Today, we re-visit North Korea one more time to discuss how a tree nearly caused WWIII. Remember that M. Night Shyamalan movie where the trees were the villains? It's like that but a lot dumber. In the 1970s, at the entrance to the 'Bridge of No Return' on the border between South and North Korea, a tree blocked the view of a guard tower—chaos ensued. Learn more about our crazy past with us! Every week on Doomed to Fail!
Today, we re-visit North Korea one more time to discuss how a tree nearly caused WWIII. Remember that M. Night Shyamalan movie where the trees were the villains? It's like that but a lot dumber. In the 1970s, at the entrance to the 'Bridge of No Return' on the border between South and North Korea, a tree blocked the view of a guard tower—chaos ensued.
Learn more about our crazy past with us! Every week on Doomed to Fail!
Hi Friends! Our transcripts aren't perfect, but I wanted to make sure you had something - if you'd like an edited transcript, I'd be happy to prioritize one for you - please email doomedtofailpod@gmail.com - Thanks! - Taylor
Doomed to Fail brings you history's most notorious disasters and epic failures
>> Taylor: In the matter of the people of the State of California vs. Orenthal James Simpson, case number BA09.
>> Farz: And so, my fellow Americans, ask not what your country can do for you.
>> Taylor: I've been up for a long time.
>> Farz: You've been what?
>> Taylor: I've been. It's 10. It's 10am Pacific Time on, I think, Sunday, and I've been up since 7, which is gross.
>> Farz: I know. I know. I haven't been able to sleep recently either.
>> Taylor: Yeah. Yeah. Boo. hi, everyone. Welcome to Doomed to Fail, or the podcast that brings you history's most notorious disasters and epic failures. Twice a week, every week, I am Taylor, joined by Fars. And we're still alive.
>> Farz: We. And we're also, like, pretty consistent. We are like, We've probably missed like, maybe three episodes over the past two years.
>> Taylor: Our last. Our, last episode is episode 150.
>> Farz: Yeah, that's pretty good.
>> Taylor: That's wild.
>> Farz: Yeah.
>> Taylor: Like, we're all the stuff we've learned. I know.
>> Farz: All appreciated. Acknowledge how great we are by making us famous.
>> Taylor: We should be professors.
>> Farz: I don't. I wouldn't go that far. I think you're jumping the shark there a little bit, but I appreciate the gusto.
Taylor: Am I first today? Yes. I'm also very sniffly
Well, you know, so am I. Am I first today?
>> Taylor: Yes.
>> Farz: Okay. So this is gonna be a fun one, Taylor.
>> Taylor: Oh, thank God. I'm also very sniffly. I apologize to everyone. I'll try to sniff. Not that much. I don't know what's going on.
>> Farz: Just stop breathing and I'll work out. Or you can mute yourself every now and then. but okay, so in a rare move for me, I'm not like you. I'm not as consistent as you when it comes to having series.
I learned about something involving North Korea and was like, oh, God
I learned about something involving North Korea and was like, oh, my God, I have to do this because it was. It just like, blew me away. It was so fun. Well, fun, fun bad.
>> Taylor: Is fun the right word? Yeah.
>> Farz: Yeah. It's kind of crazy. So I'm going to be covering a story again involving North Korea in the United States and a whole host of other countries or whatever. Really? In general, when I'm talking about, like, the West, I'm talking about the United States when it released. North Korea. Makes sense.
>> Taylor: Yeah.
>> Farz: Okay. So this was an incredible story involving kidnappings, murder in a tree that almost sparked World War three.
>> Taylor: Ooh.
>> Farz: yes, yes. And also do that full disclosure. I'm gonna be doing a lot of, like, trying to, like, articulate a map as I'm m having this conversations. Like, I don't Know, like, there needs to be, like, some sort of a trigger or, like, some sort of warning saying, like, start visualizing it in your head. Because, like, I'll just say it. I'll be like, start visualizing. Here's the map, and I'll start talking.
>> Taylor: Did you ever hear about the time that FDR did, a Fireside chat where he would, like, on the radio, talk to everyone, and he told everybody to buy maps before so he could explain to them what was going on in Europe, and everyone did.
>> Farz: That is awesome. I did not know that.
>> Taylor: He said the exact same thing that you just said. He was. Get a map. I'm going to walk you through it. And people did not go, so if.
>> Farz: You have a map of North Korea, bust it out.
>> Taylor: I have one hanging in my bedroom.
>> Farz: So, yeah, I can kind of see it. When you pan the camera to the left a little bit, I can see that giant map in North Korea that you have behind you.
>> Taylor: Comforting. My favorite art pieces. Yes.
The demilitarized zone separates north and South Korea
>> Farz: So all of what I'm going to talk about here has to do with, like, the demilitarized zone called the dmz. You're obviously familiar with that, right? We've all seen it.
>> Taylor: Yeah, it feels, like, similar, but maybe worse to Berlin Wall. Demilitarized.
>> Farz: Totally. Exactly. Yeah, Worse, but, yeah, similar. So, obviously this is the border that separates north and South Korea. It mostly separates it because in the last episode I discussed how north and South Korea was established and that Kim Jong Il invaded South Korea and then the US Fought it back, which resulted in an armistice. The mostly part of how they're divided has to do with that armistice. So the two sides amidst, that armistice agreed there would be an area at, like, the eastern end of the dmz, like, close to the ocean, called the Joint Security Area, or JSA for short. So at that time, that overlapped north and South Korea. So imagine like an area. It was somewhere around 70 acres wide or large in volume quantity, whatever. And it was just like a hole on the DMZ side where, like, if you were North Korean, you kind of, like, enter into the south, or south enter into the north in the US Was kind of operational across the entire thing. It's not like that anymore. So when you see, like, pictures of them right now, like, I'm not talking about. I'm not around this, but, like, that's the way it was originally. How.
>> Taylor: How long is the border?
>> Farz: I do not know that. And like, the entire length of the peninsula, so whatever that is.
>> Taylor: So. And what does it look like? I guess. Are you gonna tell me what it looks like for most of it? So you're telling me there's, like, a little. There's that little part that, like, we see on TV that we know about. They, like, look at each other all day, but not all like that.
>> Farz: Most. So it. It is, it's mostly barbed wire and just, like, personnel station intermittently across the entire border.
>> Taylor: Got it.
>> Farz: And, on the North Korean side, a ton of booby traps to prevent even the attempt of trying to get across into South Korea.
>> Taylor: Yeah.
>> Farz: So, the. So, okay, so as part of this armor. Yeah. They established the jsa. So I'm going to be referring to the JSA Joint Security Area. It's just, like, where all these people could kind of freely move in this, like, one little bubble. So, like I said, this is approximately 70 acres large, and it has been the site of a ton of issues between the north and South. And again, I say south, like, yes, South Koreans are there. Americans are there, United nations is there. The Swedes are there. Like, everybody's there.
>> Taylor: Like, BTS is there.
>> Farz: BTS is probably there. They probably came in and out every now and then.
>> Taylor: They. They had to join the South Korean military, so that's kind of cool. They're doing their surface. They're doing their service right now. Some of them are. Some are a little bit older and talk about that later.
>> Farz: We will talk about that later. You know, we're gonna take up the last 20 minutes this episode just talking about that.
>> Taylor: did,
Did you ever hear how people do their birthday in South Korea
This is such a tangent, but did you ever hear how people do their birthday in South Korea? Maybe in all of Korea? So I learned this because of bts, so some of them were getting older, and you have to do your military service by the time you're 30. So they're trying to, like, figure that out, but for a long time, and I think maybe still today, everyone's birthday is January 1st, and when you're born, you're 1, you're not 0, you're 1. So you could be born on December 31st, and the next day you are 2. So you're considered 2. So you're going to be behind in everything because you're a literal baby. And there's people who are potentially born on January 1st. They're one, then they turn two, and they. They're going to be, like, two years ahead of you in everything. So it, like, kind of messes with people's, like, ability to learn because they're. We would count them as, like, one, but in South Korea, they're three.
>> Farz: Why would. Why would they do it that way?
>> Taylor: I have no idea, but I think they started to change it a little bit because some of the members of BTS were like, oh, yeah, he's 25, but he's really 23. And you're like, what?
>> Farz: So it's so weird. Wow.
>> Taylor: I don't know why, but it was. You're like, it's. It's weird. Different.
>> Farz: This is like a really educational podcast, I think.
>> Taylor: I know. We should be professors.
>> Farz: Okay, maybe I go back. You're right. We should be professors. Probably. so going by the jsa. So again, all these people are kind of intermingling with each other. Obviously, it's not going to be fun or good for anybody. There's a lot of childless stuff that goes on, like shoving matches and petty arguments. Sometimes they would say the US Soldiers would go pour water on the steps of the North Korean barracks in the middle of winter so that they would eat when they walked out in the morning. It would be like, fun stuff.
>> Taylor: Like in Home Alone.
>> Farz: Yeah, exactly. They're literally doing, like, Macaulay Culkin gags.
>> Taylor: That seems fine.
>> Farz: And then. And every now and then, like, soldiers, they would moon each other across, like, the way. Or like, bang on the other's barracks while they were asleep. Just annoy them. It was just mostly stuff like that.
North Koreans had a habit of kidnapping South Koreans, Americans and personnel
But there's one part of the JSA that was particularly problematic. And this is my flashing warning. Like, try to visualize this moment. Okay.
>> Taylor: Okay.
>> Farz: So if you're on, like, the southeastern edge of the jsa. So what is. What would be like, the closest. It would be like, it technically would be South Korea if it wasn't for this weird situation. There is a bridge that crosses from north to south, and it extends far up into North Korea that it leads out of the jsa.
>> Taylor: What is it over?
>> Farz: Well, there's like a. There's like a river. Lake. There's something that runs.
>> Taylor: It's over water.
>> Farz: Yeah. Yeah. So the name of this bridge is called the Bridge of no Return. Fun, right? So the reason it's called that is because North Koreans operating within the JSA had a habit of kidnapping South Koreans, Americans, UN Workers and soldiers and personnel, and then dragging them across the bridge firmly out of the JSA and into North Korea, outside of the territorial control of the United States. And so there'd be no ability to kind of rescue them.
>> Farz: So that's why it was called the Bridge of no Return. Regardless, the US The U. N. The South Koreans, they All had to, like, man stations near this bridge to track North Korean movements and activities. So throughout the jsa, there's all these little outposts. Like, there's ones that are filled with, like, the UN People and the Americans and, like, North Korea, all that. And also, like, staring at each other. It's really funny when you think it's. It's like. It's like a. It's like a sitcom. Like, they're all looking at each other across the way with binoculars. It's like, they're looking at me, too.
>> Taylor: Yeah, it's just like another dude and this is his job. And they're just like, hey, yeah.
>> Farz: So this is going to be, like, the visual visualization part. So we're on the southeastern end of this, like, little block where the Bridge of no Return is. So the United nations put up a command checkpoint called CP3, and CP3 is at the entrance to this bridge. So this. Manning this outpost or this checkpoint was considered the worst job at the jsa because you were alone, you were away from anyone that could help you. Immediately you were facing the North Koreans across the bridge, and you always had this fear they're going to come over, grab you, and then drag you across. Also, there's various rules around who can carry firearms, how many firearms there can be. Like, there's all the. A lot of the fights that these guys. Guys got into didn't escalate to, like, gun stuff. It was just fist fights. Because, like, a lot of times you weren't allowed to carry guns or weapon weaponry. That's why they could just run over and grab you and drag you across.
>> Taylor: What. What do you mean? You, Like, there wasn't just one person there, right? You weren't, like, alone alone. It was like a group of people who were, like, isolated kind of because they're on the bridge. Right?
>> Farz: So from what I understand, it was, like, usually one, but sometimes up to two people that were on at this outpost or this check went. This. This was like. This is like, when you go through, like, the gates, like a parking gates that you pay for. It's like one of those. Like, this is not like a. Is that the thing?
>> Taylor: Like, there's one famous one. Is it that one, or is that a different one that I'm Checkpoint Charlie. No, no, no, I know. I'm talking about, like, there's one place in North Korea that I feel like I see all the time, like, over the demilitarized zone.
>> Farz: So if you. If you are looking at anything that is post 1990s taken then it would, it would not include this because all this was deconstructed in the past 30, 40 years.
>> Taylor: well, that job is awful. And it sounds like a horror movie that you're like, I can be pulled across this bridge and never, never return. And who knows?
>> Farz: Nobody would hear from me.
>> Taylor: Never. And the best case would be they kill you, but they're not going to kill you. You're going to go to like a fucking camp.
>> Farz: Yeah. So they called it the loneliest outpost in the world. That was the name for CP3. Nobody wanted to work this shift.
>> Taylor: Yeah.
>> Farz: I hope they got overtime. Okay.
>> Taylor: I doubt it.
>> Farz: This is going to be like the visualization part so that like six times.
>> Taylor: I'm still visualizing, I'm still looking at the south east part of the border over a bridge.
>> Farz: I know you paid attention now.
>> Taylor: I got, I got you.
George H. Bush: North Koreans attacked workers at CP3 in 1976
>> Farz: So the one way to alleviate the fear of the workers who were stationed at CP3 was that the United nations built a modern monitoring station called Outpost 5 at the top of a hill with a direct line of sight to CP3. So you're high up, you're always looking down at this one command post. You can kind of see the bridge a little bit to the right of it. But like, it made the soldiers working CP3 feel better that like, there's somebody within line of sight of them, but.
>> Taylor: That'S so far away.
>> Farz: I know, I know.
>> Taylor: Like, you're probably fine, you know.
>> Farz: So what I learned later on was they actually had multiple types of like, JSA wide alerts they could send out if something was awry to let them know like roughly where it's going awry. And they would shift these notifications so that the North Koreans would never understand what was going on. It was kind of fun. So the one problem that the Western powers had with kind of the arrangement they had was the summertime was an issue for the people who were working the the at CP3 because in direct line of sight from the, observation post was a 40 foot tall poplar tree. And every summer its leaves would just blossom and create these huge blind spots to be able to observe CP3. Oh my God. So on August 18, 1976, a group of civilian workers, along with United nations security forces and some US Soldiers decided they're going to make their way to this poplar tree with some axes in hand and start pruning back this, this.
>> Taylor: Tree, trees in North Korea.
>> Farz: It's in the jsa, so legally it doesn't belong to anybody.
>> Taylor: Got it? So can you say what JSA means again?
>> Farz: Joint Security Area.
>> Taylor: Okay.
>> Farz: So again, it's just like a camp that everybody just, like, moves around in, and it's, like, kind of hostile in. So, soon after work on pruning this tree began, a North Korean commander, a guy named Pak Schol, who went by the name Bulldog because he had a habit of provoking conflicts, he showed up along with 15 of his soldiers. They sat there, they observed the pruning for 15 minutes before abruptly telling them to stop, that they don't have authorization, that, both sides have to agree to, quote, unquote, landscape changes, and that they were outside of violations for whatever their armistice was.
>> Taylor: And it sounds like they're just living in, like, an hoa, you know?
>> Farz: So funny. I know. Like, if. If there wasn't like, a bloody end to this piece, like, it would actually be really hilarious. So the Western forces ignored this, and apparently they did so pretty disrespectfully. Apparently turning your back on somebody when they're talking to you is, like, the worst thing in the world. And that's what the soldiers here did. And the commander sent soldiers up the Bridge of no Return to bring in reinforcements, about 20 more soldiers. Once they arrived, he again told them to stop pruning the tree. They turned their back on him again, and the commander shouted to his men in Korean, quote, kill the bastards. So for the next 30 seconds or so, a, ah, fight ensued. that injured all but one person on the Western, western side of this, except for two of the US Soldiers, two guys named Barrett and another guy named Boniface. They were, killed by North Koreans who grabbed the axes that were dropped by the perimeters and just hack these guys and butchered them.
>> Taylor: Oh, my God.
>> Farz: Yeah, and there's actually. So the outpost that was monitoring this was filming this live and, like, caught all of this in real time happening. There's actually video stills that you can see. Like, there's some guy with an ax handle running at another guy, and we don't. I mean, I assume that was one of these two.
>> Taylor: Wow.
>> Farz: So North Korea broadcast that what had happened from their perspective was basically that the North Koreans did nothing wrong. They defend themselves. The US Instigated an attack. They attacked these guys, and they just defended. Defended against the U.S. shortly thereafter, a North Korean delegation at a conference of countries that never picked a side on the Korean War, they proposed the US should vacate the Korean Peninsula entirely. They use this an example of, like, hey, America's doing, like, horrible things. They provoked an attack on Us for no reason. We seem to get them out of here immediately. So amidst, all of this, the US, specifically the part of the US that was being run by George H.W. bush, the CIA had learned that they had missed a huge buildup of military forces in North Korea. And this was.
>> Taylor: They didn't see that from their little tree.
>> Farz: Yeah, they couldn't. They couldn't make it.
>> Taylor: Little tree house.
>> Farz: Yeah. They should have cut more of it back. But also, this was the height of the. Well, not the height of it, but this was, like, part. The Vietnam War was still going on, and so resources there could have been sent to North Korea, were being diverted to Vietnam. So it was also a piece of this mess.
>> Taylor: Yeah.
>> Farz: So because of this buildup and because of the proposal for the US to lead, the US concluded that all of this was kind of like a chess game to position North Korea for another invasion into the South. They're like, they're building up their military. This attack was weird and, like, seemingly unprovoked. Like, they're getting more and more antsy to, attack and go back across the border. It's been 20 years. So there wasn't a ton of options the US could respond with to the murders and what it perceived as escalations, to an eventual invasion. The option seemed to be do nothing, which would look weak and result in an invasion. Respond in kind, like, kill some of their men, and that would obviously lead to a war. And the third was to present the US's military power in a way that was hopefully not going to incite a, war, but also show, like, strength. That was the idea. And the U.S. general responsible for all U.S. forces in North Korea was a guy named Richard Stillwell. And he chose a third option. So that is what Operation Paul Bunyan would come to be known as, which was a plan to respond to the murder and also demonstrate the US's capabilities and their commitment to north. To South Korea. And the goal was, like, pretty simple. Like, it was literally just chopped down the tree, but to do it in such a way that would make North Korea, Korea, like, never want to, like, do this again. So this is. This is going to be, like, a long list here. So the plan was to send in eight military engineers to chainsaw the tree down and a support system to keep the North Koreans at bay. So accompanying the eight responsible for taking the tree down was two platoons. And I learned that a platoon consists of, like, 40 soldiers apiece. So that's 80 soldiers.
>> Taylor: That's very helpful because I always Thought that a troop was more than one person, but it's one person. So I was like, that doesn't make m. Any sense. But platoon being 40, that totally makes sense.
>> Farz: Yeah, I had to do the math. I was like, I don't know how big any of this is. I have no context here. So they sent in two platoons, so 80 people.
They sent in South Korean Special Forces. An infantry consisting of 150 men, 24 howitzers
They sent in South Korean Special Forces. So their version of the Green Beret, they sent in. In. Or this was all the plan. An infantry consisting of 150 men, 24 howitzers, which I didn't know what those were either. But if you. If you know, like, you know how, like, there's those giant weapons where they're usually on two tires, and it's just like a tank. Like, funnel. What's. What are they called? A barrel. The barrel of a tank. It looks like it's one of those things. So they sent 24 of these. Along with them were 24 men to. Who would be the ones responsible for using it. They sent 20 helicopters called Hooeys, which were, if you recall Rambo movies. It's. It's the. It's the helicopter that he escapes in. Like, it's never a good helicopter. So, it's. So it's like a utility helicopter. They sent 20 of those, but they also sent 12 gunships, which are the type of helicopters Rambo flies when he's attacking the enemy. Everything is just like, different shades of Rambo here.
>> Taylor: Yeah, no, no, that's the time. Rambo is a movie about the Vietnam War.
>> Farz: Yeah.
>> Taylor: Crazy person.
>> Farz: Yeah, it was awesome. they sent. Several were called F4 Phantom fighter bomber jets, A, larger strategic bomber filled with nukes called an F111, several B52 bombers.
>> Taylor: And these were really overreacting.
>> Farz: These. No, it gets better. So these B52s, they were on a vector to be basically over Pyongyang, the capital of North Korea, as this project was supposed to begin, of cutting down this tree. So the signal being sent was, this thing is full of nuclear warheads. It is over your capital and do anything, and these all come down on you right. Right here, right now. But the funnest one, Taylor, is they took the USS Midway, an aircraft carrier with 40 combat planes, and positioned it off the coast of North Korea.
>> Taylor: Oh, great. Oh, that's fine.
>> Farz: Is that fun?
>> Taylor: Oh, my God.
>> Farz: In addition to all of this, they were planning to rig the entire Bridge of no Return with explosives.
>> Taylor: That makes sense.
>> Farz: I mean, do that first. Do that first.
>> Taylor: I think that is the. That's the final, thing to do. Yeah.
This was the last presidential convention where the nominee was not known
>> Farz: So this I learned, too, which was really fascinating. So still, while the general in charge, he sent all of his plans to Washington for approval, he actually couldn't get an audience with President Gerald Ford because, again, something really interesting and new that I learned. So Ford was in Kansas City at the Republican National Convention. And this convention would be the last presidential convention where the nominee was not known. Going into the convention. Is that wild? 1976 politics.
>> Taylor: So much so I hate it.
>> Farz: So at this convention, they literally were counting ballots between Ronald Reagan and Ford to see who would win the nomination. Apparently it was a super, super narrow margin, but Ford obviously ended up winning. Is that wild?
>> Taylor: I feel like we've talked about this before because how much fun it would be to have a convention where you actually got to, like, make a decision.
>> Farz: Yeah, just like, scream there in the moment. It's so cool.
>> Taylor: This.
>> Farz: This part's also fun, Taylor. This. This I also learned just now. So, Board obviously lost to Carter, like, going into the presidential. Into the general election. Here's a fun fact. These are the states. This is not an exhaustive list. It was a huge list. But these are some interesting states that flipped from Republican to Democrat to vote Jimmy Carter in Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, and, like, there was like, 15 more states that all flipped. It was incredible.
>> Taylor: in. In Futurama M, the Gerald Ford head is always like, I don't think votes matter because he was never voted to be president.
>> Farz: He wasn't voted for anything. He wasn't even voted in to be, to be, ah, House, ah, majority, speaker.
>> Taylor: Yeah, yeah, yeah. He's like, I think we need an election. I don't think votes really matter. You're like. They're like, shut up. Gerald Ford.
>> Farz: I mean, good for him. Way to. Way to trip your way to the top, right?
>> Taylor: Oh, my God.
>> Farz: So, okay, so obviously Ford was having a ton of his own issues in the middle of all this. And so Henry kissed her. And again, something I learned just this here was the Secretary of Defense. This time was Donald Rumsfeld.
>> Taylor: I just. Yeah.
>> Farz: And so they were the ones that were left to kind of evaluate Stilwell's plan. They ended up deciding to, also incorporate a subject of a previous episode, the SR71 Blackbird, to run reconnaissance. Like, again, every resource the US had was like, let's just focus on this one tree.
>> Taylor: I feel like I'm in such an existential dread part of my life right now that I'm. But, like, it's going to be something stupid. It's not going to be, like, a complicated thing. It's going to be something like this, you know?
>> Farz: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Kissinger: Operation Bunyan took place on August 21, 1976
so Kissinger M. Once they're kind of finalizing plans, he ends up going to Kansas City with the final suggestion for Operation Bunyan. and literally in a side room, after Ford accepts the nomination, he briefs upon the plan and receives final authorization to move forward. What happened next has been described, quote, as the most carefully staged and concentrated display of power since D day in World War II.
>> Taylor: God.
>> Farz: So on August 21, 1976, that's three days after this happened. It's 6:48 local time a.m. the vehicles and troops started moving into position. And the working group, which was supposed to take down this tree, starts moving towards a poplar tree. as at the same time, all these gunships, military helicopters, bombers, fighter jets, all of these, the USS Midway, all of them kind of take their positions. So as soon as the working team reached the tree, they hop out of the. Out of the military convoy. They start working with the chainsaws and handsaws to dismantle it. And as work began on the tree, the United nations sent words to North Korea saying, hey, we're doing this. We're going to do this peacefully. There's no attempt at violence here unless violence is initiated. Shortly thereafter, a bus, of North Koreans arise. Military people carrying, about 150 troops. They get out. They're like, basically just standing there watching what's happening. And as the North Koreans arrived, so did the battalion of helicopters. 43 minutes after they had arrived at the popler, all but 20 foot of the tree had been cut down. So they cut, like, as far as they needed to to clear this line of sight into this one checkpoint. The only incident reported was some random North Korean soldier who I'm sure after this, had his, like, head cut off. He started taking pot shots of one of the U.S. helicopters. And this visual was so cool the way it was kind of described. What it said was it was taking pot shots at a copter. And then one of the gunships just banked violently and aggressively towards him and just aimed all of its. All of its guns, like, trained them right on this one soldier. It's like a scene. It literally is Rambo scene.
>> Taylor: Oh, my God.
>> Farz: And then he stopped. And that was kind of the end of it. interestingly enough. So shortly after this, North Korea basically asked for a meeting in the neutral zone. And they read a statement from Kim Il Sung saying he Expressed regret for the death that happened. Basically doing a full 180 from saying the US instigated this attack. It was, literally the first time North Korea had ever taken public responsibility for any violence. The DMZ was pretty cool. And basically that was it. A few weeks after that, the North Koreans proposed in South Korea, agreed to a permanent barrier between the countries rather than this weird no man's land. And that's what you see today. So what I'm describing in existence for approximately 25, 26 years, and then the images you see now of the DMZ and those buildings that kind of overlap the two sides. That's what it turned into.
>> Taylor: Wow.
>> Farz: Because, like, we don't need to be comingling with each other. All these guys are booting each other left and right and pouring cold water on each other. Like, it's not going to be a.
>> Taylor: Good spot for us to be right eventually. And people are going to be like, like you said, like, ready to be riled up over any little thing, which is what happened.
>> Farz: Yeah. Yeah. So what happened? Like, it was weird. Like, a week or a couple weeks before this, like, some North Korean journalists spit on some American. And then that guy punched him, and then he got stomped, like, almost to death by North Korean soldiers. Like, it was like a constant tit for tat, like, aggression, and it was never going to go anywhere good. Like, yeah, it's like having the worst neighbor in the world.
>> Taylor: Exactly. It is exactly like living in an HOA where you're like, oh, my mom had this fight with her neighbor about a tree. Similarly, like, you're, you know, your tree nuts are falling in my yard and your leaves are in my yard and blah, blah, blah.
>> Farz: Like, seriously, your mom's neighbor was upset that the tree had legis fall on her yard.
>> Taylor: Yeah. She came, like, banging on the door one time at like, 8 in the morning during COVID to like, yell at my mom about it. And she was like. My mom was like, I'm not opening the door to you. What's during COVID What's wrong with you? Yeah, but, like, that happens all the time.
>> Farz: I don't know. That sounds, That actually sounds like a crazy person.
>> Taylor: I know.
>> Farz: So you need to also, Is your mom in Vegas?
>> Taylor: Yeah.
>> Farz: Yeah. So be happy there's a tree. You're in a desert.
>> Taylor: You're a thousand percent right. Like, be amazed that this tree exists at all. Yeah.
>> Farz: This thing's a miracle. but yeah, that was Operation Paul Bunyan. I thought it was just fascinating. Just absolutely fascinating. This poplar tree that just almost ignited World War three.
>> Taylor: So did they, they got it down like. Yeah, most of the way.
>> Farz: Yeah, they. So they only needed to cut it down because it was 40ft tall. They cut it down and they didn't probably have to even go as far as they did. They cut it down to 20ft, where it was 20ft worth of, the trunk still standing. Since then, and since they redid the whole area and got rid of this checkpoint, the whole thing looks totally different now. It's not all the same thing, but they, they cut out the root of the trunk and now there's actually like a, Ah, whatever. Like a landmark there. Like providing notice that this is where these two soldiers were killed.
The USS Midway was positioned off the coast of North Korea
So.
>> Taylor: Wow.
>> Farz: Yeah, crazy, crazy story. but yeah, I thought that was really interesting. And, I will probably come off North Korea next week, but unless I find another story like this. There's so much cool shit I learned in the middle of researching this.
>> Taylor: I didn't imagine how much money that cost. Also, like, how much money did that cost?
>> Farz: Probably a lot. But I mean, it was probably cheaper than us starting World War Three. I know, but also I totally forgot that, Gerald Ford had two assassination attempts. Oh, yeah, Crazy.
>> Farz: And one of them was Twiggy. Or not Twiggy. What was her name? Squeaky. It was Squeaky.
>> Taylor: Remember Squeaky, the model Squeaky from. Yeah, I remember. That's why.
>> Farz: Yeah, the Manson girl.
>> Taylor: Yeah, she's the worst. I mean, they're all terrible, but so.
>> Farz: Yeah. Hopefully you found that fun. Hopefully. if you all know of any other cool, interesting things. When once I read that they positioned the USS Midway off the coast of North Korea, I was like, okay, I gotta talk about this. This is like insane.
>> Taylor: So many people, it's like, be a part of this silly thing.
>> Farz: Yeah, yeah. And if you're in San Diego, you can go visit the USS Midway. It's in permanent, dry dock there.
>> Taylor: Oh, that sounds fun.
>> Farz: Yeah.
>> Taylor: I do like, like the Enter. What's that in the one in. In. There's one in, in New York too, that you can go to. It's fun.
>> Farz: Nimitz. Enterprise.
>> Taylor: Enterprise, yeah.
>> Farz: See, I want to. I wanted to say Enterprise, but then I was like, am I thinking of a Star Trek ship?
>> Taylor: I know, I thought, I thought the exact same thing, but I'm pretty sure it's Enterprise. There's a cafe on, the Midway that has. Has a bacon cheeseburger with an American flag in it.
>> Farz: Delicious. I'm sure I'm sure they close.
>> Taylor: weird. You can stay the night there.
>> Farz: Anyway, anyway, so there.
There's footage of Kim Jong Un and the then president of South Korea
There's also footage, of in 19. Or, sorry, in 2018. Kim Jong Un and the then president of South Korea. I forgot his name, but they meet for the first time at the dmz. And for the first time ever, the president of South Korea invites Kim Jong Un to, like, step over the line. And that was the first time anybody, any leader in, North Korea had been over the line since the demilitarized zone was established.
>> Taylor: It's wild.
>> Farz: Kind of fun. If I was him, I'd be like, I don't want to do this, because I heard a lot about kidnappings here. What am I doing?
>> Taylor: You're gona, like, be like, oh, what was the trick? You know, I could easily do that.
>> Farz: So, anyways, that's all I got.
>> Taylor: Cool.
Taylor says he's disconnected from social media and emails
>> Farz: Anything to read out?
>> Taylor: No, I don't go on social media anymore, so all, Right.
>> Farz: Well, now no social media. No emails. No emails even.
>> Taylor: Nope.
>> Farz: You're disconnected from emails as well?
>> Taylor: Well, I mean, again.
>> Farz: Oh, You could have lied, Taylor. You could have just made something up. Geez.
>> Taylor: But please email us. I will. I will probably come back to social media, but I deleted it from my phone. My friend Heather was like, you should delete it from your phone today. And I was like, yes.
>> Farz: So probably a good move.
>> Taylor: It was a good move. Yes. but we are. But yeah, please send us an email. Doomdmail.com do you want to talk about anything? Do you want us to talk about anything?
>> Farz: We'd love to give us more fun stories like this.
>> Taylor: Yeah. Like, what's, like a weird thing that you like. I have a huge list that I'm going to go into for next week. Something weird. Something weird.
>> Farz: Like this literally could have been the launching of World War 3. At one point, I read something where, like, one of the generals was like, they actually received authorization to use nuclear weapons for the first time since World War II. Over this. Over this. Because they're like, we might actually have to bomb the capital into oblivion. Like, it's crazy. Like, it's a tree.
>> Taylor: I know. I think they should have just, like, moved closer. Like, move you.
>> Farz: Also, this is, like, a really good example of not every fight is worth fighting.
>> Taylor: Yeah, no, totally. Like, move your guard tower 10ft to the left.
>> Farz: Well, I was actually talking about the North Koreans in this dynamic. Not the. Not the Americans, but sure.
>> Taylor: No, I mean. I mean, everyone, Everyone, everyone overreacted.
>> Farz: So I think that the checkpoint was there and Then they built the observation point afterwards and the poplar tree probably grew into it, but. Except it was there for 20 years. Like this.
>> Taylor: Or like, shoot it. Can't you just bomb a tree? I guess that would also.
>> Farz: Yeah. So that was literally. Wow. Are you like a general or something? Because that was actually.
>> Taylor: Damn it, Rommel, I've read your book.
>> Farz: That was. That was. That was, The exact plan that was going to be the backup if the chainsaw situation didn't work was they actually had bombs they were going to strap to this thing and just fucking blow it into a bunch of, like, toothpicks. But they were like, that'll also probably kill a bunch of people there and cause more problems.
>> Taylor: Oh, my God, that's so funny. What a world. What a world we live in, you guys.
>> Farz: What a world.
>> Taylor: now.
>> Farz: So, yeah, right.
>> Taylor: I'll return to social media.
>> Farz: Taylor will return to social media. Write to us, do philpodmail.com, follow us on the socials. Taylor will go in in like a week or two and start accepting follows there. M. And I think that's it. Taylor, anything else to sign off with?
>> Taylor: That's it. Thank you. Thank you.
>> Farz: Sweet. All right, we'll go ahead and cut it off.