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The Dora Observatory sits high up in the hills near the DMZ. Not all of the tours of the area go into the Joint Security Area so for some tours this is as close as they'd can get to seeing North Korea.

The view here looks right out across the DMZ and into North Korea, especially the village of Kijŏng-dong, also known as the propaganda village. There are a number of telescopes that allow you to get a much closer look and see what life inside North Korea looks like. On the floor here is a yellow line and photographs are only allowed to be taken from behind that line so that the parts of the DMZ that are in the South in the foreground don't end up online and in the wrong hands.

It felt utterly odd to be here and see so many tourists from all over the world peering into a nation of repressed people living under a brutal dictatorship, taking photos on DSLRs and Smartphones that the people they were pointed at couldn't possibly dream of owning. It reminded me of the Sex Pistol's Holidays In The Sun ("a cheap holiday in other people's misery") but at the same time I was there and also doing the same as everyone else as it is a once in a lifetime opportunity. No matter how much of a sham the village of Kijŏngdong may or may not be it seemed odd to think that the place is a tourist attraction from a distance - a tourist attraction that doesn't receive any tourists.

Taken on: November 2, 2012

Tags:

DMZ

observatory

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tourists

Kijongdon

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Sets appears in: • -South Korea-

Stats: 1,040 views / 2 comments

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