The Irish delegation that visited Seoul and the demilitarised zone this week brought a message of hope, that barriers can come down and divisions can heal, writes Brian O'Donovan.
It is a strip of no man's land that separates North and South Korea and is the most heavily fortified border in the world.
South Korea was one of the poorest countries in the world following the war but it is now the 13th largest economy globally and 4th largest in Asia Pacific.We pulled into a large car park full of tour buses. Once he was satisfied that none of us were planning to break free from the tour group, we boarded a bus and entered no man's land.The use of the term 'most' caused some concern among the bus passengers.We passed through more layers of security cordons and once inside the DMZ, we were allowed off the bus.
Just a few metres beyond that structure, on the North Korean side, was a larger office building with blacked out windows. "But it is also really sad because this is a divided peninsula, Korean people divided between two states for 70 years and I am really sad that this is the case," Mr Varadkar added.
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