Flyer from North Korea

For the everyday routine, an hour before soldiers go to sleep, soldiers have to clean their base. Since it's difficult to hire a janitor who is both trustworthy enough to handle confidential information and able to commute easily to remote locations like our base, it's ultimately more practical and cost-effective to use soldiers as a labor force.

How we clean up our base is quite systematic. We divide the building into several sectors, such as the bathroom, showering place, aisle, etc. When divided, we choose where we clean, and every week, we change our sector to another one.

Image for a better understanding of the recycling station. The recycling area at our base was significantly larger—and frankly, much dirtier—than the one shown above.

This is an episode when I was charged for cleaning up the recycling station. The place was dark and humid, and to clean up the place, we had to rely on a very dim light from the street lamp, which was located in the middle of the station. While we were cleaning, something with a very vibrant color, even so noticeable from the dim light from the sky, was slowly falling, like a flyer. Our base is close enough to North Korea (2 and a half miles away), so it was a plausible guess the flyer was crossing the country. Moreover, the shape of it was rectangular, and it seems some words were written on it. But the guess that it was a flyer seemed not right because the closer it came, it was flapping its wings like a bird. Strange, I thought. In my life I never heard of a vibrant bird having nocturnal characteristics. Maybe there is, but at least not in South Korea. The vibrant bird then sits on a street light, covering that slight dim light. Soon the recycling station turned dark. Through the shadow, everybody was shocked when we knew what it was. IT WAS A GIANT MOTH. 

Image for better understanding of the giant moth spotted near the recycling station (Note: The actual moth I encountered was noticeably larger than the one in this image. Its wingspan was so wide it looked more like a bird than an insect.)

A moth the size of a bird, the size of a piece of A4 paper. "I thought I wasn’t the kind of person who’s afraid of insects... but the moment I interacted with the moth, I realized some part of me is—especially when they’re big. All the details that were hidden when it was small, like the guts and the fur, were easy to distinguish even if I did not want to. The moth's pale eye was staring at us as if we were a delicious dessert. 

When I get back to base, I instantly try to find out why the insects here are so big. Because even before I saw that giant moth, I encountered some other insects that were bigger than their original size (though that moth was the biggest insect I have seen throughout my entire life). According to my boss, we jokingly call the giant moth 'Tinkerbell'—because from a distance, it kind of does look like her. Plus, just like the fairy, it leaves a trail of sparkly dust when it flies... though trust me, the resemblance ends there.

After asking my officers, reading some ecology books about the DMZ, and googling it, I found out several reasons. One plausible explanation is that the area surrounding the military base offers an abundant and consistent food source for local fauna, primarily due to the accumulation of food waste. Food waste? You might think. But the food waste from the bases wields significant power over the ecology in the DMZ. I will try to address the food waste more thoroughly in a different essay. This surplus of nutrients could contribute to increased body size in some insect species, either through direct consumption or by supporting a more robust ecosystem. 

For another reason, when a military facility is established, the area around it gets destroyed, removing the possible predators of the insects. Here is an artificial example for further apprehension. To prevent defectors from crossing the river, South Korea carries out construction projects such as blocking the river or building dams. Additionally, because surveillance needs to be intensified in these areas, and for better surveillance, trees around the locations are logged. This situation might remove a possible predator of insects, such as 

frogs and birds, to cross a certain threshold.

The establishment of military bases may have caused environmental pollution through chemical leaks, harming insects, as well as climate change due to indiscriminate logging and construction. In short, the giant moth that freaked me out that night might be a result of humans. 

After doing some quick research about the giant moth, this reminded me of the zombie movie Train to Busan. From what I remember, Train to Busan is a South Korean film about a father and his daughter trying to survive a sudden zombie outbreak while trapped on a high-speed train to Busan. As the infection spreads, passengers are forced to confront fear, sacrifice, and the darker sides of human nature. In Train to Busan, the infection spreads due to a leak from a biotech company that conducted unethical experiments, triggering a zombie virus outbreak. Of course, it’s different from the giant moth situation, but that movie serves as a reminder that everything can start from a tiny mistake. Maybe Tinkerbell staring at me with its lifeless eyes could be the start of the apocalypse….

 

Who knows?