October 03, 2007
By JENNI SOHN, The Associated Press
By South Korean standards, Dorasan is not a major train station. Each day, three trains stop here, and fewer than 100 passengers are picked up.
What makes this station stand out is the location. It's right outside the demilitarized zone -- the closest station to North Korean territory within South Korea.
Despite speaking the same language, the two Koreas have rarely communicated on either an official or personal level in the decades since the Korean War. To this date, travel between South Korea and North Korea is not allowed; for travelers from the South, Dorasan Station is the end of the line.
An exception was made at the start of a summit that's taking place right now between the leaders of South and North Korea -- the second such summit ever. On Tuesday, Oct. 2, South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun passed through the DMZ and crossed the border into the North.
A few days before the summit, asap visited Dorasan Station and the edge of the DMZ. Take a look at this gallery to see what the journey, and the border area, looked like.
http://asap.ap.org/data/interactives/_news/dorasan/
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Jenni Sohn is an asap interactive designer based in New York.
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