In
Gangneung, our first stop on the next day was the Unification Park a bit in the
South where tourist can step on a Korean warship as well as step into a North
Korean submarine. Well, you might ask yourself why there is a North Korean
submarine in South Korea: This submarine was spying on South Korea in 1996 near
Gangneung when it ran aground as it was too close to the coast (pfff, rookies!)
The North Korean crew was able to escape and hide in the nearby mountains
first, however, was then killed by South Korean soldiers. Given the fact that
this submarine was used in 1996, it seemed pretty old. I guess the North Korean
Navy is not really up-to-date in terms of their military equipment (which is
probably not too bad given the fact that I’m staying in South Korea for the
next couple of months). But also the South Korean warship was not really
state-of-the art as the Americans already used it in World War II as well as
the Korean War.
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| *sing* "We all live in a North Korean Submarine" |
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| Cpt Ben ready to fire! |
In general,
while driving around, it became clear that North Korea isn’t too far away
anymore as there was clearly more military infrastructure and soldiers around.
And the further up North in the direction of the DMZ (demilitarised zone) we
drove, the more intense it got. In Goseong, the northernmost point you can go
to in South Korea, we were able to look into the DMZ and even saw some peaks
that are located in North Korea. It was quite weird, as the scenery was
actually beautiful and if there weren’t so many soldiers, guns and barbed
wires, you could easily relax at the beaches and enjoy some days with hiking
and camping out in the nature.
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| You wouldn't really thinking of the Korean conflict when looking at this picture... |
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| Let's see if we can spot him... |
But, as we
all know, things are unfortunately different. The DMZ museum furthermore gave
us a nice image of how the Korean see this war and we also came aware, that
although this war in fact lasts since more than 50 years, there are still
attacks every now and then were people are killed, e.g. a torpedo that was shot
from the North Koreans and
destroyed a
warship of South Korea only a couple of years ago.
In Sokcho,
the town we stayed for the night, another challenge was waiting for us: eating a
dead but still moving octopus! I have to admit that I really just ate a tiny bit and
Benjamin all the rest – and no, in my opinion it was not really a culinary
highlight as it had the consistency of a
rubber and was not that tasteful.
