*Jayu-ro, the Imjin River and North Korea seen from the Odusan Observatory (September 2024).*

“Highway to Hell” would have been a more accurate nickname. But the expression was already copyrighted by AC/DC in 1979, long before this road was built.

“Jayu-ro”, or “Freedom Road”, is the last section of National Motorway 77 linking Busan in the south of the Korean Peninsula to the North Korean border. Its current terminus is the “Unification Bridge”, which crosses the Imjin River to the Civilian Control Zone near Imjingak.

For a few kilometers, this busy suburban motorway runs alongside the border with North Korea whose nearby villages and mountains suddenly seem within reach.

Taking the Jayu-ro from Seoul to the North means an accelerated and extremely brief, but visual transition from the economic boom, globalized cultural effervescence and freedom of the South to the rural landscapes of North Korea. A place where electricity only works for a few hours a day at best, where everyone is forced to undergo a public self-criticism session every Saturday, and where each household is required to provide a quota of human poop to the State to fertilize crops.

But few of the early morning commuters on the packed 2200 bus from Paju to Seoul will come out of their torpor or their cell phones to take a look at the hell on earth two kilometers to their right.

Until recently, signs on the highway still indicated to motorists that they were heading towards Kaesong and Pyongyang, in North Korea.

*Anti-infiltrator fortifications along Jayu-ro, north of Seoul (May 2023).*

Indeed, for more than eleven years, from December 2004 to February 2016, the highway did continue to Kaesong, where the South had set up an industrial complex. But the complex has long since closed. And in late 2024, the North Koreans blew up the road just north of the border to mark the definitive break up with the South. The Pyongyang signs on Jayu-ro have since been removed.

As soon as you leave Seoul, you realize that Jayu-ro is no ordinary highway.

Very quickly, barbed wire fences, searchlights, watchtowers, bunkers, CCTV and infrared cameras appear on the banks of the Han River, which runs alongside.

A few dozen kilometers downstream, the Hangang marks the border with North Korea. The large river has been used as an infiltration route before by North Korean commandos (three of them were shot dead in 1980 as they tried to enter Seoul in this way). Hence the military's reluctance to cede the riverbanks to the civilian authorities of the riverside cities, who are nonetheless calling for them to be turned into areas for strolling and relaxation.

*Anti-tank obstacles on Jayu-ro, north of Seoul (October 2024).*

In the suburbs of Seoul, the road is overhung by a huge anti-tank obstacle: concrete blocks weighing several tons resting on pillars packed with explosives that can be detonated in the event of an enemy invasion, blocking the way for armored vehicles. Incidentally, these facilities also serve as an advertising medium for the South Korean military academy.

This type of obstacle can be found all over South Korea, particularly in the border regions. The fear of tanks is a legacy of the trauma caused when hundreds of North Korean Soviet-made T-34 rolled into Seoul at the start of the Korean War in 1951 destroying everything in their path (for their part, the North Koreans, traumatized by the rains of American bombs that reduced most of their cities to rubble, are obsessed with building air-raid shelters).

*Jayu-ro, Southern Limit Line fence, Imjin River and North Korean mountains (February 2025).*

The most interesting part of the road begins at the Odusan Observatory, which can be seen at the top of a hill on the left from Seoul.

For several kilometers, the motorway runs alongside the Imjin River, which at this point marks the border. North Korean mountains, villages and watchtowers are clearly visible 2.5 kilometers away. At the end of winter, the smoke and smells from the rice field burnings on the northern side of the border - a polluting practice that South Korea is seeking to ban at home - reach here unchanged.

Here, the Jayu-ro marks the boundary of the Civilian Control Zone. Don't think about getting out of your car, or venturing through one of the tunnels under the road. With the exception of the military and a few farmers authorized to cultivate fields near the border, anyone sneaking into this restricted and heavily monitored area runs a serious risk of being shot without warning.

*A tunnel under Joyu-ro, marking the Civilian Control Line (February 2025).*

The best place to safely watch the border from the other side of Jayu-ro is the Daon Forest Cafe set up just off the highway since 2022. The two-storey building boasts a spacious terrace and a comfortable lounge from which to gaze at the scenery on a sofa while sipping an ice-americano or devouring a hearty brunch.

From this vantage point, the watchtowers of the North seem insanely close to those of the South, and the sunsets over the North Korean mountains are magnificent.

*Lounge with a view on North Korea at the Daon Forest Café in Paju (February 2025).*

A group of North Korean soldiers digs a trench on their side of the border, a short distance from a South Korean guard post (below). The black square on the upper right, next to the North Korean watch tower, is a loudspeaker used to broadcast propaganda messages or scary noises to keep southern neighbors awake at night. I took this photo using a super telephoto lens and a teleconverter from the Daon Forest Cafe along Jayu-ro, several kilometers away. I only realized the presence of the North Korean military group when I developed the image on my computer the next day! (February 2025).

*North Korean watchtower and propaganda loudspeaker (above), Southern Limit Line fence and South Korean watchtower (below) seen from the Daon Forest Cafe along Jayu-ro (February 2025).*

*Sunset over North Korea and wild geese flying (February 2023).*

To obtain a building permit in this area close to the North, the café owners had to agree to build a bunker, to be used by the South Korean army in the event of an enemy attack.

This 70-meter-long underground fortification lies beneath a vast lawn next to the café, and includes loopholes facing north, from which soldiers can fire on any invaders.

Pending its hypothetical military use, the facility, named “Bunker Gallery Yes”, has been transformed into an art gallery where Kim Dae-nyeon, an artist from the border city of Paju where the café is located, exhibits around 100 of his works. Many of them deal with the division of Korea and the hopes of reunification.

*The entrance of Bunker Gallery Yes, where artist Kim Dae-nyeon exhibit his works (February 2025).*

During the harsh Korean winter, the busy motorway ending at the border with the other world is prone to sudden fog banks and black ice patches, making it one of the deadliest roads in South Korea. This was all it took for it to become the focus of a creepy urban legend.

In this Korean variation of the “vanishing hitchhiker” tale, a woman wearing sunglasses can sometimes be seen along the side of Jayu-ro. But those who get closer to this ghostly hitchhiker soon realize that she's not wearing dark glasses, but has completely empty eyeballs.

The ghost turns out to be quite harmless, as she simply asks motorists to drop her off at a cemetery, where she evaporates.