While in the DPRK, I took wrote a journal of sorts so as to aid my memory of this once in a lifetime trip. Our group consisted of myself, Dan and another exchange student from CFAU and 5 exchange students from BeiDa (Peking University). Overall there were two Dutch, two German, a Canadian, an American, a Chinese (who had spent considerable time in the US) and a Hong Kong citizen (though also a Canadian citizen). Below are my recollections from North Korea. Certain aspects of the trip have been removed or glossed over, out of respect to our tour guides who have been known to face repercussions for information that leaves the isolated country. From my perspective I saw nothing that would upset the regime, but you never know how they might view certain incidents.
Day 1:
Well, our first day in North Korea has concluded. Nothing as far as sights, but that’s not to say it hasn’t been exciting and fascinating. We left CFAU at 10:30am and arrived at the airport an hour later. Surprisingly our flight was full, mostly of North Koreans (surprise) returning from China with many packages of goods (including flat-screen TVs). There was also a large group of student athletes who we learned were Korean but lived in Japan (there is in fact a large population of ethnic Koreans who live in Japan and attend maintain North Korean citizenship. The star forward for the North Korean football team in the World Cup is one such person). They, along with everyone else who was from the DPRK, sported a pin on their chest of President Kim Il Sung. Despite passing away in 1994, Kim Il Sung has retained the title of President. The current ‘Dear Leader’ Kim Jong Il is leader of the military but does not carry the title of President.
Arriving at Pyongyang Airport
The airport itself in Pyongyang was little more than what would be considered a regional airport in the West. While one other flight arrived the same day as us (from Russia), only 6 flights land in Pyongyang every week, with an equal amount departing. The airport has no ‘gate’ so to speak of, so the plane was parked on the tarmac and a bus was used to ferry us to the terminal itself. We could see several Air Koryo planes to the side, their windows and engines covered as they sat idle. It took us 1.5 hours to clear all levels of customs as they throughly searched our luggage and took all of our cell phones, only to return them to us when we left in 4 days. Because of a delay with the phones, we were unable to visit any sites in Pyongyang the first day as originally planned. Instead, we headed straight for the Yanggakdo International Hotel. The drive itself was quite amazing. Rice fields surrounded the airport and runway and, according to our guide, were currently being manned by every type of citizen in the country (white-collar, blue-collar, student, housewife, etc.) as they transplanted the rice into the field. The harvest is in the fall and provides the food supply of the country for the entire year. Well, at least it’s supposed to. As of this entry, the government has supposedly had to allow private markets to remain open as the food supply in the country is so low many are faced with famine. Even food reserved for those in the military is being given to regular citizens, nearly unheard of in a country that places its army first. The number of people walking and riding bikes along the roads was striking. We saw one bus (which had to have been 40 years old) being pushed by 20+ people, as it had apparently broken down.
Our hotel, the Yanggakdo International, is situated on an island in the middle of the river running through Pyongyang. Opened in the 1990s, it is furnished with relics of the 1970s. The desk between our beds had a radio built-in that I can only imagine my grandfather sitting next to, fiddling with the dial as he attempts to tune into the news station. The hotel itself has 47 floors, with the upper floor being occupied by a revolving restaurant, the setting for our dinner that evening. As we sat in the restaurant, the sun slowly setting on our first day in the DPRK, we noticed the conspicuous absence of any light emanating from the city. In fact, the railway station and the numerous monuments appeared to be the only things fully lit. Street lights seemed nonexistent. Following a discussion of our itinerary our group descended to the lower levels of the hotel to take advantage of the bowling alley on site. Our guides, Mr. Oh and Ms. Kim joined us as we celebrated our first night.
Mr. Kim is an older gentleman, a tour guide for over 20 years. He has had the opportunity to travel to several other countries, developing tourism ties for his home country. It shows the level of trust the government has with him that they have actually allowed him to leave the country. That is quite rare from what I hear. Ms. Kim is younger, around 23, and has been a tour guide for only a couple of years. Her English is surprisingly good and took over the description of the city as we drove through. As of now, she has not yet been outside the country.
It is difficult to describe my initial thoughts, but given the current events with South Korea (namely the alleged North Korean sinking of the Choenan), fear is not one of them. Even though we saw very little, at no point did we see anything that resembled people preparing for a war (bar the odd army group marching along the highway, but then again I suspect that is normal). I am immensely excited for the next three days of our trip and cannot wait to see what North Korea has to offer.
Day 2:
We began our first full day in the DPRK bright and early, getting a wake up call at 7:30 and in the van by 8:30. Even driving along the streets of the capital is interesting. It looks as if the whole city is stuck in time, with the majority of the few cars from the 70s and the public transportation somehow still able to function. Among the highlights of the day was the enormous bronze statue of Kim Il Sung (erected in the 1970s, before he passed away). Originally it had been coated in a thin layer of gold leaf but China, having subsidized a good portion of the DPRK economy, protested the use of funds and so it was scrubbed clean to the current bronze. Nor word on if they dumped the gold leaf down the drain or actually utilized it for something else. The condition of the statue and the surrounding grounds is immaculate, with citizens constantly at work making sure it looks its best. It could just as easily been erected yesterday so good was the condition.
The group in front of the 30m bronze Kim Il Sung statue
The memorials and monuments in general are all extremely well-maintained, while average buildings and roads have not seen significant work in decades. One of the other stops was the Juche Tower, erected as a tribute to ‘Juche’, a concept conceived by Kim Il Sung (it is also known as Kimilsungism. Original, don’t you think?). One of the main principles of ‘Juche’ is self-reliance, which explains in part the lack of contact with and influence of the global community. It is said the outside world has nothing to offer that is not available inside North Korea. Novel way of keeping people from being curious. We arrived back at the hotel around 8pm and despite the numerous activities available, the bed seemed most appealing and we quickly fell asleep until the following morning.
Juche Tower. It's not small.
Day 3:
During the morning and early afternoon, we visited many other sights, including the Arch of Triumph (it is 3 meters taller than the Arc de Triomphe in Paris and don’t you forget it!). The main difference we noticed is that if you tried to walk across the street in Paris, you would not doubt become roadkill. However, in Pyongyang, we had no problem walking in the middle of the street and the few cars that did pass moved over so as to give us more room on the road. Incredible that a major street in a capital city has so little traffic.
In the middle of the road in front of the Arch of Triumph
We also visited a ‘fun fair’ also known as an amusement park. What an experience. Although it wasn’t until the third attempt that we were able to find one that was actually open. You know, who goes to an amusement park on a Saturday afternoon. But of course, simply because the park was open didn’t mean the rides were working. And given the all looked as if they hadn’t been used in a couple of decades, we though it might have been for the better. However, as we were returning from a stroll around the grounds, we heard the distinct sounds of a roller coaster starting up. Rusting and decrepit, the ride looked anything but safe. But who can say they rode a roller coaster in North Korea? So up we went. Only those of us from CFAU had the guts to take it, along with Ms. Kim who said she has to go to “make sure we were safe”. As soon as we took our paces in the front two rows and began the slow and unsteady ride up, we noticed a common safety feature that was lacking. The bar that swings over your head and locks you in place in your seat in fact did not lock at all. Confused by this, we kept lifting it up, wondering if we had to pull it down harder for it to lock. By the time we reached the summit, we realized there was no locking mechanism and that we’d have to resort to simply holding it down. That with a loop in the track and all. Needless to say we survived the loop, as well as the trees that needed to be cut and hung out over the track.
Surviving the rusty roller coaster
Our next stop was to take a ride on the city subway. This was something we pressed hard to do, as we had heard the stations themselves were magnificently built and indeed, they did not disappoint. Located 100 feet below ground, the stations double as bomb shelters for when the American Imperialists attack the city. Full of chandeliers and Roman-style columns, the stations are indeed beautiful. Murals adorn the wall and a musty smell permeates the air. We were quite the spectacle, schoolchildren staring at us as they closed the subway doors, adults pretending to not be interested yet catching fleeting glances at us when they could. The subway cars were imported from West Germany in the 1980s, so you can imagine they are not anything like those in Beijing or London. Subways would be much more interesting places if they had the design of those in Pyongyang rather than the industrial style seen in every other major city.
Our final stop of the day was to visit a middle school. We thought we would finally be able to see average citizens in normal life, not the fabricated narrative we had been viewing (not that it wasn’t enjoyable, but we were all well aware our destinations were precisely thought out and planned). Of course, when we got there and saw 5 other tour buses, we knew it might be a bit of a disappointment. A children’s show of music and dance was followed by a tour of them studying. While we were told the children had school from 8am-noon, we were there at 4pm. “Extra-curricular” we were told. Though when none of the students looked up from the studies when we entered a room, we became well aware they were used to foreign visitors and simply continued on their work with no hesitation. Odd really. Outside a U-11 boys team was playing football (since I’m not in the US, I am using the correct term for the US sport of ‘soccer’ here). We asked if we could join in and, kindly, they stopped their current game to accommodate us. Despite our best efforts against their team, we fell to a 3-2 loss, perhaps helped by our decision not to totally demolish them. When we return in 5 years we expect to see a plaque dedicated to their young team who beat a team of “international superstars”.
That evening we drove the few hours south to Kaesong, a city on the border of South Korea. We passed several checkpoints at which our driver had to show the credentials to let us pass. If you do not have the proper authorization, you’re not going anywhere. Pyongyang is a city reserved for the party loyal and it is considered a privilege to live there. The checkpoints stop others from entering.
A few of the many propaganda posters throughout the city.
Day 4:
Today was a visit to the most heavily militarized border in the world. But you wouldn’t know it. Naturally a popular tourist destination, the parking lot was full of buses and people milling around. We were the only Westerners there, aside from a couple single guys on private tours. The rest were Chinese it seemed. We first went to the armistice hall where the cease-fire between the warring factions was signed. The exhibitions there were full of anti-American propaganda, blasting the US for invading the North to start the Korea War. Doesn’t sound correct? Well, according to the version of history depicted there, the US in fact started the Korean War and the North claimed victory by pushing them back to the 38th parallel. We were then taken to the border itself, climbing back on our bus to be driven there. To our surprise, the North Korean Senior Captain who had been giving the tour decided to climb on board our bus for the short ride. He consulted Ms. Kim quickly and, as Dan managed to gather, was asking who the American was. He then walked down the aisle and sat down on my seat, forcing me to scrunch up near the window. I took it probably as I should have, which is as a joke. Others may have seen it as a purposeful slighting of an American. Either way, you can’t be too serious about it. He then proceeded to ask us what the Western media was saying about the Cheonan sinking. He was rather disappointed when we told him there was a general consensus that the DPRK was responsible and responded that North Korea wouldn’t do something like that. Politics aside, it was interesting to have a conversation with him regarding a major international issue.
North Korean officer hogging my seat
From what I’ve been told, a tour on the South Korean side requires you to dress up in slacks and a nice shirt and to not point, wave or shout when looking to the North. This is presumably to show the North how well dressed everyone is and to not “provoke the North” into…shooting you? Obviously propaganda on both sides. In any case, we had great fun waving at the numerous cameras pointed across the border. Of course we were told that if we attempted to step over the border, we would either be tackled by the North Koreans or shot by the Americans. Pleasing thought really.
At the DMZ
We then visited (another) statue of Kim Il Sung and the tomb of a long ago Emperor situated in the wooded hills outside Kaesong. I can’t imagine it would be so peaceful were it a Western tourist attraction. It’s actually rather nice to have it so deserted. We then boarded the bus for the trip back up to Pyongyang. We stopped by the USS Pueblo, a US spy ship that was captured by the DPRK decades ago and remains a tourist attraction. The propaganda on the film they showed us also distorted the historical facts of the Korean War. Consistency is key I suppose. Our final destination of the night, our last in DPRK, was to go to the Diplomatic Club (The Diplo if you’re cool), a former embassy that now houses a club populated mostly with the few foreign diplomats working in the country. We met several of them, an Egyption and a few British, and they described their time in Pyongyang as interesting, if not rather dull. Limited contact with the outside world was afforded, but with no activities outside of work, the average workday seemed to end with them at either the Diplo or the Friendship Club, the other nightspot in Pyongyang. And by ‘other’ I mean those are the only two. In a city of 3 million there are only two clubs/bars and even those are mainly for foreigners (we heard there was a ‘bar street’, but this was met with cagey denial of sorts).
The group in front of one of many memorials to the Kim family
Overall there is a serious lack of color in the clothing of people. Most men wear dark green, black, brown or grey jumpsuits, similar to what Kim Jong Il always seems to be wearing. Minus the sunglasses. And of course the Kim Il Sung pin is ubiquitous. A Soviet style city to rival any other, Pyongyang is certainly an interesting place to be.
Day 5:
The final day, though seeing as how the train left at 10am, there wasn’t much to it. For the others at least. Being an American, I was not allowed to take the overnight train back to Beijing. I was required instead to head back to the airport for the two-hour flight to the Chinese capital. Now, as interesting as a train ride in North Korea would be, I was quite happy to not have to spend 24 hours on one. The flight worked out just fine for me. Besides, as my flight didn’t leave until 5pm, I was able to visit a few more sights by myself. These included a film set that is used for most productions and features towns designed to resemble Chinese, South Korean, Japanese and European villages. Kim Jong Il is an avid movie fan and supposedly visits the set quite often to give advice on the filmmaking. Perhaps we’ll see an entry at Cannes sometime soon. I was also taken to an art museum which displayed artwork from several centuries past up to the present. While the older artwork focused on nature and daily living, the modern pieces depicted Kim Il Sung or Kim Jong Il and other aspects of the Communist society. It was quite interesting, though I was unfortunately not allowed to take pictures. I’ll have to keep that part in my memory.
At 4pm, we arrived at Pyongyang International Airport. While those on the train were subjected to an intensive two-hour investigation of belongings and pictures, I breezed through check-in and customs with no questions asked.
While certainly not a vacation, I knew I would have left China disappointed if I had not been able to visit the reclusive state. Only 2000 or so Americans have ever been to North Korea in the last 50 years and, given the US continues to play a major role on the Korean peninsula, it is a shame so few people know more about the country. With rumors of Kim Jong Il’s son preparing to take over in the next few years, the future of the DPRK will be interesting to follow. Only a couple of pictures could be uploaded here. To see more, please visit the Flickr site on the left hand side. Comments are welcome and encouraged.
Jesse
