Continued from last year DMZ tour, we couldn’t book the JSA tour due to border conflicts!
(ภาษาไทย)
How different between DMZ and JSA tour? the easy way to tell you is the JSA is where you can walk into North Korea!
The JSA tour is at the Military Demarcation Line (MDL) and as noted in the media as the Blue House.
But well, JSA (Joint Security Area) is more difficult to book if you compare with the DMZ tour.
During parts of 2018-2019 the JSA was closed for 6 months and it just re-opened again about July 2019. We booked right away on the 2nd of August.
NO JSA tour on the weekends and holidays. So if you really want to do this, please check with the tour agency and plan ahead at least a month!
For DMZ, we did the tour with Cosmojin (~$50 per person) but for the JSA, we bought the tour thru TRAZY.com at $81.70 per person.
Trazy is the tour agency but the local tour operator is Joongang Express Tour. The tour company is on 7th floor at President Hotel (Seoul City, nearby Myeongdong Market)Joint Securities Area (JSA). So The meeting point for this tour is at this hotel.
Overall, the tour went pretty well, we didn’t have to stop for the tourist Jewelry shop like we did DMZ with Cosmojin.
There is another tour operator called Koridoor Tours which we haven’t tried yet (in case if the other two companies are full).
Trazy confused us by sending an email with 3 different times to meet BUT on the tour day – we left at the original time!
And it was a little funny when we went to meet at 7th Floor, the meeting point. They just checked our passports and gave us the tickets with the bus number and said “GO FIND BUS, GET ON BUS”…
When we went down, there was a long long of bus tours in front of the hotel. It’s fun to walk and find the bus by ourselves…
JSA has a dress-code as well but 20% tourist didn’t follow the rules during our tour. But they weren’t that bad, just some t-shirts, short pants and skinny jeans that I saw.
The point is, August is the hottest month in South Korea – so it just wasn’t good to have long pants on!
From our hotel (President), it takes about an hour to get to the JSA. It’s non-stop driving, so make sure you won’t need the restroom!
First stop is the checkpoint, this is the same stop when we did the DMZ. The young soldiers will check your passport.
After that, it’s just about 15 mins ride to arrive at the JSA.
At this JSA, the US army will come to check your passport again and ask:
1. Does anyone belong to any military?
2. Does anyone have any weapons?
3. Does anyone plan to defect North Korea today?
Today no one said YES for any of the questions!
After that, we went into the meeting room (JSA Visitor Center) to watch a short presentation about this area (about 15-20 mins long). All of us had to sign the Release which saying the UN isn’t responsible for anything that happens at the border. And our tour was fine, they gave us back the Release!
Then we changed to the army bus and they took us to the border (MDL).
Since we got inside the JSA, the US army soldiers will lead us while our tour guide will help to make sure that everything ok and she will offer to take pictures for all the tourist.
We’re allowed to bring the only our wallet, sunglasses, hat, smartphone, camera, and water inside, NO BAGS ALLOWED!
It took about 10-15 mins to arrive at THE FREEDOM HOUSE, the soldiers get ready to stand guard along the areas that we are going to walk.
We can see North Korea soldiers checking on us through binoculars from a distance.
***There was also some tourist on the other side looking to our side too LOL.
First stop at the Blue bridge, this bridge build all the way to North Korea. But they didn’t us walk all the way to the end.
The Soldiers said if we dropped something, we all had to get out and then they will come to find and wrap stuff up. So DON’T DROP YOUR PHONE!
The other famous spot for a picture, is a young tree that both President from North Korea and South Korea planted it together on April 24, 2018.
In August 1976, American soldiers who were part of United Nations command at the demilitarized zone set out to trim a tree that was blocking the view of a bridge. But the North Koreans, who believed the tree was planted by Kim Il-sung, the founder of their state, took issue with the trimming.
More North Korean soldiers arrived with axe handles and other weapons and bludgeoned 2 soldiers to death. Several Americans and South Koreans were also injured. The tree that nearly caused a war until North Korea apologized for the incident. It was the most expensive tree trim in history!
In that time, the South Korea President was a young soldier in that situation!
Back to our main highlight for JSA tour. The MDL and Conference Room.
We came here just about the month after Mr. President Donald Trump came to visit Kim Jong Un, the North Korea Leader!
But for us, they won’t let we cross the MDL outside the conference room…
The Conference room that is built over both North Korea and South Korea, this is the only chance we could get to step into NORTH KOREA!!!
In the conference room, they pointed out that the Microphone on the middle table is the MDL. So if you walked over the microphone line, you are in NORTH KOREA!!!
We had more than enough time to take pictures inside the conference room. Then we headed back the JSA Visitor Center where our bus is.
Then we had about 20 mins extra to walk up to the 2nd floor for the Museum and walk around the area where are the Buddhist Temple, Church also the Military Village.
The tour included lunch at Imjingak Park where the old train with lots of bullet holes is (we stopped here for DMZ as well).
It was a good lunch, nice and clean….
But we would prefer to eat Popeyes which we never have seen in the other places in South Korea but here (7 km away from MDL!!!)
That’s it about the JSA tour for us today. There is no other place like this in the world.
For us, it’s quite a unique opportunity to see the North Korean soldiers, to stand in North Korea, even for just a moment and under UN troop supervision.
We got back to our hotel about 2.30pm. But if you’re doing both DMZ and JSA in the same day, you would get back to your hotel about 7pm.
Just remember during Summer in South Korea (June – August), it’s very hot and humid here.
If you did both tours in the same day, you better bring some change for DMZ as you will explore the tunnel next and it’s a long walk.
Divide by space, Connected by culture…
Read about our DMZ Tour
Travelled: Friday, Aug 2019
Ref: https://qz.com/1263918/korea-summit-tree-planting-the-last-symbolic-tree-in-the-dmz-nearly-caused-a-war/
Nice post with lots of great information.