the center of Korea.

Elsewhere in the world, it is an imaginary line that shows only

on maps. But in Korea it is a concrete-and-barbed-wire barrier

that divides a nation and threatens the peace of the country and

the world.

So it was fitting that in October, the International Conference

for the Peaceful Reunification of Korea should participate in a

study tour of the demilitarized Zone or DMZ--the restricted zone

that follows along the 38th Parallel.

Our international delegation was joined by about 150

participants. Young students and older workers took part.

Some were veterans of the reunification movement; some had seen

an ad in the newspaper and were taking part in such an activity

for the first time.

As might be expected, an uninvited escort of plainclothes police

"joined" the tour.

The journey started in a festive mood, with participants singing

reunification songs and sharing songs of people's movements of

the international delegates' countries.

But the mood became more solemn as the buses made their way past

the military posts, checkpoints and armed troops that dotted the

approach. Before we entered the zone itself, military police

searched the buses. We were warned that video cameras are not

allowed.

Inside the DMZ, amid the farm fields, we saw remains of houses

and buildings destroyed in the 1950-53 war. What had been a busy

railroad station is now an empty field with a short piece of

track showing through the weeds.

OFFICE OF THE WORKERS' PARTY

A large structure that had been the office of the local Workers'

Party stands in ruins. This is the party that had been trying to

organize a popular government before the war started.

Looking at the shell holes from the war, we could imagine the

suffering and death that had taken place there.

We had lunch on the grounds of a war museum maintained by the

government, and sat in on the propaganda film being shown to

hundreds of small children from a scout tour. From the viewing

tower we could make out part of the concrete walls that divide

north and south.

The museum featured a few airplanes with marking from the

Republic of (south) Korea. There was no evidence of the

U.S./United Nations planes that had dropped most of the thousands

of tons of bombs during the war.

In the DMZ I couldn't stop thinking of a trip I had made five

years ago to the same province--but approaching the zone from the

north instead of the south. The farmland and scenery seemed just

the same. The narrow winding road was the same.

The faces of the farmers and workers we passed also seemed the

same. What I saw, north and south, made it clear to me that Korea

is one country--one nation.

INTERNATIONAL PEACE MARCH

Five years ago, I was part of the International Peace March for

Reunification. Starting from historic Mount Baekdu near the

Chinese border we had proceeded south with the aim of reaching

the southernmost mountains. This was to symbolize the struggle

for reunification.

But we were stopped at Panmunjon, in this same province at this

same 38th Parallel. U.S. troops stopped us. They were part of the

38,000-strong occupation force that has kept Korea divided for

almost 50 years.

When two Koreans from the south--Im Soo Kyung and the Rev. Mun

Kyu Hyun--did cross the line they were seized, arrested by the

southern authorities and held in prison for three-and-a-half

years for the "crime" of wanting Korea united.

Before heading back to Seoul, the study tour gathered at a

Buddhist temple--one of the few structures in the area that

survived the war. Exchanging our impressions of the trip, we

heard from one participant who was born in that province before

the war--just north of the line.

He said that after division he lived in Seoul and this was his

first time back to the area. Because of the National Security Law

he cannot visit the north and carry out his father's deathbed

wish to be buried in the family's burial grounds.

He still carries his father's ashes--waiting for reunification so

he can fulfill his father's request.

He pledged and asked us all to pledge to continue struggling for

the peaceful reunification of the nation.

For those of us from the United States, this pledge took on a

special meaning. We know that the U.S. military occupation and

economic domination of south Korea are the main reasons Korea

remains divided.