The eleven (11) routes of the DMZ Peace Trail, created through the ten areas adjacent to the DMZ – Ganghwa, Gimpo, Goyang, Paju, Yeoncheon, Cheorwon, Hwacheon, Yanggu, Inje, and Goseong, will open to the public from September 13 through December. From Aug 23 (Tue), the pre-reservation opens for admission.

The DMZ Peace Trail (Peace Trail) was established to transform the DMZ into a space of peace and co-prosperity by enabling visitors to gain hands-on experiences of the ecological, cultural, and historical aspects of the DMZ and its surrounding areas still bearing the scars of war. It consists of a series of themed routes and a traverse route. Visitors will be able to walk through the “themed routes”[1] and “traverse routes (scheduled to open in 2023)[2]” and feel the ecological, cultural and historical assets in the area.

The government has opened the three routes in Paju, Cheorwon, and Goseong in April 2019 for a test run, drawing as many as 15,000 visitors in a relatively short period of time.   However, African swine fever, which outbroke in September 2019  stopped  the operation to contain the spread of the virus, and COVID-19 also affected the running of the course. After a period of additional preparations, including municipal governments which newly joined the project, a total of seven routes were opened in November 2021 and met with an even greater response, but their operations also came to a halt to protect migratory birds during the winter months and curtail the spread of the pandemic. The newly opening 11 routes are joined by ten municipal governments which are located adjacent to the areas near the DMZ. Each route has been designed to help visitors learn about the devastating impacts of the war and national division as well as the nation’s commitment to peacebuilding in a way that reflects the traits of the respective local government. All routes include a section in which visitors are allowed to travel by car based on cooperation with the military to ensure their safety as well as the protection of wildlife.

Themed route exploration should be reserved in advance, and online reservations can be made on the Trail website (www.dmzwalk.com) operated by Korea Tourism Organization (KTO) starting from August 23 (Tue). A participation fee of KRW 10,000 per visitor is required for each route to prevent no-shows, and the collected fees will be returned to visitors in the form of a gift certificate accepted or local specialties produced in the respective area. Reservation details can be viewed on the Trail website. [3]

To ensure the efficient operation of the Trail program, the government concluded the Joint MOU for Promoting the DMZ Peace Trail among five relevant ministries[4] in April 2019 and established the Integrated Operation System efficiently manage the DMZ Peace Trail program. The MOU specifies the roles of the five ministries: overseeing the project, promotion and marketing activities by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism; ensuring the peaceful use of the DMZ by the Ministry of Unification; supervising the safety of DMZ visitors and ensuring military security cooperation by the Ministry of National Defense; pushing ahead with joint ecosystem research and seeking cooperation for preventing damage to ecosystems due to visitors by the Ministry of Environment; and managing the hub center and traverse route by the Ministry of the Interior and Safety. Such collaboration among the five relevant ministries will reinforce substantive pan-government cooperation.

All ten local governments of the locations of the 11 routes are participating in this project, anticipating that the Peace Trail will emerge as a leading tourist attraction in the inter-Korean border areas near the DMZ and serve as momentum for revitalizing the local economies that have experienced a downturn due to the COVID-19 pandemic and African swine fever. To this end, the central and local governments will closely collaborate and take steps to develop the Trail into a globally renowned destination and global symbol of peace with ecological value.