A Bicycle Race Through the DMZ?

Charming little spot for a bicycle race.

At least that seems to be the sentiment of the International Olympic Committee, an organization whose usually fossilized thinking has suddenly taken a whimsical turn.

In an effort to mediate the protracted Olympic dispute between South and North Korea, the IOC proposed road cycling as one of four events staged in the North.

The race would be no mad dash around the capital of Pyongyang, but a trek from North Korea across the Demilitarized Zone and into the burgeoning city of Seoul.

But the problems are daunting, considering some 1.5 million troops are gathered near the 38th Parallel, one of the world’s political flash points. The United States has more than 40,000 troops in South Korea.

Highway One leads into Panmunjom, site of negotiations between South and North Korea since the Korean War. Guard post towers are spaced every hundred yards or so along the South Korean side of the DMZ--a stretch 150 miles by 2 1/2 miles.

Soldiers in camouflaged helmets patrol the roads, questioning all civilians and signing off conversations with their division mottoes. “Keep Up The Fire,” says one soldier. “In Front Of Them All,” replies another. Huge cement barriers serve to deter tank attacks.

An IOC delegation was recently denied access by North Korea to travel by land from Pyongyang to Seoul. A narrow two-lane road is the only one passing through the DMZ.

For roadside scenery, there is sensitive military equipment. Visitors--yes, there are tour buses and Panmunjom T-shirts--are instructed at points not to take photographs or gesture excessively within eyeshot of North Korean soldiers.

“This is the only road they can go through,” a U.S. sergeant at the DMZ says of the proposed cycle race. “It’d be kind of funny. I’d like to see what kind of trouble they’d have--from afar. Imagine falling off the bikes and into mine fields.”