The dragon does not usually receive visitors in winter, but we went anyway. We left the jeep parked at an empty guard post on a dirt road edged with barbed wire. Landmine warning signs hung on the fence. The five of us hiked downward in knee-deep snow into the bowl-shaped valley, then passed through a thicket of royal azalea and Mongolia oak heavy laden with hoarfrost and last night’s snowfall. We emerged to behold the Dragon Moors. The entire scene was frozen over — the flowers, the herbs, and the mythical dragon that was thought to rest in the dark swamp water. In the distance we could see the snow covered mountains of North Korea.

As the first American journalist to come to the Dragon Moors, I was asked why I wanted to visit this particular region of the demilitarized zone (DMZ). In the entire length of the 154-mile long DMZ, the Dragon Moors is perhaps the most ecologically pure area. It is the only alpine wetland in Korea, and has been designated a “wetland of international importance.” Located 3,900 feet above the sea level on Daeam Mountain, it is composed of two peat bogs that have formed over the last 5,000 years. The wetland holds botanical specimens that cannot be seen anywhere else in Korea: prairie sphagnum, meadowsweet, Siberian geraniums, pitcher plants, sundew, buckbean, rushes, two-flower violet, Arctic starflower, catchfly and Hanabusaya asiatica , an endangered perennial herb.

The story can be read in full in the Spring 2008 issue of the Earth Island Journal.

Copyright © James Card.