South Korea: DMZ – Third Tunnel of Aggression
Once you get through military checkpoint and into the DMZ proper, there are several places to see. One of them is the 3rd Tunnel. The Korean War ended in armistice (no peace) in 1953. Long after that in 1978 the South Koreans discovered underground tunnels under DMZ running for several kilometers, all converging onto the Seoul direction, wide enough to guide through lots of troops and possible small vehicles. (A fourth tunnel was discovered in 2008). The incomplete tunnel is 1,635 m (1.0 mile) long, and 1.95 m (6 ft 5 in) high and 2.1 m (6 ft 11 in) wide, dug out of granite bedrock at a depth of 73 m (240 ft) below. The series of tunnels were clearly a preparation for a surprise invasion. North Korea first denied digging it, but later said it was part of a coal mine (which is bull since no coal cannot be found anywhere in the granite rocks). Now it’s a tourist site and you can walk almost half a kilometer is the narrow claustrophobic tunnel all the underneath the DMZ to the midpoint. No photography is allowed inside.
