Featured Work, Korea, Politics, Travel - Saturday, October 1, 2011 11:42 - 0 Comments

The Cold War lives on

Qantas The Australian Way, October 2011

Two South Korean soldiers stand facing north, fists bunched, in a taekwando stance, staring straight ahead. A few metres away a North Korean soldier looks straight back at them. More South Korean soldiers join their colleagues and glare with them, their intended sense of menace enhanced by sunglasses that leave only the rictus clench of their jaws from which to guess their expression. Time seems to stand still. But the moment passes; an everyday standoff.

And the 20 watching tourists file away.

Welcome to Panmunjom, also known as the Joint Security Area (JSA) – the border of North and South Korea. Bill Clinton once called this “the scariest place on earth,” and he was on to something: the tension is everywhere in this extraordinary location, the only place where you can see what’s left of the Cold War up close and personal. It’s a stark illustration of one of the most dangerous potential flashpoints on earth, a mental and sometimes physical conflict that has held fast for more than half a century. But it is also, improbably, the heart of a burgeoning tourist itinerary.

To see the article as it ran in the magazine, with photography, click here: qa1011_Korea indd

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