North Korea trip report

Petri, you photojourney is fascinating! Very enchanting and frightening all in the same frame. Thank you for sharing these photographs.
 
Kim Il Sung birthplace

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Kim Il Sung's birthplace in is Mangyongdae-guyok, one of the "villages" next to Pyongyang. Well, at least it's presented as the birthplace.

Kim Il Sung's birth is relatively normal compared to Kim Jong-Il, who is told to have his birth at Baekdu Mountain and heralded by the appearance of a double rainbow across the sky over the mountain and a new star in the heavens. (Sounds familiar around 24th December?)

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The site itself was relatively uninteresting, couple of houses with items that may have belong to his family. But the locals do take pride for the site and everything was kept in pristine condition, like a holy place.

The last picture was somewhat typical sight in NK. They plant grass one by one. Overall everything in the country was very labor intensive, one could barely see any hardware being used or even animals.
 
Revolutionary Martyrs cemetery

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Revolutionary Martyrs' Cemetery is a cemetery and memorial to the North Korean soldiers of the Korean War on Mount Taesong.

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Our ozzie friend showing respect. By giving respect to the local culture and their beliefs we actually got a bit further to places one would normally not be allowed to go. I think this also made the trip quite easy, we never felt controlled at all and had a great, relaxed conversation with the guides and the driver.

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The grave for Kang Pan-sok, mother of Kim Il-sung, and Kim Jong-suk, first wife of Kim Il-sung. Of our trip, I believe this was the second most holy place for the North koreans. There were plenty of people taking care of the grounds and a flow of soldiers coming to pay respect.

As the photos and places we were able to visit show, the Korean War is really deep in the North Korean heart. One could simply feel it, they haven't got over it.
 
Ryugyong Hotel

.. well, sort of anyway.

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This is the classic from the late 80's. In 1992 after the fall of Soviet Union the construction halted and it turned into a 102-story concrete pyramid.

The construction resumed couple of years ago with Egyptian support and it has finally finished exterior. The story tells that inside it's still a total mess, there's nothing inside, the lift shafts are not straight enough for lifts, and it's very unlikely that it will never be opened as a hotel.

It is 330m (1080 ft) tall and had it been opened originally, it would have been world's tallest hotel. It's still world's 47th tallest building, though.

Here is our british guide from Beijing, Simon, inside the building:

http://passport.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2012/09/27/ever_wonder_what_north_koreas_potemkin_hotel_looks_like_from_the_inside

(Simon has been to North Korea some 120+ times in the last 10 years)
 
Victorious Fatherland Liberation War Museum

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Wow, what a name for a museum! And one hell of a museum really. As mentioned earlier, the north koreans are still "handling" the war experience. Not that I blame them for that, the US dropped 635.000 tons of bombs, including 32,557 tons of napalm, there during the Korean War -- more than entire pacific region during the WW II. 10% of the korean population died, most of then in the North.

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Our museum guide.

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They had this pretty amazing revolving theater with various war scenes on display, with lights and audio, real-sized props, part of the landscape was built and in the background was a seamless painting. Really impressive!
 
Petri---FASCINATING!!!! Thanks so much for sharing all of this! I've been looking forward to reading this, and the pictures are simply amazing. I don't know that I had any real images in my head of what I would expect to see in North Korea, but these aren't it! I feel like I got a little tour myself.
 
I agree, totally, Katva. This is so surreal. Again, Petri, thank you for sharing this with us. Images and explanations we might never have known but for your trip and subsequent report. If I get fired from my job it's because I've been 'googling' words and locations from your report.
 
DMZ/JSA

Korean Demilitarized Zone is the 4 km wide strip between North Korea and South Korea.

JSA, Joint Security Area, is inside the DMZ in Panmunjeom. It's the only connection between the two countries. Often called one of the most dangerous borders in the world.

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.. and what a refreshing place to enjoy a can of Coca Cola.

The rules say;
- Do not speak with, make any gesture toward or in any way, approach or respond to personnel from the other side.
- Casual clothes such as ripped jeans, sleeveless shirts, mini skirt, short pants, military cloth, and sandal(slippers) are not permitted in the tour area.
- Shaggy or unkempt hair is not allowed either.
- The cameras with over 90mm zooming lens are not allowed.
.. if you visit the border from the South Korean side.

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A visualization of the place. Notice the huge North Korean flag. The blue buildings are there on the upper left corner where the border goes.

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This charming military man was our escort during the DMZ/JSA visit. This was also one of the very few moments when both of our guides were alert and our female guide was super sharp. One of the few moments we had permission to photograph military.

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Place where the Korean Armistice agreement was signed. There is no peace treaty between the two countries. This room was actually the only place during the trip when we heard the north koreans directly mock the americans -- for using the UN flag.

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Part of the DMZ. While a heavy mine field people also do agriculture there.

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And this is it, one of the best known sights from North Korea. Solders guarding the room where North and South Korea have talks -- if they have to -- exactly on the border.

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A wider view, that's the South Korean building behind the blue negotiation rooms. In fact perhaps North Korean is more known from pictures from that side?

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Stiff! We were supposed to visit the room but both North and South have keys to it and both have the right to close it for "their own purposes" at any moment. Unfortunately this happened and our visit didn't happen. Thanks South! A real bummer but not exactly the place where you want to demand your money back and yell for tourism rights.

Anyway, start running here and you will be shot.

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And a closer look at the South Korean surveillance. Barack Obama was on that balcony just a few months earlier.

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Whoops, who has left a can of Coke here? Is it for target practising? No shooting from South Korea happened.

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And one of the North Korean solders was happy to pose with a tourist from Finland, a can of Coca Cola and North Korea in the background.

In fact with the swedes we planned to drink beer but the guide said that drinking alcohol might be considered offensive. So Coca Cola it was then.. and yes, I did finish the can there.

Funny thing happened with the dutch pilot. He was using his iPad to take photographs (secretly of the military people, too) and what happened was that he left the iPad on the balcony at the border. We were already on the bus coming back from the JSA/DMZ when it was noticed.

Some "hot moments" and the iPad was returned with the next tourist group to our lunch restaurants later.

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This fellow joined us for the next target, an outpost about an hour away where we had a nice view of the DMZ towards South Korea and binoculars to look at the "wall" South Korea has been building. There was something for sure but who knows what..

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Anyway a very nice spot!

Some images from the countryside en route to the other border location:

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This feels like a classic painting. Love the guy sleeping.

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There were several military stops en route and just after Kaesong our bus was stopped by the military. A military man came in, spoke with the guides, who went to one dutch lady to take her camera. Later they returned with the camera.

At an earlier military stop they "had seen" that the military was being photographed and they had called the next stop to check us and the photographs that had been taken.

One of the "more interesting" moments for sure. And I can't say that it didn't feel special at the border. One of the unique places in the world.

I will be returning to the site in January. This time from the south korean side.
 
Petri---Thank you for taking us along on your journey. You could have an alternate vocation as a travel guide. From the photos, it appears that NK streets and locales are so clean as to be almost surreal. Did you see any litter, anywhere?
 
julia said:
From the photos, it appears that NK streets and locales are so clean as to be almost surreal. Did you see any litter, anywhere?

No doubt certain places are kept more clean than others but overall it was quite a clean country and there was no noticeable amount of litter. It does help littering when you lack everything and need to use everything to the last piece.

In general the people also dresses surprisingly well but it's also common that when you have only a pair or two of clothes, you do keep as good care of them as possible.
 
North Korean iPad

Well, this didn't happen during the trip but just saw this today:

http://www.nknews.org/2012/10/north_korea_new_tablet/

At the Pyongyang hotel there was a tailor shop and (again) with the swedes we decided to have some clothes made. The lady running the tailor shop was keen to sell us "a traditional north korean dress"

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It would have been bad taste to try to have an Kim Jong Il suit tailored for you but "traditional north korean outfit" was perfectly fine.

We went for the jackets alone in navy blue. Something one might be able to use -- in the 80's or so.

And talking of clothes, you may have seen those Kim Il Sung pins everyone in North Korea seems to wear. That's the old model, the new ones have both Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong-il who died in December 2011. The pins are very personal and NK people receive them when they become teenagers (or something like that). It's really a precious thing and everyone looks after their. It would be really offensive to try to buy one from a north korean.


Anyway the tailor shop was on second floor but the lift didn't stop there. For the first fitting (yes, it was tailor made!) I took some stairs and ended up in a dark room. There was some north korean guy sitting on the floor using a PC.

So NK isn't totally "off the grid".
 

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Kaesong

En route to the DMZ/JSA we stayed one night in Kaesong, a small but old city near the border. Kaesong was the capital of Korea during the Koryo Dynasty (918 - 1392) and it's one of the very few places where some old buildings in North Korea are left.

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Unlike the "modern" hotels we spent a night in a traditional Korean guesthouse. Not that there were any other guests but overall the place had very charming grounds. The facilities were pretty primitive so it was more about sleeping on the heated floor the traditional way and leaving the shower to the next possible moment. and easy with the toilet..

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The guesthouse had also an opportunity to try traditional korean dress for one euro. After a few beers, no trouble getting volunteers from Singapore and the Netherlands.

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A bottle of North Korean beer. This is actually superb, really excellent stuff. I believe the reason for such a good beer in the north is DDR (East Germany) and the country even has micro breweries.

Some people say that unification would mean that South Korea would get better beer and better looking ladies.

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As always, the hotel premises had an extensive book shop with plenty of interesting material.

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Wondering off the limits was not encouraged but can't you see how inviting this gate is? And it was closed just a moment ago.

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That's one small step for a man, one giant leap to the north korean soil. As expected, the hotel premises were being taken care of. The police doesn't seem to mind. In fact he looks just curious.

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The small step off the hotel keeps an opportunity to see people from the more real North Korea, not the tourist sites, nor the "fancy Pyongyung capital".

Considering how much we know about North Korea one cannot stop wondering what are these people, what are they doing, how are they daily lives spent.

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But back to the official programming. A visit to the Kim Il-Sung statue on a hill next to Kaesong. The statue was lit during the night and it was quite weird sight, even visible from the guest house.

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We actually got strict instructions how to photograph the Kim statues. Never from the back. Never just one part of the body. Never any disgraceful photographs of them. Very religious stuff.

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Kaesong city view. Unfortunately we were not allowed to wonder around the old town.
 
Scenery

Some random scenery en route. In principal we were not allowed to take photographs of people but the guides didn't seem to mind us taking photos from the bus between places.

The rules are simply that one should not take any photographs that put North Korea or North koreans into bad light. When you return back home, your photographs will be checked and you will need to delete everything that they ask you to. Obviously this meant that I took copies of everything on my laptop and put them on a hidden directory as well.

I flew back to Beijing and nobody cared about my camera or photographs. Most of the group took the train back to Beijing and on that train the officials have several hours time to check through your things. What I heard from the swedes is that nothing was deleted and they had great fun looking through the pictures with the officials, laughing at some funny poses they did.

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Beginning of the Freedom Highway from Pyongyang to Seoul. Not exactly the sight you'd expect from the country's main highway, is it?

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What this country needs is some agricultural help. Potatoes and other similar food that is easy to grow, fit perfectly in the climate and feed the people.

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And some basic machinery. The amount of manual labour was just stunning, this was one of the rare sights where animals were used to help.

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Kids are always amazing. It's hard to think these kids were yet brainwashed to wave to foreigners or they'll be shot. It was more natural. The adults had much harder time to make any contact and usually just turned around if you tried to take a photo of them.

Showing emotion publicly doesn't belong to the culture here anyway. The ancestors to Japanese people are from Korea and the japanese and koreans are basicly close cousins.

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Juche Tower

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The Tower of Juche Idae is a 170 meter (560 fet) tower in Pyongyang, with 25500 blocks, one for each day of Kim Il Sung's life. The's modeled on the Washington Monument but it's slightly taller -- obviously.

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The Juche Idea is the political thesis of Kim Il Sung, based on belief that man is the master of everything and decides everything. Whatever, I don't know anything about it. One of the swedes bought a book on it, read it during the trip and said that it was all nonsense. As with every religion we humans have a weird need to believe something.

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The tower is on a nice square with relevant statues and water features.

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And nice views towards the city as well over the river.

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And from the tower there are great views across the city.

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Our hotel on the island.

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In other news:

North Korean army minister 'executed with mortar round'
A North Korean army minister was executed with a mortar round for reportedly drinking and carousing during the official mourning period after Kim Jong-il's death.
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Mortar Photo: ALAMY
By Julian Ryall, Tokyo1:55PM BST 24 Oct 2012

Kim Chol, vice minister of the army, was taken into custody earlier this year on the orders of Kim Jong-un, who assumed the leadership after the death of his father in December.
On the orders of Kim Jong-un to leave "no trace of him behind, down to his hair," according to South Korean media, Kim Chol was forced to stand on a spot that had been zeroed in for a mortar round and "obliterated."
The execution of Kim Chol is just one example of a purge of members of the North Korean military or party who threatened the fledgling regime of Kim Jong-un.
So far this year, 14 senior officials have fallen victim to the purges, according to intelligence data provided to Yoon Sang-hyun, a member of the South Korean Foreign Affairs, Trade and Unification Committee.
Those that have fallen from favour include Ri Yong-ho, the head of the army and Ri Kwang-gon, the governor of the North Korean central bank.
 

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Pyongyang Airport

One of my favourites places :)

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Tupolev TU-204 being repaired. This is the plane Air Koryo usually uses for the Beijing flight but we were lucky and didn't fly it as it feels about the same as a modern Airbus or Boeing.

Tupolev TU-134 behind it.

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Iljushin Il-62M ready for boarding.

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Antonov An-24 being boarded. These are used for domestic flights in North Korea.

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An-24 ready for take-off.

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Tupolev Tu-154b-2 pulled across the airfield.

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Iljushin Il-76MD duo. I wonder if these are still flying?

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The old Pyongyang terminal being demolished.

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Tupolev Tu-204-300.


They actually arrange aviation enthusiasts tours in North Korea were the trip includes several trips around the country using these "modern classics".

For example the IL-62M we had from Beijing to Pyongyang from the 60's is flown only Cubana in Cuba, Deta and Trust Air in Kazakhstan, Rossiya on Russia, Ukraine Air Enterprise in Ukraine and Air Koryo. Not exactly the easiest plane to catch :) Back in the golden days even Air France was flying it!
 
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