Kaesong is the standard base for visiting the Demilitarised Zone and the Joint Security Area at Panmunjom from the North Korean side. The DMZ — a 4 km-wide buffer running across the peninsula — is about 10 km south of the city, and tours are tightly organised: military briefing first at a building that displays the original armistice documents, then a bus ride to the JSA and the blue conference huts on the actual border.
The North Korean perspective on the site is, predictably, very different from the South Korean one. The same buildings are described from the opposite angle; the same incidents are blamed on the other side. Both visits are interesting in their own right, and travellers who have been to the JSA from Seoul find the experience from the North a fascinating mirror image. Photography is allowed in designated spots; pointing the camera at North Korean soldiers without permission is not.