Visitors come from across the world to see the tunnels that stretch from the North Korean side of the Demilitarized Zone into the South. But some warn that tourism trivializes the conflict.
The tunnels are hundreds of feet below the earth’s surface and stretch from the North Korean side of the heavily fortified Demilitarized Zone into neighboring South Korea.
One was discovered just 32 miles from the South’s capital, Seoul.
South Korea says the four passages, the so-called Tunnels of Aggression, were built to move thousands of North Korean troops quickly and covertly underneath the Demilitarized Zone and onto South Korean soil for an invasion, an accusation Pyongyang has long denied.
But in the decades since their discovery, some of the tunnels have found new life as a tourist destinations. Thousands of Koreans and foreign visitors explore these odd relics of a frozen conflict, one that is now stressed by renewed tensions and in the spotlight ahead of President Trump’s visit to the Peninsula on Tuesday.
During the 1970s, North Korean defectors told officials in the South that President Kim Il-sung had ordered army units to subvert the Demilitarized Zone by digging tunnels underneath it to prepare for an invasion. Three tunnels were found soon after.
The first tunnel was discovered in 1974 by a South Korean Army patrol, which saw steam rising from the ground and heard suspicious noises. A second tunnel was discovered in 1975. South Korean officials estimated that the second tunnel, which extended nearly a half-mile into their territory, could have accommodated up to 30,000 troops an hour.
In 1978, a significantly larger tunnel was discovered south of Panmunjom, the so-called truce village, another popular tourist spot where military personnel on the two sides of the Demilitarized Zone come face to face.
