Editor’s note: This article is the third in a multi-part series exploring key locations on the inter-Korean border that tourists can visit. Part one about remote border islands in the Yellow Sea can be read here and part two about the Joint Security Area in Panmunjom can be found here. 

If the western border regions are the Korean Peninsula's historical heartland, the east coast is its wild and untamed soul. Here, where the rugged peaks of the Taebaek Mountains plunge into the azure waters of the East Sea, the DMZ takes on a different character altogether — one of natural beauty and a bygone cross-border tourism industry.