A British language tutor said he was held at gunpoint after accidentally wandering into a restricted military testing area near the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) between the two Koreas.
Stephen Low, 48, from Norwich, told the Daily Mail he had been hiking alone to mark the end of a year teaching English near the DMZ when the episode unfolded. Low said he took shelter in an empty sniper hut as temperatures fell, lit a small fire to warm himself and created thick smoke that drew the attention of nearby soldiers.
Low said he emerged from the smoke to shouting and a “ton of soldiers” descending the mountain, and fled in panic. He said his route led down the wrong side of the slope and into a live military testing range where explosions and rocket firings could be heard in the distance. He said he spent roughly two hours trying to remain calm and find his way back.
As dusk fell, Low said he encountered a local man surrounded by what he first took to be smoke but realized was a cloud of bees. The tutor said the beekeeper’s insects swarmed into his clothing, forcing him to strip down to his underwear — which he said were British flag boxers — to avoid being stung. After following directions from the man, Low said he caught sight of his town’s skyline and approached what he thought was a public park, but the area was in fact part of a military compound.
Low said a guard stopped him at the park entrance with what he described as an M16 rifle fitted with a grenade-launcher attachment. He said he was unable to explain in Korean that he had lost his way and feared the soldier believed him to be an enemy agent.
Low said he called a former student for help. He said the student, who he later learned was working as a personal physician to the South Korean president, spoke to the guard and helped Low convey the words “Hangook chingu” — Korean friend — which Low said persuaded the guard to lower his weapon and arrange for an escort home.
Low told the Daily Mail he later discovered the guard’s rank was so low he was not authorized to carry ammunition. He said he returned to the route nearly 10 years later to complete his original goal of reaching the mountain helipad.
The DMZ is a heavily fortified buffer zone established after the 1950–53 Korean War. Although designated demilitarized, the area and its surrounding border regions remain among the most heavily militarized in the world, and South Korean forces maintain vigilance against infiltration and espionage. Low said that, at the time, South Koreans were especially wary of North Korean espionage and even had emergency phone menu options for reporting suspected spies.
Low is a language tutor who has worked with the Rosetta Stone programme and previously taught English in South Korea, where English is a widely studied second language. He described the episode as a sequence of escalating misfortunes — the bonfire that drew soldiers, the detour into a live firing range, the encounter with bees and the confrontation at the military compound — and said it left him fearing he would not survive the day.
He said the incident underlined the value of learning at least basic local-language phrases for travelers and expatriates. “If I didn’t know a bit of survival Korean, I’m not sure what would have happened that day,” Low told the Daily Mail. He said knowing how to communicate helped turn what could have been a deadly miscommunication into a situation that was resolved without injury.