Beyond Ideology: The Poetry of Separation in South Korea

By Hannah Garrard
I’m looking across the 4 kilometer green belt of land that separates South Korea from North Korea. Left virtually untouched for sixty years, red cranes and wild deer live here, gently picking their way around thousands of landmines scattered amidst the ginseng, diamond bluebell, Russian iris, and clematis. The scene is hushed and still. The so-called demilitarized zone (DMZ) is the most dangerous nature reserve in the world, and symbolic of one of the oldest, and still active, ideological splits in history.
Through binoculars, I count the silvery peaks of mountains that break...