With the presence of hundreds of Korean students in Negros and other parts of the country, you may have already heard of the place Panmunjom, which is less than 50 kms. from the South Korean capital of Seoul. Annually, almost 100,000 visitors take the route to Panmunjom for one reason: have a first-hand look at the DMZ, or the Demilitarized Zone, the icon of ideological dispute between North and south Korea. Pamunjon is the joint security area in the DMZ .

Travel to the DMZ is possible via checkpoints where passports are checked.

The DMZ runs almost 200 kms. across the Korean Peninsula is about 4 kms. wide and covering a region devoid of people and only rare plants and animals exist. As they say, peace and tension co-exist in the area from day to day. Each side guarding against potential aggression from the other side.

The area is heavily guarded - with the North Korean Army fielding about 700,000 soldiers and thousands of artillery systems and tanks within the 100-plus km. radius of the zone. South Korea has a little less that number of its arm keeping an eye on the zone.

A Negrense who traveled to the DMZ said he learned that the ROK soldiers, particularly those assigned right at the border, are tall, "handpicked experts in martial arts who are very disciplined". The StarLife source said soldiers from both sides do patrol inside the DMZ but they cannot cross the military demarcation line.

The Joint Security Area, which has been the site of periods of negotiations since the DMZ was created in 1953, is the only place where the North and South connect. Both sides has buildings. The MDL has 24 buildings, among them one containing a conference room where negotiators -including representatives of the United Nations - sit on each end of their area jurisdiction. The area sits on a truce line formed on the 38th Parallel. A Joint Duty Office representative from each side must stay at the JSA round-the-clock to rapidly respond to any incident,

About 5 million Korean families are divided by the DMZ - the only gate which represents their only avenue to reach out out to loved ones on the other side. The StarLife source said that one building is aptly called "Reconciliation Hall" for these separated family members to meet. "But we learned this hall is hardly used at all," the Negrense said.

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