WHERE NORTH MEETS SOUTH
The soldiers manning the checkpoint may be baby-faced, but their helmets, armbands and automatic rifles tell us they mean business. Despite their youth, they project an air of solemn authority, and after a couple of questions and a peek into the boot of the car they wave us through. Our light mood is replaced with a telling silence. After all, we’re rolling into one of the world’s most notorious flashpoints: Korea’s last outpost of the Cold War, known as the DMZ.
It’s a late-winter morning, with a biting wind blowing in from the East Sea. A smothering of clouds broods overhead and I can taste kelp in the air. As we leave the car and climb the stairs towards the Goseong Unification Observatory, I’m afforded my first ocean view: the beach below is rugged and empty, with roiling surf foaming on
