At the heart of the longest continuing cease-fire in American history, the divisions between North and South Korea are stark. One building—used for the occasional negotiation—is situated so that the border actually bisects a conference table in the middle of the room.
As I toured the Joint Security Area along the Demilitarized Zone, I was acutely aware of the armed guards on the other side of the border. They seemed acutely aware of me as well. The picture shows what happens when you don’t draw the curtains, and your neighbor is a mad dictator.
Before this trip, I had plenty of academic knowledge about communist regimes, drawn from histories, testimony, books, and news reports. But it is one thing to know that North Korea is controlled by a reckless tyrant and a danger to both its neighbors and the global community. It is another to come face-to-face with this particular brand of evil in the real world.
It struck me that these soldiers are not really on the outside looking in. Rather, they are trapped on the inside looking out.
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Good find, Cardigan. Excellent piece.
My mother toured some European communist shithole back in the 70s, and someone on the bus commented on the guard towers. The communist tour guide said, with a smirk: “You don’t have guard towers at your frontiers?”
To which my mother chimed: “At ours, the machine guns point OUT, not IN!”
Everybody looked out the bus windows and either gasped or laughed. The tour guide got quiet.
According to Dennis Rodman, the Raging Runt is just super!
Shoulda stuck an 18″rubber dick in his zipper and then opened the curtains. The facial expressions on those NORKS woulda been priceless!!