The DMZ is a heavily mined area that separates the two Koreas, both which are still in a state of war. Despite this reality, there is movement by some South Koreans to consider what will happen as time goes on and — if NK and SK ever engage in political reconciliation — what would the future DMZ be to Koreans. Towards this end, I notice the clever re-packaging of the DMZ tour as being eco-friendly tour, as per one blurb from the KTO (Korea Tourism Organization) website:
… The Korean Tourism Organization is hosting this latest function to promote both home and abroad its newest tourism package, a trip to the demilitarized zone, known as PLZ or Peace and Life Zone.
The term “PLZ” refers to the area that covers the demilitarized zone and its nearby regions indicates a zone of life and restoration, a peace zone for the world to see, according to the efforts of the tourism office.
Another KTO page focuses upon the PLZ as being “an area teeming with wildlife and scenic landscape.” There is also this ecojournal website article on creating a “PLZ”. Considering the political agenda of NGO’s like greenkorea.org, this whole issue of ecology in Korea and preserving wildlife that is “trapped” in the DMZ is similar to the Trojan horse for a variety of NGOs and front groups that “Mad cow” has been during the first part of 2008 in that this is an issue that sees the convergence of different organizations that have political goals in mind.
Though there have been ideas and gestures that are purely symbolic (stamps, coins, declarations) Kangwon Province officials have announced their interest in creating a tourism zone that stretches from the port of Gangneung to Wonsan, in the North. Kangwon Province Governor Kim Jin-Sun also would like to create a second inter-Korea industrial complex in the border city of Cheolwon.
This seems to be one case of revisionism that could be a good idea for Korea since it helps promote the uniqueness of the land and nature conservation, which will become more and more important as time passes (Bloomberg). Due to the lack of human presence there, the DMZ/PLZ is a virtual wildlife preserve that contains species that are seen no where else in Korea. The idea of preserving the entire DMZ as a nature zone or national park, for the sake of preservation and world tourism, is a great idea, IMHO, that should be promoted and enshrined in the national consciousness.
This notion will take more than once again promoting the ideal of “development”, which could just as easily degenerate into a string of PEACE hotels, joint-PEACE factory-space, PEACE spas, PEACE golf courses, PEACE jim-jil-bangs, PEACE upper-class health resorts, PEACE tombstone apartment subdivisions, etcaetera, etcaetera — all of which make revenue for only a few people, if at all, and preserve nothing but the lack of vision that is common enough anywhere else in the world. Frankly, such would not interest most tourists either since it is quite artificial (fake).
Such will also require North Korea to change as well for, though North Korea has expressed an interest in this project as a long-term plan, it would require more of a commitment to peace and more political change than has been forth coming from the north. As it is now, there is no trusting a country whose leadership condones shooting housewives in the back, not to mention so many military incursions into what used to be the “PLZ”. Actions will speak louder than merely renaming the divisions that lie between two political states. North Korea has yet to demonstrate any actions that would be needed to make a “PLZ” real and lasting.
{ 20 comments… read them below or add one }
Oh PLZ, is anyone going to fall for this?
Ridiculous?
Yes!
Surprising?
No!
SK revisionists call it “peace & reconciliation”.
NK elites call it “more opportunities to syphon cash out of SK useful idiots”.
Yep, let’s just forget about that housewife that was shot in the back!
You forgot the PEACE anmas and PEACE business clubs.
I gotta be the first to move into PLZubiqutopiaville Apartments…
Well, if they turn it into a nature preserve, at least they won’t have to worry a whole lot about people wandering off the cleared paths, like they do in all the other national parks.
So what these dudes are fundamentally saying is that the only way you can preserve a piece of land in Korea and stop it from being developed or bulldozed is to surround it with a minefield.
Correct!
SK has certainly done a lot better than it could have concerning overdevlopment of land. After all, outside of the really big cities, at least hillside development is limited (anyhow, people get upset when you build on top of their ancestors’ graves.)
Well, that’s nice and dandy, but I’ve heard that the current South Korean government has plans to develop large sections of the green areas near the DMZ.
Please follow the greenkorea.org link for a good demonstration of ideology wrapped in environmental sentiment, dated 2003.03.23 :
Mind you, preservation of this area is an important idea but see how how insidiously the ideology insinuates itself where ever possible. One can only wonder about the motivation of such a statement.
Surely if they open up the ‘pristine wilderness’ between the Koreas all the ajoeshis north and south will be fighting over the endangered animals (for the southerners’ “stamina”) and the northers will be after the protein and sustenance. It’s a disaster waiting to happen.
I might start another civic group ‘citizens for land-mines’
The Peace-Hotels and Peace-golf courses sound nice, but I’d be much happier if someone was working on a Peace-let’s-figure-out-how-we-could-reunify-without-destroying-our-economy.
And I thought I was cynical.
No matter what ideological spin they put on the plans, the DMZ is home to a number of endangered species and as such is a valuable resource.
True “chiamattt”. I did some more reading of what material is out here on the subject and it is interesting. Here is one excerpt from a Kim Jin-Oh who was working on his Ph.D. last year and wrote on the subject as follows:
Thus I wonder if the Kangwon Province Governor is more a part of the disease and not the effort to preserve this area.
Here is more from this interesting link. One can review the number of people and NGOs associated with this movement as well: http://www.dmzforum.org/news_events/2007_08_newsletter3.php
Considering that the current government wants to foolishly continue the Saemanguem Project as a “Korean Dubai”, it will probably take an international candle-light festival to protect this area — even if North Korea becomes a positive part of the conservation process. I am wondering if the land mines are not really the best friends the animals have.
(So, what’s Green Korea’s political agenda other than environmentalism?)
There is a Korean journalist named Jeon Yeong-jae who has studied the DMZ and now works for a newspaper in Gangwon-do. He’s published a few books and been in a few documentaries on the subject and he dismisses the idea of DMZ as untouched wilderness. He particularly notes the extensive mining, tunneling, military drills near it, the damage it suffered during the war and the moving-in of invasive species which are disrupting its original ecosystem.
A sample of his writing was posted here.
http://blog.chosun.com/blog.screen?blogId=7264&listType=1&menuId=28375&from=19000101&to=29991231
R.Elgin–here’s a story on the DMZ from Discover magazine:
http://discovermagazine.com/2006/nov/natural-selections-dmz-animals
Korea is now destroying the Saemanguem wetlands despite the fact it’s unneeded development and in spite of international protest, so will they really keep their hands off the DMZ?
Nothing wrong with eco-tourism, I suppose, if it brings in cash. Sparkling!
A friend of mine was stationed on the DMZ many years ago, and he mentioned the wildlife angle. Of course, he then followed that up with a story of watching a crane land on a land mine through a night vision scope.
#15,
Isn’t this the group that was trying to pass off what was obviously dumb bombs as American depleted uranium bombs about 10 years ago?
As you stroll along the Peace-Love Zone of life, take time to smell the land mines.
http://koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/nation/2008/08/116_29628.html
Not so sure I’d have a warm, fuzzy feeling about taking the lead in this race.
“Sure, we’re in front. But so was that guy in the Alfa-Romeo until the Bouncing Betty took him out…”
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