DMZ tour train runs with hope for peace
SEOUL — Bustling Seoul Station in the Republic of Korea’s capital was as busy as usual.
Tens of passengers, including some foreign tourists, stood on a platform waiting for the DMZ Train, a special line which runs once a day from Wednesday to Sunday. Passengers are on their way to a firsthand look of the Demilitarized Zone, the fortified dividing line between the two countries on the Korean Peninsula.
With a round-trip ticket in their hands, the passengers caught the three-car train at 10:15 am on Feb 20, exactly a week before the second summit between Kim Jong-un, top leader of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea and US President Donald Trump.
The Kim-Trump summit in Vietnam, following the first one in Singapore in June, has raised further hope for peace on the peninsula that has been divided for 66 years.
Created in 1953 when the threeyear civil war ended with an armistice, the DMZ has long been a symbol of both confrontation and peace as tensions or rapprochement across the inter-Korean border can be felt in the 250-kilometer-long strip of no-man’s land.
The DMZ Train from Seoul Station was destined for Dorasan Station, the line’s northernmost station, just about 50 km north of Seoul and only 700 meters south of the southern boundary of the 4-kmwide DMZ.
Provided by the Korean National Railroad, the DMZ tour package includes visits to a peace park and an observatory near the Dorasan Station.
Among the passengers aboard the train were a couple from Finland, accompanied by their 25-year-old son who had been studying at a Seoul university.
Elemeri Helander said that his parents picked a DMZ tour because there remains no place like it in the world. He said they heard about the latest peace process for the two Koreas on the news.
During his stay in Seoul, Helander felt that the situation on the peninsula had rapidly improved, though he had little knowledge about the region’s geopolitics before coming to the ROK.
The Finnish family expressed hope that Kim and Trump would make good deals in Vietnam as the second meeting itself is a good sign, saying the DPRK was expected to open itself to more foreigners and do business with the outside world.
Lee Tae-hyun, an attendant on the train and tour guide, said the number of visitors had increased since the first summit between DPRK’s top leader and ROK President Moon Jae-in was held in April 2018.
About one hour into the trip, the train stopped at Imjingang Station where soldiers conducted security checks and the checked identification cards and passports.
Jeon Hyeon-jong, the Imjingang Station chief, said the train route between Seoul and Dorasan Station was launched as a commuter line in 2002 and transformed into a tour train in 2014.
Separated families
Even before the summit, many elderly ROK residents who have longlost relatives in the DPRK joined the tour program to glance at the northern soil at a closer distance. The separated families have been banned from entering opposite territories for the past decades as no peace treaty was signed after the Korean War. In recent years, there have been several moving mass meetings and members were chosen by lottery.
Lee, the attendant, said he hopes that the day would come soon when the separated families could freely cross the border to visit their hometowns and meet their relatives whenever they want.
Bae Byung-hoon, a 43-year-old ROK citizen, joined the DMZ tour program with his son and daughter for the first time to show his children the situation of the peninsula.
Bae expressed his hope for peace to come on the peninsula through the latest Kim-Trump summit, saying that he wishes his children could tour the DPRK sometime in the future.