The Korean Demilitarized Zone Trivia Quiz

Answer: Hermit Kingdom

In 1882 William Elliot Griffis first used the term "The Hermit Nation" to describe Korea. The Joseon dynasty was in control of the Korean peninsula from 1392 to 1897, and their resistance to the outside world led to the Korean dynasty being called the Hermit Kingdom. Eventually, a client kingdom was established with the Qing Dynasty in China where China provided protection and Korea provided tribute, but the Korean king still had some autonomy to run his own country.

However, as the Qing started to weaken towards the end of the 19th century, and the Japanese started to gain more power in the area, the Korean peninsula became more of a region of tension between Japan and China.

The internal repressiveness of the Joseon Dynasty also caused further unrest with the Korean people resulting in a peasant uprising.

Answer: Russo-Japanese War

In the early 1900s, Russia's only major eastern port was Vladivostok which was frozen over half of the year. The Russians wanted year-round port in Manchuria. The Russo-Japanese War started in February of 1904 when the Japanese attacked a Russian ship at Port Arthur, Manchuria and lead to a year and a half of conflict.

Interestingly, the Japanese were looking for an armistice early on, but the Russians refused and continued the fighting. In the end, the Japanese had an overall victory resulting in the signing of the Treaty of Portsmouth in 1905.

As a result of the treaty, Korea was recognized as being in Japan's influence. In 1910 Japan went on to annex Korea with the Emperor of Korea ceding his territory to the emperor of Japan.

Answer: 38th parallel

The original intention of the 38th parallel was to divide up the tasks of cleansing Korea of Japanese forces and maintaining administrative control of Korea during the transition. It also served to aid the US side in keeping the Soviets from completely annexing the peninsula.

The 38th parallel was chosen by the US to keep Seoul within US control. Surprisingly, the Soviets agreed to the terms. There had even been discussions about giving control of Korea back to the Korean people once the Japanese were gone.

However, with the quickly emerging confrontation between the US and the Soviet Union, the complete freedom of Korea became even more unlikely. The US encouraged the election of Syngman Rhee in the south and the Soviets supported the rise of Kim Il-Sung in the north. Tensions continued to mount between the US and the Soviet Union.

Answer: KPA North Korean forces invaded South Korea

On June 25th the KPA army crossed the 38th parallel with tanks and artillery and quickly started to overrun South Korea. The southern ROK forces were not as well prepared for war and quickly fell back. The North Koreans would have probably quickly secured the whole peninsula if UN forces, with heavy US involvement, had not intervened.

The US interest in Korea was mostly to keep Japan secure and limit the USSR's spread. Initially, UN forces were driven back until they occupied only a small corner of the peninsula in South Korea. Eventually, the UN forces were able to start turning the tide and almost took control of the entire peninsula until China decided to enter the conflict when UN forces came close to the Chinese border.

Answer: Korean Armistice Agreement

The Korean Armistice Agreement was between the United Nations Command, the Korean People's Army for North Korea and the Chinese People's Volunteer Army. The Armistice was a cease-fire to allow the sides to draft a peace treaty that was supposed to be drafted soon after the Armistice was signed.

However, a peace treaty still has not been reached and North and South Korea are still technically at war. Also, South Korea's president Rhee never signed the Armistice because he would not accept Korea as being divided. Rhee wanted to completely unify the peninsula behind himself but would be unable to do so without the support of the UN forces. Kim Il-Sung also did not want to sign an armistice, as he also wanted complete control of Korea. Il-Sung finally signed the Armistice as the Chinese and Soviets wanted the fighting to cease.

Another provision in the Armistice was allowing the swapping of prisoners of war.

Answer: Joint Security Area

The Joint Security Area was established as the place for negotiation to take place and it is the only place that the North Korean and UNC forces meet face to face. The JSA has several administrative buildings including conference rooms which were built on top of the DMZ line. Within these conference rooms there are even tables which are situated directly over the DMZ line so that each side can sit on their own soil.

The JSA is a relatively small area less than a kilometer in diameter. While an uneasy peace has mostly been kept within the JSA, violence has occurred through the years, especially in the 50s and 60s.

Answer: Prisoners of war used it to cross back home

The "Bridge of No Return" was set up by the Armistice agreement as a way for prisoners of war to decide if they wanted to stay on their captured side or cross the bridge back to their native side. The "No Return" part was due to the fact that once the prisoner of war crossed the bridge, they were never allowed to cross back over if they later changed their minds.

The last POW crossed the bridge in 1968. A remarkable conflict happened in August of 1976 on the bridge when two American soldiers went to cut down a few branches that obscured their view.

However, since their gardening caused them to cross the line they were shot and killed by the North Koreans. This is known as the Korean axe murder incident which launched Operation Paul Bunyan by the US forces where the whole offending tree was chopped down.

Answer: It has electric lights

While there are citizens who actually live in the South Korean village of Daeseong-dong within sight of North Korea, no one appears to live in the North Korean counterpart Kijong-dong. This makes the electric lights bizarre, as very few places in North Korea have electric lights outside of the capital city of Pyongyang. So lighting up a fake city is both creepy and odd indeed.

When observed with a telephoto lens, it can be seen that there is actually no glass within the windows!

Answer: An archery contest

An archery contest has not been used to determine which side is better. However, building the biggest flagpole has been a spirited effort on both sides. In 1980 South Korea built a 98 meter tall flag pole to wave a flag easily seen from the North Korean side.

Not to be outdone, the North Koreans built their own 160 meter tall flag pole. Both sides have used loudspeakers on either side of the DMZ to broadcast propaganda for their side as well as patriotic music. For years both sides used balloons with leaflets to try and convince the other side to defect but both governments have stopped this practice.

Answer: True

Over the years, hundreds of thousands of civilians have taken part in guided tours of the JSA. There are serious rules that must be followed to protect tourists from injury, including death. Crossing the DMZ line or even waving a hand at the North Korean soldiers could be considered a provocative threat and could result in being shot.

It is recommended to not even look at the North Korean soldiers or take any photographs. It seems like a rather dangerous place to want to visit on holiday!