As it were, fittingly enough, I post this on South Korea’s presidential election day; to announce a new video. Explorations sneak peak into one of the world’s most secretive countries, North Korea. Aka, D.P.R.K. (Democratic People’s Republic of Korea). This is my week in North Korea in 9 minutes, video below.
Yes, you are allowed to go in. Yes, you are told where to take pictures. Yes, they confiscate your camera in certain places. Yes, you can laugh and jeer at the tourists on the South Korean border at the DMZ (Demilitarized Zone).
Click this link if you just want to see the video, of North Korea in 9 minutes. Otherwise you can see it at the bottom of the blog.
This is Ian’s North Korea story… condensed and highlighted:
The summer in 2010 was sweltering hot in Seoul. Or so I thought, 2012 beat the crap out of 2010. I decided to hit up somewhere northern and cooler. The original plan was to head to Mongolia, but given a week, there were too many things to do. Last minute switch of airplane tickets from Ulaanbutar to Beijing. My second visit to Beijing that year. And this time, I didn’t miss the flight.
To get to North Korea, I had to fly into Beijing, then take an 18 hour train ride (which I didn’t know at the time). We arrived at the North Korean border at Dan Dong (no joke) and had to take a train across the river and into North Korea. This bridge is the opening shot in Explorations original introduction video. Once across the border, armed guards boarded the train. The Chinese tour group went ahead leaving the white people and the token Asian guy behind on the train.
They searched through everything. They confiscated your phones and packaged them and made you sign a waiver that you won’t open it until after the trip. I left my phone in South Korea. I also hid my South Korean work visa permit so they wouldn’t see it. I think that might’ve stirred a few things up. I mean, they freaked out and thought some camp fuels were bombs when they first laid eyes on it. Some Polish guys needed to carry them through their journey… long story short, they were passed through.
Another long ass train ride into Pyong Yang itself. As the train was jammed pack of people, a high school student ended up sitting across from us. Imagine my amazement when he asked me in English “Excuse me, where are you from?” This guy knew how to speak English better than my South Korean middle school students!
During our little chit chat, I found out he’s attending a foreign language high school and wants to be a diplomat working in the government when he grows up. I asked if he enjoyed learning language. The conversation comes abruptly to an end when a guard on the train passes by. The student shushes me. When the coast was clear, he looks up and says, “Yes, very much. Now, no more talking.” I was not going to argue.
We stayed in a hotel called Yang Gak Hotel, or, “The Sheep’s Horn” based on a man-made island in the middle of the river (so that the foreigner guests couldn’t escape. At least our group joked). Through the days, our tour guides got drunk and so did we and the North Korean tour guides got… well… North Korean tour guide style.
I’ll admit, I got to move around a lot more freely than I expected. And I got to take a lot more pictures freely than I expected. The only restrictions were at the Kim Il Sung statue where we were told we had to take a full length body picture of him. And secondly, on the way to the DMZ (Demilitarized Zone) we couldn’t take any pictures on the 3 hour bus ride. (Yeah right, I did it)
We got to see a plethora of things which I will not go into detail. But a list includes war museums, children’s after school programs, monuments, battle-scarred ships from the Korean War, DMZ, Kim Il Sung’s mausoleum, and a club.
In the war museum I started to realize and I found it incredibly hilarious, every chance they got, they said “…and we completely annihilated the enemy, the puppet South Korean army controlled by the U.S imperialists.” I’m pretty sure that’s word for word. If there was a drinking game to that sentence, you’d never be sober on the tour. Ever.
The only place where they confiscated my camera was entering this really grand hall to see Kim Il Sung’s body; the first President of North Korea. No pictures were allowed. We couldn’t even speak. We had to walk through 40 minutes of intertwining hallways and stairs and different security systems before seeing his body. And we must bow when we saw his body. That was the most sombre moment of the trip.
The DMZ from the North Korean side was probably the most hilarious. I hear all the stories when my friends and colleagues went to the border with all these strict rules. “Don’t wave, don’t smile, don’t take pictures”. When we saw them (the South side) we were waving and going “Hey guys! How are you?!” Trying to make them wave. Didn’t happen. The differences in border control is striking, to say the least.
The opening ceremony of the Arirang Games destroys any Olympic opening ceremony in a heart beat. 110,000 people participate in the opening ceremony. An estimated 75,000 of them are seated across from the audience all holding different colour cards. Imagine each person was a pixel in your computer screen. They would flash the appropriate cards at the appropriate times accordingly. As that was going on, in the field you’d have performances on an epic scale. Performers would weave through each other creating intricate patterns that change seamlessly on the dime in perfection. Through the performance there are also aerial performances with fireworks and everything. It was the most breath taking display of human planning and coordination I have ever witnessed.
Funny enough, tourists are not allowed to use DPRK currency, I didn’t even lay my hands on any. They accepted RMB (Chinese), Euro, and the U.S dollar. Sometimes I would change RMB and they would give me the equivalent back in Euros or USD. Or if they really didn’t have anything, they would give me a few bottles of water as my change.
The trip came to the end too soon. To celebrate one of the last nights for us, some of the group paid more to stay, we sent to a club! Before you ask how hot are the North Korean clubbing fashion style, I’ll burst your bubble and tell you, we went to a diplomats club! We were damn fancy that night. We partied with our tour group in a huge karaoke bar filled with “oz”‘s of Russian vodka, it was a night to remember! Or kind of remember… How did we get back to the hotel? I had to fly back to Beijing because of time constraints on my vacation days from South Korea. I will never complain about American airport security again. Being puking-hungover going through North Korean customs was the most terrifying thing ever. Let’s just leave that at that.
After the trip, the biggest thing I hear is “did you see North Korean propaganda?!” Yes. Yes I did. Of course I did. It’s everywhere and its invasive. The only difference between “Western” propaganda and North Koreans is that the Western is more subtle. Very subtle. But it’s there and everywhere. Just like North Korea. It’s a matter of being able to identify it yourself.
Now, for some actual information of how to get to North Korea. To visit North Korea, I went through a tour group called Young Pioneers Tour. They were a damn fun group. This was a brief travel guide of what you’ll experience while on tour with them. You need a visa, but the visa won’t stay in your passport. Americans can go on this tour. I was advised to change my work from not South Korea, lucky I had a work address I could use in Canada anyways.They will search you at the border regardless. If you are interested in going, I would highly recommend Young Pioneers Tour. I’m still friends with the tour guides who brought me there, just be prepared for some seriously crass humour.
THE VIDEO: A WEEK IN NORTH KOREA IN 9 MINUTES
The video was made by the North Korean tourist agency. I purchased the DVD and Azure Production helped highlight the most interesting parts of the video and put it shorter and more concise.
Without further adieu, the new video.
