While hiking close to the border between North and South Korea, language tutor Stephen Low found himself in peril when an M16 machine gun-toting guard mistook him for a spy. And that’s only one part of his wild story.
A language tutor embarked on a solo hike to mark a personal milestone, but ended up encountering a little bit more adventure than he’d bargained for, after he was confronted by an M16 machine gun-toting guard.
Stephen Low had just completed his first year teaching English at a school close to the notorious DMZ (Demilitarised Zone) between North and South Korea. Little did he know then that his language teaching skills were ultimately what would save him when staring down the barrel of a gun.
Wanting to celebrate his achievement, Stephen, now 48, headed out to a popular trail close to the North-South border. There, sniper huts and echoes of war gave a chilling reminder of the tensions across the divide. It was then that things took a turn straight out of an action movie.
READ MORE: ‘I proposed to girlfriend at the gym but reaction wasn’t what I was expecting’
Stephen, who currently tutors for Rosetta Stone, shared: “It was meant to be a quiet farewell adventure. But it turned into something no one ever believes when I tell them.”
As he neared the summit, the temperature plummeted, and so Stephen took shelter in one of the huts dotted around the mountainside. He warmed himself by lighting a small fire, using a copy of the vampire fantasy book Twilight as kindling. The tome had been handed to him as a gag gift from a pal, and, very quickly, Stephen found himself navigating just as much peril as the moody heroine Bella herself.
Stephen remembered: “As the fire burned, lots of thick smoke began wafting out from the hut. Suddenly, I heard shouting and as I emerged coughing and spluttering from the smoke-filled sniper hole, a ton of soldiers came down the mountain; they must have thought they were under attack!”
Trying to escape, Stephen was by this point disoriented and ended up on the wrong side of the mountain. On some trails, this would be a frustrating inconvenience, but in this sort of zone, a misstep could have alarming consequences. And Stephen would have been alarmed indeed to realise he’d accidentally ‘escaped’ straight into a restricted military testing zone.
He recalled: “I’d got a bit lost trying to head back, and for two hours it was all I could do to stay calm and figure out where to go, whilst explosions and rockets were going off in the distance.”
But as unexpected as the journey had been so far, things were about to get even more bizarre. The sun had started to set all too quickly, and Stephen found himself in a desperate race to get home once more. After spotting a man who was surrounded by what appeared to be smoke, Stephen held out hope that he might be able to point him back in the right direction. But as he approached him, he realised the ‘smoke’ was in fact an angry swarm of bees.
According to Stephen, “The bees swarmed me and got inside my clothing. I basically tore everything off to avoid being stung and ended up in just my boots, beanie, and boxers, which just so happened to be Union Jack boxers. That beekeeper must have thought I looked crazy…patriotic, but crazy.”
This awkward ordeal did, in some ways, prove fruitful, however, with the beekeeper pointing Stephen back towards town. Stephen wasted no time in dashing back out towards civilisations, with some of the bees attempting to follow for the ride. But his adventures were still far from over.
As the skyline of his town drew near, relief began to wash over Stephen. All that stood between him and home was a seemingly harmless park, and it initially appeared his troubles were beyond him. Unfortunately, as he rushed delightedly towards the park entrance, an armed sentry brought Stephen’s race back home to a screeching halt.
The park, which had appeared so welcoming from a distance, was, in fact, a military compound, and the sentry was tasked with guarding it. Although Stephen did his best to explain in Korean that he was just lost, the guard’s suspicions could not be quelled. And as he eyed up the guard’s M16 machine gun with a grenade launcher attachment, Stephen knew he had to be more convincing.
Desperate to prove his innocence, Stephen rang up a Korean ex-student of his, who was by that point working as the personal doctor to the South Korean president. Handing the phone over to the guard, Stephen told him, “Hangook chingu, Hangook chingu!”, meaning “Korean friend, Korean friend!”.
Although it initially looked as though the guard was keen to pull the trigger, he instead accepted the call. The former student managed to persuade the soldier to have Stephen escorted safely through the base. Stephen explained, “It was hard to believe the guard actually thought I was a spy. But it’s exactly what my friend later told me the guard was accusing me of being.
“Back then, South Koreans were very wary of North Korean espionage; you even had options on your cellphone emergency list for reporting spies!”
Fortunately, Stephen hadn’t been in too much danger, as it later emerged that the soldier’s low rank meant he hadn’t been permitted any ammo for his scary-looking weapon. He quipped, “Lucky for me. But perhaps not so lucky for the guard if it’s North Korea rolling around the corner instead of just a semi-clad British hiker.”
Looking back on this eventful day, Stephen remembers it as one of extreme highs and lows. He said: “I went from immense relief that the guards from the base hadn’t caught me after my Twilight bonfire, to immense terror after my escape took me onto a live army testing range, to thinking ‘just another fine mess I’ve gotten myself into,’ to terror with the bees, then relief at spotting the town, only to realise it was an army base. By the time I was staring down the barrel of an M16, I was worried I wouldn’t see another day.”
The fear he experienced didn’t put Stephen off returning to the trail some 10 years later, however, when he finally managed to tick off his original goal of reaching the mountain’s helipad. Now based in Norwich, Stephen has never lost his love of teaching or the English language.
Offering some words of wisdom to fellow travellers, Stephen advised: “Take it from me, it’s important to know a few key phrases like ‘help’ or ‘I’m lost’ when travelling. If I didn’t know how to speak a bit of survival Korean, I’m not sure what would have happened that day.
“It’s sometimes easier to assume that someone abroad will speak a bit of English, but that isn’t always the case. Learning a bit of another language helps you connect to other people better, and sometimes, it can be the difference between a lovely hike and being mistaken for a spy.”
Do you have a story to share? Email me at [email protected]
READ MORE: Amazon shoppers hail £26 perfume as perfect match for £110 luxury scent