Photos

As I explained in yesterday's posting, Panmunjom is the truce village on the border (armistice line) between North and South Korea. It is still used today for meetings between the two sides, so it become a permanent camp, and both sides are allowed to arrange day trips to show it off.

The North Koreans built this impressive looking building as their headquarters for their side of the line, and it was designed (to their way of thinking) to overawe the Allies with its evocation of excess. So it is something like 50 meters long, two stories high, marble and manicured grounds. The only thing is, it is barely 2-3 meters deep - it's a fake, a facade. It was laid out so that, from the South Korean side, you can't see behind it, but of course aerial photographs show it for what it is. Or, rather, for what it isn't.

Still, the North Koreans do use it - to spy on the South side of the village. It's a little hard to see, but one of the officers on the balcony was taking pictures of our group the whole time we were watching him.

Technical: Kodachrome slide, digitized. Cropped to fix a slight tilt. Levels to darken the midtones, and Noiseware with minimal sharpening. I converted to Lab Colors and selected the Lightness channel, using Smart Sharpen on that (it cuts down on the chance of halos when you do it that way).