From Immobility to Mobility: The Korean DMZ as a Heterotopia

Abstract

While the current developments in the peace processes allow us to imagine the Korean Demilitarized Zone will acquire more thriving mobilities in the future, this article seeks to characterize this unique space as an absolutely different place; a “heterotopia” as suggested by Michel Foucault. In the course of the discussion, which focuses on (non)human (im)mobilities within the framework of the “new mobilities paradigm,” some main characteristics of the DMZ as a heterotopia are identified. Firstly, as its descriptively most prominent characteristic, the DMZ is considered a borderland between two fiercely antagonistic power politics, a borderland that comes to be realized as fluid and irremovable. Secondly, considering criticisms of this notion of heterotopia to be negligent of real power-knowledge relations, the article suggests that the DMZ as an inaccessible and immobile space controls the mobilities of all other spaces. Lastly, the article proposes that the DMZ be developed into a heterotopic space that mirrors and critically reflects the other prevailing spaces. These characteristics of the heterotopic DMZ, i.e., a fluid and irremovable borderland, an inaccessible and immobile space in power-knowledge relations, and a critically reflecting space, are put under scrutiny with the metaphors of the river, the airport, and the mirror, respectively