illusion that is presented as North Korea. We also visit the infamous third tunnel.
The DMZ serves as a reminder that the desire for reunification continues to flicker, waiting for the right conditions to reignite. While it might evoke a sense of sadness and frustration, it ultimately encourages reflection and hope. It certainly made us far more aware of the human cost of conflict, the power of resilience, and the enduring desire for a peaceful and unified future for the Korean people.
Sadly, the tensions between the two countries are at an all-time high. There is every chance that the DMZ may once again become the epicenter of another major conflict, and this might just be the last chance you may have to visit it.
Time Stamps:
00:00 Intro
00:46 Seoul, South Korea
04:10 Imjingak Peace Park
05:05 Statues of Two Girls
08:30 North Korean Currency and Freedom Bridge
12:03 The Third Tunnel
17:45 Korean Sauna Style Eggs
18:11 Dora Observatory
19:00 NORTH KOREA
21:00 Unification ‘Bean’ Village
While there are a ton of different tours available, we would highly recommend this Klook Tour. It also offers the best prices!
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