A Saturday Visit to the DMZ and North Korea (OP Dora)
Hi everyone,
So at our last stop I showed you a look around the JSA and an easy way to get into North Korea. Now we're going to someplace a little safer OP Dora. OP Dora or Observation Point Dora is located a near the southern end of the DMZ. OP Dora also has the distension of being a popular tourist attraction, because of it's relative safe location, and relatively non-strategic position. Take that last comment with a big grain of salt. OP Dora is important but there are many other observation points, the ROK can afford to make this a tourist oriented place. With that said, there are still some security restriction at OP Dora, therefore I can't show photos of inside the OP.
Now what also makes OP Dora special is that you can se Propaganda Village, Kaesong City, home of the dual-nation factory complex, and other features of the North Korean border, at least when Kim Jong Un isn't calling down hazy weather to limit your line of site.
Ok let's look at some photos below. The photos show Dorasan Station, and the North Korean country side. Propaganda Village is covered in a haze today, so I can't show that here:(
But follow this link for more information about it: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peace_Village_(North_Korea)
Dorasan Station: Dorasan Station is the train station that connects North and South Korea. It only has a few routes to between the two countries. It's only used occasionally because of the constant tensions between the to countries. Now it did have some real use when the Kaesong Industrial Park was still open. The train could take South Korean employees (i.e. Samsung, LG) to Kaesong, but since the joint industrial park is now closed I don't know if the train sees any use. I'll go over Dorasan station in greater detail in a later post.
Here a link for you to read about the area: https://pediaview.com/openpedia/Kaesong_Industrial_Region
The next photo shows the DMZ country side. On a clear day you could see Propaganda Village. Now take note of the relatively open land. South Korea is tight on open land, but in the DMZ much of the land has been left undeveloped (Which also make the DMZ a wildlife haven) for obvious reasons. It's like this through out the entire DMZ.
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So we only stayed here for about fifteen minutes because of our tight schedule. then it was back on the bus and ready to go to our next stops at the Third Infiltration Tunnel, Dorasan Station and home.