SIMKIN: Created by war, nurtured by fear, the demilitarised zone is the place where capitalism and communism face off. It cuts across the Korean peninsular, four kilometres wide; 250 kilometres long, lined with soldiers, land mines and razor wire.
Deadly, definitely; strange – certainly. But there is another side to the demilitarised zone, a side very few people ever get to see. Half a century of division and danger have created a unique sanctuary, home to very special plants, animals, even humans. But their way of life is under threat, not from war but from peace.
People often call the DMZ a no man’s land - but it’s not. In the middle of the zone, just a few hundred metres from North Korea stands perhaps the most extraordinary village in the world: Taesongdong.
It’s not the sort of place you can just drop into or drive by. You need special permission and an armed escort. We received both, a very rare chance to visit the Cold War’s final frontier.
RYAN ROBERTS: Several North Korean guard posts right on the military demarcation line.
SIMKIN: So we’re pretty much on the edge of Taesongdong here?
RYAN ROBERTS: Yes, right here.
SIMKIN: How dangerous potentially is this location?
RYAN ROBERTS: This is one of the locations we don’t bring a lot of people to just because it is right on the edge of the demarcation line.
SIMKIN: Ryan Roberts is a captain in the American military. He’s been serving here for several months.
SIMKIN: So technically North Korean soldiers could be anywhere here.
RYAN ROBERTS: Right over there, yes. There is a small body of water that runs right there that kind of acts as a small amount of protection for us.
SIMKIN: Taesongdong is tiny. In many ways, it’s like any other small South Korean village and yet there’s something strange, surreal. Two hundred and twenty people live here but it’s not easy to find someone to talk to.
YOON SUN-DUK: Hello, hello.
SIMKIN: Most of the villagers are farmers. Kim Chang-Yeon and Yoon Sun-Duk grow rice, beans and chilli peppers.
KIM CHANG-YEON [SUBTITLES]: Since farming is our main way of life we get tied up in it and there’s hardly any time for rest – apart from winter, when we can rest a little.
SIMKIN: Hard work is the least of their worries. North and South Korea are technically still at war and this family is living on the front line.
KIM CHANG-YEON [SUBTITLES]: I’m always feeling the tension – always nervous and sometimes not able to sleep at night.
YOON SUN-DUK [SUBTITLES]: Because we’re so close to the North here, we really should always feel tense so that we never let our guard down. We can’t really have a totally peaceful life here.
SIMKIN: Despite the threat and the fear, the people of Taesongdong have prospered. This is the richest farming village in the country, protected and privileged.
The villagers don’t pay taxes or rent. Men are exempt from military service. Taesongdong rice is coveted. It demands high prices at market because it’s irrigated with the unpolluted waters of the DMZ.
The average income here is more than $100 000, five times what farmers earn elsewhere in South Korea.
RYAN ROBERTS: The homes are actually more modern than most of the Korean villages around here. They’re all subsidised by the government and the government wants to keep up a nice image there at Taesongdong
SIMKIN: The Korean War raged for three years in the 1950s and claimed millions of lives, including several hundred Australians.
When the fighting finished, the DMZ was established and both sides were allowed to keep one village inside it. Within rifle shot of Taesongdong is the North Korean town – Kichongdong. The US soldiers call it Propaganda Village because they believe it exists purely for promotional purposes. It’s like a giant movie set. A few people work there, allegedly painting the windows on and turning all the lights off and on in unison, but no one actually lives there.
Towering above the village is a flag the size of a basketball court and its history pretty much sums up how this part of the world operates. Both towns had normal flagpoles for decades, but Taesongdong built a bigger one during the Seoul Olympics, forcing Kichongdong to go one better.
RYAN ROBERTS: The North Koreans must have got you know their pride hurt or whatever, so they built a larger tower for their flagpole. It’s a huge tower. It stands 160 metres and they even built up the flag so the flag is larger than the South Korean flag they have here. It’s so large that in inclement weather they have to take it down or it’ll be torn by its own weight.
SIMKIN: The North Korean hamlet might be called Propaganda Village, but Taesongdong has propaganda value too. The Americans call it Freedom Village, the symbol of a system that works.
The local primary school is the best resourced in the country, the ideal institution - one of officials tells me. The classes are tiny. The teaching intensive, altogether there are 14 teachers looking after just 15 children, spread across 7 years. The propaganda value is obvious and for a moment it feels like I’m in that other Korea where people are well schooled in what to say to visitors. The male voice belongs to the teacher.
TEACHER [SUBTITLES]: Because the number of students is small you can spend time with the teacher, and it’s like having fun with your dad. Talk about that kind of thing.
SIMKIN: The pressure to perform is too much for one eight year old.
TEACHER [SUBTITLES]: I can do experiments in the science lab as much as I want. That’s why I like our school. Do you think you can say that? You can use the computers as much as you want – just talk as if you’re talking to your mum.
SIMKIN: Her classmate has learnt the lesson well.
TEACHER [SUBTITLES]: Start out by saying “I really like our school a lot”. Then say “because…”. Do it like that.
GIRL STUDENT [SUBTITLES]: I really like our school a lot because I can use the computer lab as much as I want, read story books as much as I want, use the broadcasting room when I want, and do experiments in the science lab when I want.
SIMKIN: To keep their privileges, the locals have to clear some obstacles. You’re only allowed to live in Taesongdong if your family was here before the war and you spend 240 nights a year inside the village. That makes matchmaking as much as a minefield as the surrounding countryside.
BUILDER [SUBTITLES]: For a single man who wants to go outside to find a bride, he has to keep in mind the time periods that he must stick to, and that makes it difficult to have a social life or work outside this area.
SIMKIN: The zone that protects Taesongdong is a final resting place for many men and their war machines, but it’s also home to abundant life. Fenced off and very well guarded, it’s become the ultimate refuge for species that have died out everywhere else. There isn’t a native animal bigger than a rabbit left anywhere in South Korea, except the demilitarised zone.
Conservationists believe the DMZ is home to leopards, black bears, and an even rarer predator. Deep in the mountains that border the buffer zone, east of Taesongdong, Lim Sun-Nam hunts a hunter. He’s spent the last 10 years searching for an animal that’s officially extinct: the Korean tiger.
LIM SUN-NAM [SUBTITLES]: At the time in Korea’s history when Japan ruled us, we had independence fighters who would rise up again and again despite relentless executions. Many people believed the source of such fierce courage and strength was the strength and courage of the tiger. The Japanese then killed off hundreds of tigers and announced they were all dead in order to destroy our spirit.
SIMKIN: The animals are related to these magnificent Siberian tigers filmed by Foreign Correspondent in Russia.
Even though the Korean versions are thought to have died out decades ago, some people are convinced they still have a habitat inside the DMZ. Last year, the hunter videoed what he claims is important proof.
LIM SUN-NAM [SUBTITLES]: My whole hand could fit into it. I thought, wow, it’s a tiger! I began trembling as I got excited about the fact that there really was a tiger in Korea.
SIMKIN: In Taesongdong, tigers are not a problem. The main concern is North Koreans on the prowl. Because of the occasional abduction the villagers are guarded day and night, especially night. Everyone has to be back inside the village by dark, when the roads are sealed and inside their homes by 11pm, with the windows and doors locked. Military patrols enforce the curfew.
RYAN ROBERTS: They actually go to the door and knock on the doors and check to see that the families are there. They keep a roster of any guests that are visiting and make sure that everyone is safe and they’re in their homes at a certain time – 2300 is the curfew.
SIMKIN: But the American military is on the move, pulling back from the DMZ. Over the next few years, one third of the US troops based in South Korea will leave.
KIM CHANG-YEON [SUBTITLES]: Their presence made me feel secure and I wonder if we should move away from this place. I’m sure most of us feel this way seeing as we’re just a creek away from the enemy.
SIMKIN: Both North and South Korea want reunification and they often hold high level talks trying to achieve it. Now you’d think that reconciliation would be a blessing for the people of Taesongdong, but it could be a curse. If peace were to break out here, the villagers would lose their perks and quite possibly their farms. None of them own the land and there are North Koreans who lived here before the war who’d be able to claim it.
Peace is also threatening the DMZ’s other inhabitants: the rare plants and animals.
South Korea wants to begin eco-tourism in the zone. There’s even talk of housing estates, industrial centres and a fun park if the razor wire comes down – even if that seems unlikely at the moment.
ACTIVIST: The DMZ is this body of water which boats are not allowed to go on and you see how heavily fortified it is on either side, and the…
SIMKIN: Led by K C Kim, a prominent entomologist, these activists and academics are fighting the DMZ’s latest battle.
ACTIVIST: And there are large marshes all along the side here where the white-beaked cranes come on their way to Japan.
SIMKIN: They want to turn the zone into a World Heritage site, a protected conservation corridor.
K C KIM: Development companies want to get in there and utilise the DMZ name for making money. Now if we are going to allow that, the DMZ is going to disappear and even within a year because 4km is not very big.
SIMKIN: For now though, the inhabitants of the demilitarised zone go about their business, living on the edge, but worrying about the price of peace.
Deadly, definitely; strange – certainly. But there is another side to the demilitarised zone, a side very few people ever get to see. Half a century of division and danger have created a unique sanctuary, home to very special plants, animals, even humans. But their way of life is under threat, not from war but from peace.
People often call the DMZ a no man’s land - but it’s not. In the middle of the zone, just a few hundred metres from North Korea stands perhaps the most extraordinary village in the world: Taesongdong.
It’s not the sort of place you can just drop into or drive by. You need special permission and an armed escort. We received both, a very rare chance to visit the Cold War’s final frontier.
RYAN ROBERTS: Several North Korean guard posts right on the military demarcation line.
SIMKIN: So we’re pretty much on the edge of Taesongdong here?
RYAN ROBERTS: Yes, right here.
SIMKIN: How dangerous potentially is this location?
RYAN ROBERTS: This is one of the locations we don’t bring a lot of people to just because it is right on the edge of the demarcation line.
SIMKIN: Ryan Roberts is a captain in the American military. He’s been serving here for several months.
SIMKIN: So technically North Korean soldiers could be anywhere here.
RYAN ROBERTS: Right over there, yes. There is a small body of water that runs right there that kind of acts as a small amount of protection for us.
SIMKIN: Taesongdong is tiny. In many ways, it’s like any other small South Korean village and yet there’s something strange, surreal. Two hundred and twenty people live here but it’s not easy to find someone to talk to.
YOON SUN-DUK: Hello, hello.
SIMKIN: Most of the villagers are farmers. Kim Chang-Yeon and Yoon Sun-Duk grow rice, beans and chilli peppers.
KIM CHANG-YEON [SUBTITLES]: Since farming is our main way of life we get tied up in it and there’s hardly any time for rest – apart from winter, when we can rest a little.
SIMKIN: Hard work is the least of their worries. North and South Korea are technically still at war and this family is living on the front line.
KIM CHANG-YEON [SUBTITLES]: I’m always feeling the tension – always nervous and sometimes not able to sleep at night.
YOON SUN-DUK [SUBTITLES]: Because we’re so close to the North here, we really should always feel tense so that we never let our guard down. We can’t really have a totally peaceful life here.
SIMKIN: Despite the threat and the fear, the people of Taesongdong have prospered. This is the richest farming village in the country, protected and privileged.
The villagers don’t pay taxes or rent. Men are exempt from military service. Taesongdong rice is coveted. It demands high prices at market because it’s irrigated with the unpolluted waters of the DMZ.
The average income here is more than $100 000, five times what farmers earn elsewhere in South Korea.
RYAN ROBERTS: The homes are actually more modern than most of the Korean villages around here. They’re all subsidised by the government and the government wants to keep up a nice image there at Taesongdong
SIMKIN: The Korean War raged for three years in the 1950s and claimed millions of lives, including several hundred Australians.
When the fighting finished, the DMZ was established and both sides were allowed to keep one village inside it. Within rifle shot of Taesongdong is the North Korean town – Kichongdong. The US soldiers call it Propaganda Village because they believe it exists purely for promotional purposes. It’s like a giant movie set. A few people work there, allegedly painting the windows on and turning all the lights off and on in unison, but no one actually lives there.
Towering above the village is a flag the size of a basketball court and its history pretty much sums up how this part of the world operates. Both towns had normal flagpoles for decades, but Taesongdong built a bigger one during the Seoul Olympics, forcing Kichongdong to go one better.
RYAN ROBERTS: The North Koreans must have got you know their pride hurt or whatever, so they built a larger tower for their flagpole. It’s a huge tower. It stands 160 metres and they even built up the flag so the flag is larger than the South Korean flag they have here. It’s so large that in inclement weather they have to take it down or it’ll be torn by its own weight.
SIMKIN: The North Korean hamlet might be called Propaganda Village, but Taesongdong has propaganda value too. The Americans call it Freedom Village, the symbol of a system that works.
The local primary school is the best resourced in the country, the ideal institution - one of officials tells me. The classes are tiny. The teaching intensive, altogether there are 14 teachers looking after just 15 children, spread across 7 years. The propaganda value is obvious and for a moment it feels like I’m in that other Korea where people are well schooled in what to say to visitors. The male voice belongs to the teacher.
TEACHER [SUBTITLES]: Because the number of students is small you can spend time with the teacher, and it’s like having fun with your dad. Talk about that kind of thing.
SIMKIN: The pressure to perform is too much for one eight year old.
TEACHER [SUBTITLES]: I can do experiments in the science lab as much as I want. That’s why I like our school. Do you think you can say that? You can use the computers as much as you want – just talk as if you’re talking to your mum.
SIMKIN: Her classmate has learnt the lesson well.
TEACHER [SUBTITLES]: Start out by saying “I really like our school a lot”. Then say “because…”. Do it like that.
GIRL STUDENT [SUBTITLES]: I really like our school a lot because I can use the computer lab as much as I want, read story books as much as I want, use the broadcasting room when I want, and do experiments in the science lab when I want.
SIMKIN: To keep their privileges, the locals have to clear some obstacles. You’re only allowed to live in Taesongdong if your family was here before the war and you spend 240 nights a year inside the village. That makes matchmaking as much as a minefield as the surrounding countryside.
BUILDER [SUBTITLES]: For a single man who wants to go outside to find a bride, he has to keep in mind the time periods that he must stick to, and that makes it difficult to have a social life or work outside this area.
SIMKIN: The zone that protects Taesongdong is a final resting place for many men and their war machines, but it’s also home to abundant life. Fenced off and very well guarded, it’s become the ultimate refuge for species that have died out everywhere else. There isn’t a native animal bigger than a rabbit left anywhere in South Korea, except the demilitarised zone.
Conservationists believe the DMZ is home to leopards, black bears, and an even rarer predator. Deep in the mountains that border the buffer zone, east of Taesongdong, Lim Sun-Nam hunts a hunter. He’s spent the last 10 years searching for an animal that’s officially extinct: the Korean tiger.
LIM SUN-NAM [SUBTITLES]: At the time in Korea’s history when Japan ruled us, we had independence fighters who would rise up again and again despite relentless executions. Many people believed the source of such fierce courage and strength was the strength and courage of the tiger. The Japanese then killed off hundreds of tigers and announced they were all dead in order to destroy our spirit.
SIMKIN: The animals are related to these magnificent Siberian tigers filmed by Foreign Correspondent in Russia.
Even though the Korean versions are thought to have died out decades ago, some people are convinced they still have a habitat inside the DMZ. Last year, the hunter videoed what he claims is important proof.
LIM SUN-NAM [SUBTITLES]: My whole hand could fit into it. I thought, wow, it’s a tiger! I began trembling as I got excited about the fact that there really was a tiger in Korea.
SIMKIN: In Taesongdong, tigers are not a problem. The main concern is North Koreans on the prowl. Because of the occasional abduction the villagers are guarded day and night, especially night. Everyone has to be back inside the village by dark, when the roads are sealed and inside their homes by 11pm, with the windows and doors locked. Military patrols enforce the curfew.
RYAN ROBERTS: They actually go to the door and knock on the doors and check to see that the families are there. They keep a roster of any guests that are visiting and make sure that everyone is safe and they’re in their homes at a certain time – 2300 is the curfew.
SIMKIN: But the American military is on the move, pulling back from the DMZ. Over the next few years, one third of the US troops based in South Korea will leave.
KIM CHANG-YEON [SUBTITLES]: Their presence made me feel secure and I wonder if we should move away from this place. I’m sure most of us feel this way seeing as we’re just a creek away from the enemy.
SIMKIN: Both North and South Korea want reunification and they often hold high level talks trying to achieve it. Now you’d think that reconciliation would be a blessing for the people of Taesongdong, but it could be a curse. If peace were to break out here, the villagers would lose their perks and quite possibly their farms. None of them own the land and there are North Koreans who lived here before the war who’d be able to claim it.
Peace is also threatening the DMZ’s other inhabitants: the rare plants and animals.
South Korea wants to begin eco-tourism in the zone. There’s even talk of housing estates, industrial centres and a fun park if the razor wire comes down – even if that seems unlikely at the moment.
ACTIVIST: The DMZ is this body of water which boats are not allowed to go on and you see how heavily fortified it is on either side, and the…
SIMKIN: Led by K C Kim, a prominent entomologist, these activists and academics are fighting the DMZ’s latest battle.
ACTIVIST: And there are large marshes all along the side here where the white-beaked cranes come on their way to Japan.
SIMKIN: They want to turn the zone into a World Heritage site, a protected conservation corridor.
K C KIM: Development companies want to get in there and utilise the DMZ name for making money. Now if we are going to allow that, the DMZ is going to disappear and even within a year because 4km is not very big.
SIMKIN: For now though, the inhabitants of the demilitarised zone go about their business, living on the edge, but worrying about the price of peace.