DMZ
Borderline

The Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) between North- and South-Korea crosses the 38th parallel on an acute angle. It is 248 km long, and about 4 km wide. Originally a ceasefire line, it has become the boundary between North and South-Korea since 1953. It is the world’s most heavily fortified border (about 4 million landmines). The DMZ is also a popular tourist spot. There, on the south side, US soldiers acting as tour guides explain the visitors that the North-Korean building facing South-Korea on the DMZ is not a real building but “a façade designed to look large and impressive, in reality a frame only a few inches thick”. Tourists who have visited the northern side deny it.
There are two villages in the DMZ: Gijeong-dong, on North-Korea side; Daesong-dong, on South-Korea side. Gijeong-dong is called “Peace Village” by the North-Koreans, and “Propaganda Village” by the South-Koreans. In Gijeong-dong, there is the world’s highest flag tower, 157.5 meters tall. It flies the North-Korean flag. Due to the weight of the flag, 595 lb, the pole can not support it if it becomes wet. Each time it rains, the flag must be lowered. In Gijeong-dong, there are also a cooperative farm (the Panmun), a kindergarten, a creche, a senior middle school, and a people’s hospital. Although from afar it appears to be a modern village, one can tell with binoculars that there is not even glass within the windows of the buildings. At night, lights come on in some of the buildings. They come on in the same buildings, every night, at the same time. They are obviously automated to make it the village appear inhabited, although it is not. Or not as we should think it is, since it is populated by soldiers.
Let’s look at the bright side of life: in Daesong-dong, you only need to prove you have ancestral ties to the village to live there.

Photo satellite:
http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=15362