Things To Do in Panmunjeom and the DMZ

Located along one of the most strategic routes in the eastern sector, this tunnel was discovered in March 1990 only 26km (16 miles) northeast of Yang-gu. It is 145m (476 ft.) below ground and measures about 2m (6 1/2 ft.) tall and 2m (6 1/2 ft.) wide. Almost identical to tunnels two…

Located 7km (4 1/3 miles) from the Military Demarcation Line, Imjingak is a park and a monument, and includes a three-story building housing photos, documents, and anticommunist relics from North Korea. It was built in 1972, as a consolation for North Koreans living in the South who…

You can get a glimpse of North Korea through the built-in binoculars/telescopes on the observation platform here. On a clear day, you'll see North Korean soldiers, the outskirts of the city of Gaesong, some farms, and Geumgangsan (Diamond Mountain). Admission is included in the entry…

The last station on the Gyeongui line, Mt. Dora Station was restored in hopes of reconnecting the rail service from Pyongyang to Seoul. A project that cost millions of dollars, there is a monument with engraved names of South Koreans who donated to the project. It is located 205km…

Opened to the public in September 1992, the Unification Observatory is built on Ohdusan (Mt. Ohdu) and offers views of some of the area's most beautiful scenery, where the Han River meets the Imjin River flowing down from North Korea. Not your traditional "observatory" for looking at…

In 1974, the South Korean army discovered a major tunnel running under the southern sector of the DMZ. What came to be called the First Infiltration Tunnel was destroyed by a bomb blast (and two members of the United Nations command were killed). But soon after, the Second…

When this tunnel was discovered in October 1978, North Korea insisted that South Korea dug it to aid an invasion of the north. Of course, that turned out to be untrue -- the North Koreans dug the tunnel themselves. The underground tube is 1.6km (about a mile) long, 1.95m (6 1/3 ft.)…