With an eye toward unity, South Korea unveils new bike trail near DMZ

[unhappycamper]

Participants in the DMZ Peace Bike March ride past barbed-wire fences and guard posts manned by armed soldiers along South Korea's Civilian Control Line.


With an eye toward unity, South Korea unveils new bike trail near DMZ
By Jon Rabiroff, Stars and Stripes
Pacific edition, Sunday, November 1, 2009

NEAR THE DEMILITARIZED ZONE, Korea — It was the chance of a lifetime, to ride on a new bicycle trail through an area that has been shut off from most of mankind for decades.

The ride was filled with memorable sights. There was the river we crossed, unmarred by boat or fisherman. There was the relatively flat terrain, absent any houses. And, in the distance in every direction you looked, there were postcard-worthy views of the mountains. This truly would be a nature-lover’s paradise, were it not for the armed soldiers, the guard towers and all the barbed wire.

Oh, did I mention I was riding just south of Korea’s Demilitarized Zone, an area former President Bill Clinton once called “the scariest place on earth?”

I was one of 100 people who recently took part in the DMZ Peace Bike March — a ride meant to preview a recently developed trail in an area off limits to most civilians since Korean War hostilities ended in 1953.

Officials hope to open the trail along the Civilian Control Line — east and west of the Unification Bridge — early next year on a limited basis with an eye toward promoting exercise, tourism and the idea of an eventual reunification of the peninsula.


Rest of article at: http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=65761