After the 1968 Blue House
Raid (which is also called the January 21 Incident), the
North Korean commando attack on the Blue House, the northern
section of the wall was closed for a long time. Now
it's open but one must fill out a form, show one's passport,
have the information put into a computer, and get handed a
numbered badge before entering the northern section.
In this northern section, the young, national service park
ranger types are replaced with young, national service soldiers
with automatic weapons in guardhouses. Some of them smiled
and laughed when I attempted to chat with them.
One must stay on the path, on one side is the wall and barbed
wire, on the other fences and motion detectors.