DMZ Tour from the North Korea Side

It's Throwback Thursday! (aka #TBT) A few weeks ago, I wrote about my trip to the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) from the South Korea side. Now let's take a look at it from the North Korea side. Let's address the elephants in the room first:

• Yes, I went to North Korea. (http://www.koryogroup.com/)
• Yes, they allow Americans into the country. At the time, Americans had a limit of five days in the country but they have lifted that limit now.
• Yes, I had a safe and wonderful time there. The country is beautiful and the people are lovely. I may not agree with their government but I'm not going to hold it against the wonderful people I met during my time there.

Back in 2008, one of my friends asked me if I wanted to go on a tour of North Korea (aka DPRK). I had never considered going there before but it sounded like a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity so I decided to go. Most of our time was spent in Pyongyang but we did take a day trip to the DMZ.

Ugh the Chinese tourists got a head start on us. You'll see in the next picture how crowded it was.

I'm on the South Korea side! You can tell because the door is open on the North Korea side.

The table where the microphones indicate the DMZ line that separates the North and South Koreas.

The Freedom House on the South Korea side.

It's funny. When I was on the South Korea side I wasn't allowed to take pictures of the Freedom House but I could take pictures of the building on the North Korea side. And since I have no pictures of the North Korean building from 2008 I can only assume the same rules applied (but vice versa).

Greetings!

My favorite part of this picture are the tour buses going past on the South Korea side. I'm pretty sure we waved to them.

To see the DMZ in 2014 from the South Korea vantage point, click here for my post.