Couple of things I forgot...

A couple of things I forgot to mention in the previous post:

The picture of the memorial to the soldiers killed trying to cut down a tree; here is some further explanation...The blue pagoda building was originally a gaurd post, and the soldiers line of sight was blocked by this massive tree, so they took a group of three civilian workers and eight soldiers out to cut the tree down one day. They were met by approximately 30 NK soldiers, and were attacked. They were grossly outnumbered, and the NK soldiers massacred them with axes...Yeah. Pretty fricking grissly...so they put this memorial in the exact place of the tree. The commander of the unit, who was killed, was named Boniface, hence the name Camp Boniface. The blue building, as I said, marks the Southern side of the Bridge of No Return, which is where an exchange of prisoners took place after the war. The soldiers were allowed to walk across the bridge to the side of their choice, but they could never return to the country they were departing from.

Another thing I should have explained further...the soldier that is facing the builing where it looks lie he is peeing...he is actually only half exposed to the other side. They do this so that they make smaller targets for gunfire, and so that, if they are struck by a bullet, it is only on the side of their body, and therefore, less likely to be fatal. Scary, huh?

I also completely forgot to mention "Freedom Village," the South's version of "Propoganda Village" in the North. No, propoganda is not played all day long, but it is a symbol in and of itself. The people that live here farm land within the DMZ, under heavy military guard. They have government permission and endorsement to live here, as they are direct decendents of the people who lived in the original village before the war. They are exempt from the mandatory military service, and their land and income is tax-free. Women can marry into the village, but men cannot, because of the exemption from military duty, which is a compulsory two years in South Korea. The villagers have to be inside the village by nightfall, must be inside their homes with lights off and all windows and doors secured by midnight, and must live in the village a minimum of 8 months out of the year, to maintain their residency status. The village is patrolled nightly by a contingent of soldiers, both American and ROK.

Final thing I forgot to explain...the flag flying above "Propoganda Village." Sometime back, a flag pole totalling 100 meters in height was donated to "Freedom Village" and was considerably taller than the one in "PV." The North Korean Government promptly erected a flag pole totalling 160 meters in "PV." The flag that flies on this flag pole is 30 meters long and weighs and estimated 600 lbs. When it was first erected, it took upwards of 30 men to raise the flag, and had to be taken down in severe weather as its own weight would cause the tower to topple. Later a motor was installed to raise the enormous flag. It is currently the tallest flag pole in the world.