North Korea

I’m just back from a 10-day trip in the DPRK, and looking at the tags given here it is painfully obvious how much the ideas about the country are shaped by what we hear in the western press. Go with open eyes and an open mind (knowing that what you’ll be shown is a selection just like what you see and hear in the West is a – different – selection) and you’ll come away with a very different picture of this country.

I really hope that late president’s Kim Il Sung’s idea of reuniting the “two Koreas” (really one country, one people, one language) as federal country with two states, each with their own system, will one day become reality. Economic development in the North (helped already by joint ventures with South Korea and China) will help making that dream a reality – but so will, in a small way, visits from people from other countries, providing a small “window on the world” through those guides (like ours) that are not only interested in teaching about their country but also in learning from their guests. What won’t help is demonizing the country.

I’ve come away admiring these proud people and their old culture and hope to return one day to see more, and see how they’ve progressed.

The picture shows one small aspect I’ve come to love: all main roads across the country (not just entrances and exits to cities as you often see) are lined with flowers. Even when growing food is hard work, a small amount of effort is given to grow a little beauty.

How disappointing… I found 5 people who (according to an entry they wrote) have apparently “been” there: 1 who has been in the infiltration tunnels, 3 who have been in the DMZ and ventured a few meters into North Korea, and 1 person who “got lost in the city” so that cannot actually be North Korea. Of the 16 others, who has really been there?

Well, folks, I’m really going. My Travel Blog already has the itinerary (though the order of things may change). We’ll be in P’yŏngyang only half the time and actually overnight several times outside of the city (most tours don’t do that). Apart from P’yŏngyang, we’ll visit Kaesŏng, Namp’o and Wŏnsan and go hiking in the Myohyang Mountains and the Inner Kumgang.

So why do I want to go?
First, I’ve been to China several times now, and have been amazed at the breakneck speed this country is developing. I’ve also been reading a lot about China, and found myself wondering what it would have been like a few decades ago. From what I read, North Korea now is very much like China in the 70s, or just before the cultural revolution.
Second, Korea has its own unique culture and language that they managed to hold on to despite Japanese efforts to wipe it out (even forbidding the language). And there seem to be beautiful nature and landscapes.

So I want to go to experience all that. And where else can you still experience real “old-fashioned” communism? (Although not officially communist, Turkmenistan probably comes closest.)

The tour (apart from my own extension of a week in Beijing) is only 10 days actually in North Korea, but given the lack of freedom, that’s probably the longest I could bear. But I’ve heard from people who have been there several times because they actually like it there – and they’re not communists. Something about this country pulls them back. So we’ll see…