Die Another Day helps the Korean demilitarised zone become a tourist attraction

The Associated Press are claiming the neutral `village` in the Korean demilitarised zone (DMZ) is becoming a tourist attraction.

More than 100,000 sightseers ride up from Seoul every year for doses of Cold War nostalgia, such as the "Bridge of No Return" which is depicted in "Die Another Day".

The area is sure to receive a boost with even more tourists reportedly flocking to re-live the scene in which Bond is handed back to the West.

But don`t smile at the communist guards, never point toward the watch towers and forget about wearing blue jeans.

Even for the droves of tourists, strict Cold War rules prevail along the immaculately groomed paths of Panmunjom, the museum-like neutral "village" between the divided Koreas where officials signed an armistice that ended the 1950-1953 Korean War.

"It looks like Disneyland, but it`s not," said Stephen Oertwig, the spokesman for U.S. military forces in South Korea. "It`s Disneyland with armed guards."

The tour`s attractions include the outlook over a building on the North`s side with a white dove painted under its eaves — the Korean People`s Peace Museum, where the 1953 cease-fire was signed.

It also proudly displays the axes that North Korean soldiers fatally wielded against two American officers in Panmunjom in a 1976 dispute over cutting down trees between guard posts.

The one-day jaunts mostly attract Japanese, Americans and Europeans. South Koreans need special government permission to join. The North caters to Russians, among others, although that has caused some controversy.

In 1984, a Russian tourist wanting to defect to the West sprinted across the Panmunjom compound, drawing gunfire from North soldiers. The tourist escaped, but an ensuing shootout with South troops killed three North Korean soldiers and a guard from the South.

"Some people come on the trip because they want to feel the tension of the DMZ," said Jin Hye-kyung, manager of the Seoul-based tour company Panmunjom Co-op Center. "If they see a North Korean soldier, they feel lucky."

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