After lunch we went to the Dora Observatory, overlooking the DMZ and the potemkin village of Kijeongdong. Arriving just ahead of us were 72,000,000,000,000 schoolchildren on a field trip. They were hellions too, running around and yelling and butting in line for change (the binoculars were 500 won). Looking through the binoculars simply wasn’t an option as long as they were there. The KPA itself would have had no chance against them.

We were supposed to stay behind a yellow photo line—about 20 feet back from the wall—if we wanted to take pictures. The view from there wasn’t very good under the best of conditions; with all those kids there it was hopeless. But a person might go down to the end, past the binoculars and the kids, and accidentally press the shutter button while the camera was just resting on the wall. And those completely accidental photos might turn out pretty well.

After a while, the children all disappeared en masse. My tour group disappeared too, except for me and one British guy, who noted that our bus was still there. “So at least we’re not stook here,” he said in a distinctly northern accent.

After a few minutes, our group reappeared, and I still have no idea where they went. But no one missed us, and we got back on the bus to go to the Third Infiltration Tunnel.