[One Day Walk] From Pyeonghwa Dam to Ojakgyo... DMZ Hwacheon Course

From April 21, the ‘DMZ Peace Trail Theme Routes’ will be fully opened. The ‘DMZ Peace Trail Theme Routes’ consist of 11 differentiated theme courses across 10 border local governments?Ganghwa, Gimpo, Goyang, Paju, Yeoncheon, Cheorwon, Hwacheon, Yanggu, Inje, and Goseong?that border the Demilitarized Zone. By applying in advance (participation fee 10,000 KRW) through platforms like Durudubi, visitors can explore the routes by vehicle and on foot.

Today’s journey of peace follows the waterways on the Hwacheon course. Hwacheon is a place where numerous lakes and streams, including the Bukhan River, meet the peaks to create beautiful landscapes. Located at the forefront of the central-eastern front line, it has been a site of intense tension between North and South Korea. Departures are every Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday at 9 a.m.

Panoramic View of the Peace Dam
[Photo by Korea Tourism Organization]

The Peace Dam originated from a national fundraising campaign initiated by the Chun Doo-hwan government in 1988, ahead of the Seoul Olympics, following North Korea’s threat of water attacks, which sparked widespread media coverage of the so-called ‘Seoul Flood Theory.’ A total of approximately 66.1 billion KRW was raised and invested in the construction of the Peace Dam, which began in 1987. Initially planned to be 135 meters high, the dam was constructed in the first phase at 80 meters in height and 450 meters in length, with a storage capacity of 590 million tons. The plan was to complete the rest after monitoring the construction progress of North Korea’s Imnam Dam (Geumgangsan Dam).

Yangui Wetland
Photo by Korea Tourism Organization

After the Kim Young-sam government took office in 1993, it was revealed that the threat of water attacks from Imnam Dam and the predicted damage had been exaggerated, so the second phase of construction did not progress. In 2001, observations indicated the dam required repairs, leading to the start of the second phase on September 2002, which was completed in June 2006. Through this phase, the dam’s height increased from 80 meters to 125 meters, and its storage capacity expanded from 590 million tons to 2.63 billion tons. A third phase of reinforcement construction to prepare for extreme floods began in 2012 and was completed in 2017. The Peace Dam, unique in Korea for having no power generation facilities and no sluice gates, serves as a natural drainage dam for flood control and symbolizes the painful reality of division. Today, it has been reborn as a peace and security tourist destination in South Korea, attracting over 2,000 visitors daily during peak seasons, becoming a representative site for peace, security, and ecological tourism.

Ojakgyo
Photo by Korea Tourism Organization

Yangui Wetland was formed as a result of the construction of Imnam Dam in North Korea and the Peace Dam in South Korea. In 2014, Yangui Wetland was designated as part of the Gangwon Peace National Geopark. Ojakgyo Bridge is located at the northernmost southern boundary line of the Bukhan River basin and is the northernmost bridge connecting Hwacheon County’s 7th Division and Yanggu County’s 21st Division. It was built as a joint military operation between Yanggu’s 21st Division and Hwacheon’s 7th Division to respond to water level control of the Bukhan River. Originally, Ojakgyo is a legendary bridge from the story of Gyeonwoo and Jiknyeo, said to be made by crows and magpies over the Milky Way on the seventh day of the seventh lunar month. The Ojakgyo here symbolizes the connection between Hwacheon’s masculine terrain and Yanggu’s feminine terrain, or the meeting of a South Korean bachelor and a North Korean maiden, aiming to hasten reunification. Around Ojakgyo, species such as the natural monument golden mandarin fish and yellow carp live. It has also been reported in the media that endangered species like the Korean goral, yellow-throated marten, and musk deer inhabit the area.