Grammar Gazette- Issue 2, 2007

Staff

History of the Absurd

Ms Julie Hennessey, Head of History, takes an educational tour of South Korea and visits the demilitarized zone at Panmunjom.

For me this made the DMZ not so scary as bizarre. Bus loads of visitors, mostly foreigners, visit the site on a daily basis to see and experience the demilitarized zone, which despite its name contains a proliferation of troops, guns, barbed wire and fortifications. The conference buildings, where armistice negotiations originally took place, are painted in United Nations blue. They are the centre pieces of the Joint Security Area where young boy soldiers with serious dispositions from opposing sides face each other off in a game of “don’t blink first.” Surrounding buildings carry names such as Freedom House and Peace House and there is a bridge called the “Bridge of No Return” used for prisoner exchanges. The souvenir shop sells T-shirts sporting “I’ve been to the DMZ and survived” and other military regalia. For me, this made whole place incongruous, if not absurd. The demilitarized zone appears trapped in a senseless time warp which is on an endless loop, destined to continuously repeat itself. At the recent APEC summit in Sydney, a question from the South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun to a surprised American President George W. Bush suggested he was looking for a circuit breaker. President Roh confronted his American counterpart with an unscheduled public question – when might the United States declare an end to the Korean War? Twenty years ago in 1987, American President Ronald Reagan demanded the Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev to “tear down this wall.” Maybe President Roh’s unexpected and unprecedented inquiry might set in train some positive changes which might further normalise relations between the two Koreas. And maybe just maybe, we might see history repeating itself and a reunified Korea emerging from war just as a reunified Germany emerged from the Cold War in 1990. Ms Julie Hennessey, Head of History (Julie is currently on sabbatical reading for a PhD in History)

Visiting a war zone is an unusual itinerary item on any educational tour, but not so, when you visit the Korean peninsula. Each year the Korea Foundation invites educators from Australia, New Zealand and the United States to visit the Republic of Korea (South Korea). Over a fourteen-day programme of lectures and excursions, participants experience as much of Korea as possible. The schedule is packed as it is diverse. The first week is dominated by lectures at the Korea University in Seoul covering an eclectic mix of topics – Korean history, art, film, education, language and current affairs. The second week is devoted to visiting natural treasures and heritage sites throughout the southern peninsula where Korea’s rich historical and cultural traditions are matched by the sheer beauty of the landscape. However, it was the trip to the demilitarized zone (DMZ) at Panmunjom – the fortified line dividing North and South Korea that I found the most intriguing. The DMZ is a relic of the Cold War. After the Korean War (1950-1953) an armistice was declared between the warring parties but no peace treaty was ever signed. This means the nations are still technically at war and the DMZ is effectively a war zone. Before entering the zone visitors are required to sign a declaration which warns them that they will be entering “a hostile area” where there is the “possibility of injury or death as a direct result of enemy action.” Security is particularly tight – visitors are required to move through a number of checkpoints where passport details are checked and double checked by military personnel. Strict dress codes must be adhered to – no blue jeans, sandals, shorts, sleeveless shirts or shirts without collars. Visitors must not wave, point, make any sudden moves or engage the “enemy” in any way.

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