To visit North Korea as a tourist is to visit a fictional place, not unlike Neverland. In one place, Peter never grows old and in the other, the Great Leader never dies... or rather, he dies, but then he goes on to rule from beyond the grave- his power manifested through his heir, Kim Jung-Il. North Korea is the only country in the world whose official head of state is deceased- he is the ‘eternal president’... a fact that is only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to describing the peculiarity of the place.
Let me go back to my first statement and explain a little further. North Korea certainly is a real place with real landscapes and real people... several hundred people really did die a few months ago in floods... millions more really did die of starvation over the past decade... dissidents and other poor souls really were (and still are?) put into gulag-style camps... at least that is the truth as far as humanitarian organizations can tell from the little information they’re privy to. As a tourist, you don't gain any access to the realities of North Korea. What you get is a bubble of perfection that follows you wherever you go. I couldn’t help but wonder what lay in the distance just beyond my scope of vision. Permeating the propaganda is tricky or impossible and the extent to which the regime goes in order to protect its privacy fringes on absurdity.
To cross from South Korea into North Korea is not permitted unless with a tour group that goes directly to and from the village of Onjunggak and the Geumganasan Diamond Mountain in Southeastern North Korea. I’m not sure what the deal entails exactly, but the South Korean Government owns at least part of the area as well as one of the hotels and half of the restaurants and stores. South Korean tour companies have been running scores of tourists across the DMZ into this Northern Territory for several years. It’s a pricey go, but the idea of traversing even a little corner of North Korea was too exhilarating for my friend and I to pass up.
They call it a 3 day-trip, but in actuality, the first day lasts about 15 minutes. Our tour group met at a subway station in Seoul at 11:45 pm on Friday night. I believe there were 87 of us in total- two bus loads full of English Teachers. Oh, and one Canadian journalist. We drove throughout the night towards the DMZ in Eastern Korea. I got about 7 winks and 4 nods worth of sleep. After we slipped through South Korean immigration, our tour guide warned us about North Korean immigration. Essentially, he said that the immigration officers would search for and fine us for any little mistake- a spelling mistake, a bent passport, a wet passport, etc. He also told us, “You’d better not use any Korean words, even words you know like annyeong haseyo (hello) and kamsa hamnida (thank you), because you are foreigners and you speak English. Your Korean is not good. They will be angry if you are speaking Korean.” (Once again, my will to learn the language is shot down.)
Immigration turned out to be easy enough- the toughest part was the wait. Besides our 90-person party (including guides), there were 800 or so South Koreans who were also making their way to the Diamond mountain on that day. And because of the elaborate show of normalcy that North Korea must display along the highway on the way to our destination in order to keep up its image, all the tour buses of the day must roll at the same time. (You can’t make your actors work 24/7.) I believe there were 30 buses in our convoy- which was fronted and backed by North Korean vehicles that were monitoring us to ensure that all the buses kept to the approved route.
The rules:
1. No taking pictures of North Korean soldiers, military equipment, or civilians. Also, no taking any photographs from the bus, towards any checkpoint, in the DMZ, or at the North Korean immigration office.
2. You must wear your ID tag around your neck at all times. Do not bend it, tear it, get it wet, or lose it or you will be fined.
3. You may walk around the village during the day to get a glimpse into the daily lives of North Koreans, but you must be back in
Central Squareby 10 p.m.4. Do not wash your hands, feet, or face in the mountain streams, or you will be fined.
The drive in and out of our resort was my favorite part of the trip. I had heard stories, but I didn’t actually think it was true until I saw it with my own eyes: North Korean soldiers are lined up beside the highway and roads. They stand at attention with red flags in their hands which they will raise if they see anyone taking a picture from any of the buses, in which case ALL of the buses in the convoy will be stopped. They will find the person who took the picture and they will erase that person’s memory card or confiscate their film. Fortunately for all the tourists that weekend, but unfortunately for my curiosity, nobody was caught taking any pictures (although I do know that some sneaky people got some good shots).
Hiking was great. The mountain scenery was beautiful. The mountains were much bigger than I’ve seen elsewhere in Korea, the rock formations were interesting, and the water was as clear as the glacier water in the Canadian Rockies. I was tempted to splash my face with the cold water as the ritual normally goes during hikes in the Rockies, but I had to remind myself that I was being watched and I would be fined. Along the pathways were inscriptions carved into the rocks which I was told were mostly about the Great Leader (Kim Il-Sung) and/or the Dear Leader (Kim Jung-Il). I took a lot of pictures of them so that my Korean friends can translate them for me at a later date.
We had free time later that day and I was looking forward to catching a glimpse of typical North Korean life on a mid-day jaunt around the village like our guide had mentioned while announcing the rules. The problem was that
Central Squareturned out to be the center of Nowhere. The center of a void of human life. There were some roads that we could walk down that were surrounded by empty fields, had fences on either side of them, and led to checkpoints manned by scowling soldiers with red flags. Back behind one of the checkpoints there was a gaggle of small houses, all the same dreary color, but we could not reach it without some serious secret agent skills (which I may or may not possess).Early in the evening, we attended an acrobatic show by the Pyeongyang Moranbong Circus. The performers carried out the craziest stunts I’ve ever seen… Have you ever seen someone juggle 5 balls and spin a ring on one foot while upside down (hanging from one flexed foot) on a swinging trapeze bar simultaneously holding a dagger’s handle in his or her mouth… AND on the tip of the dagger there was balanced a sword that on the handle of which was balanced a glass platter on which balanced four full wine glasses? And not a drop spilled! It’s a bit impressive, isn’t it?
We stayed the night in an opulent South Korean hotel, Hotel Oekumgang. Kelly and I were exhausted so I don’t have much to say about the hotel other than it was huge and staffed by very smiley people which caught me off guard a bit, since I’ve acquired a taste for staying in somewhat sleazy love motels since they are everywhere in Korea and are cheap compared to regular hotels. Actually, the staff extended their customer service beyond the hotel. Every time the tour group convoy left Central Square on an excursion, something quite bizarre would happen: ALL of the hotel staff, the restaurant staff, and the gift shop staff--- essentially every person who worked in Central Square- would come out and line up along the sidewalk when all of the buses were ready to go and they would stand there and wave goodbye to us with big smiles on their faces. It seemed a little robotic- like I was on the “It’s a Small World After All” ride in Disneyland. To be honest, it creeped me out a bit.
The next morning we went on hikes at Samilpo Lake and along the cliffs by the ocean at Haegeumgang. They were beautiful places, of course. They were located in an area that is not accessible to North Koreans because of its proximity to the DMZ.
The best part of our second day excursions was the tour guide that joined us on that day. She explained that the civilians that we had seen along the highways are asked to come out of their homes and be active during the times that the tour buses drive by. She said that all the people that we saw working- raking, weeding, collecting water, riding bikes, et cetera, would only do so until we were out of sight and then they would return to their homes! Other tidbits: 12 years of school are paid for by the government, all the farm animals are communal and therefore, roam free within the community and all workers are retired at age 50. Also, if any North Korean would like to travel beyond a 40 km radius around their home, they must get special permission from the government. I asked her why the government was so adamant that tourists not take pictures of the countryside. Her response was that firstly, they don’t know what we’ll use the pictures for and secondly, because North Korea is poorer than what we are used to and they are embarrassed, so they don’t want there to be pictures of their poverty circulating around the world.
We spent our free time on Sunday taking pictures of the mural of the Great and Dear Leaders and then drinking the Democratic People’s Republic’s beer… and then it was back to Seoul.
