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There is a small amusement park at the demilitarized zone (DMZ) in South Korea.
Well, it’s technically not inside the DMZ; but it is taking up real space in the vicinity of the DMZ tour checkin, making it a very visible part of any DMZ tour.
The strange juxtaposition of an amusement park located in one of the saddest and most serious places in the world is psychologically jolting. It is absurd. And the absurdities kept coming for my students and myself as we toured the DMZ (my 4th time here): For example, the sight of colorful DMZ signs and other photo zones where happy tourists take happy pictures, as if this location was no different than Lotte World or Namsan Tower (two popular tourist destinations in Seoul). And the countless (and overpriced) souvenir stores that sell everything from DMZ rice (yes, it’s a thing) to North Korean wine and Pringles.
My students and I also chuckled when our tour guide told us about the ridiculous pettiness of both the North and South Korean governments that almost seemed to serve as a distraction from the deeper and more complicated trauma of a country that is divided, with no end to the division in sight.
Here are some examples of what we heard:
- My students got a kick out of the “propaganda village” visible on the North Korean side – that it is likely a fake village set up by the North Korean government to try to convince the rest of the world that North Korea is, in fact, a beautiful place to live in.
- North and South Koreas went back and forth in raising their respective flag poles, so that their own flag flies higher. True story. It sounds like something that my daughters used to when they were toddlers. (I’m taller! No, I’m taller!)
- The North and South Korean governments have at various points in their history blasted loudspeaker noise/music/messaging toward the other side, sometimes in a retaliatory manner, other times for propaganda purposes. Again, talk about petty.
- An ongoing, headshaking event: North Korea is sending large trash balloons to South Korea.
So yes, absurd.
But going even deeper, the DMZ visit, and its aftermath, is to mourn the tragedy of one nation, split in half by ideologies. The visit and resulting reflections are about lamenting the tragedy of Koreans who are directly affected, such as the families who have been torn apart for several decades since the Korean War. Recent statistics from the Korean government note that almost 2000 Koreans in this calendar year alone have died without ever having reunited with separated family members in North Korea since the war.
That is a tragedy of epic proportions; absurdity that no human beings should experience.
So, while my students and I gently laugh at the amusing co-existence of an amusement park and the heavy, emotional energy of the border, and as I shake my head at the fiction-like pettiness of the two Korean governments, I also grapple with the unfathomable reality that is the division between North and South Koreas, and the people who have been/are heartbroken because of it.
