Besides watching Sunrise @ Jeongdongjin Beach, the other attraction that draws my attention is the Tongil park or otherwise known as Gangneung Unification Park.
This park features a decommissioned US warship that defends the Korean waters afer being gifted by US in 1972. This is also the venue where a North Korean submarine got stranded on the rocks while trying to spy the South, the submarine is also displayed here too.
Lastly there was a wooden boat where North Korea defectors took to the South showcased here too.
We were pretty interested by them and I was excited to realise this park is near Jeongdongjin station.
The ajusshi told us to flash our train tickets to get discount for the entrance fee and he did not pay since he is not going to visit. Haha
I think many attractions in Gangneung gives discount if you produced your arriving train tickets of the same day.
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| Deck of the warship |
Mr Love was an army guy and so he had never been on a warship before and me? The only ship I went up is a drillship because of work. Haha But they are totally different.
We went up a long stairs to the deck and followed Ajusshi's instruction to follow the signs on the floor for the tour. There was no one else here and we got the whole ship to ourselves. Ajusshi told me that he will sit somewhere to wait for us.
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| Big guns |
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| Don't know what weapon is this |
Everything seems to be interesting for us. Though you can see this ship had seen better days but how often do you get to see one? I don't even go for our Navy open house back home.
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| Mr Love trying out 1 of the equipment |
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| Some missile firing equipment if I am not wrong |
We finsished the deck and went into the interior of the ship. Most of the rooms were locked but there were some you could peep in. They did keep most of the original furnishing or equipment I think.
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| Communications room |
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| Captain's uniform |
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| Captain's room |
There was a group of Hong Kong tourists who came up for about 20mins before moving off. Not sure whether it because they don't find it interesting or they are given a time frame to tour the ship.
Was telling Mr Love that this is the downside of joining a tour group. You don't get enough time at some attractions that you are interested in. We are here for nearly half an hour and is still touring the same ship.
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| View from the deck. Too hazy to see anything |
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| Side view |
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| Big Big rocks by the coast |
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| Another weapon on the other end of the ship |
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| Check out the clear waters! |
There are more exhibitions of uniforms, items used by the crews and also a introduction of Korean war and timeline of the developments in the 1 of the level. Only downside is, its all in Korean and we couldn't understand. So we went throught the display and left the warship.
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| Wooden boat the defectors took from North to South |
I think Ajusshi was chatting with the locals there while we were touring the warship. When he saw is descending, he immediately came up to us and motioned us to sit at one of the bench and took Mr Love's phone from him. Turns out, he wanna us to take a picture of the warship and the defector's boat as background. Haha Mr Love was still puzzled by his sudden excitment.
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| Warship & defector's boat behind us. |
He then walked us to the Submarine which and told us to take a hard hat each. He also tried explaining a little to us on the submarine but seeing our puzzled looks, he gave up. Haha.
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| 1 photo before going in |
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| 1 with us wearing the hard hats |
I was a little curious why we would need the hard hats since going on to the warship doesn't have the same requirements. But being Singaporeans, we complied with no problems. It is later then I realised the importance of the hats.
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| Ok, I am going in |
The first portion is still ok, but very soon we came to the middle section where I couldn't figure out how to sqeeuze myself through the very narrow walking path!!
To think 26 of the North Koreans stayed in this submarine for days while spying on the South. I couldn't even stand up staight as I tried to walk through the pathways, not to mentioned have to knock my head agains the very low pipes above me.
I reckon either they are super small size or I am an elephant.
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| Could's stand up straight from here on |
If not for the hard hat, I think my head would have a lot of bumps. Really no matter how careful I am, I keep getting hit on the head. Damn.
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| Going lower |
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| Interior |
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| Equipments |
There is this lingering burning smell in the middle section. This is because when the North Koreans realised that they are being found, they tried burning all the important documents and the equipments here. Not sure why after so many years, we can still smell the burning smell. Or it is me only?
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| Towards the end |
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| See the narrow pathway |
Really, I could't comprehend how they managed to survive during the days onboard. But then I am no army train though, so this is beyond my comprehension.
It was an interesting visit though, try to understand what has happen during the Korean war and of course the threats that are still very visible even in this modern world.
I am not trying to judge and will not judge what has happen. But hopefully nothing eventful will break out ever in this divided land.
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| Finally out |
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| View from submarine rear |
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