A Vicarious Tour Inside North Korea
During trips to China, I’m always intrigued by the departure boards in the Beijing airport showing flights to places like Pyongyang, Ullan Battor, and other parts of the world that are hard to get to from here. I’ve been to the South Korean side of the DMZ but the only way to get to the North is through China, and it’s not like you can just hop over for a weekend to take a look around.
In the meantime, here’s a fascinating series of posts with photos and video from Dan Schorr (not the reporter), who recently spent several days on a tour to North Korea, where he attended the Arirang Festival.
…we went to an event unlike anything I’ve ever seen: Mass Games. A tremendous, socialist mass art form in which thousands and thousands of people move in ultra-choreographed performances - gymnasts, soldiers, schoolkids, acrobats, and dancers with lights and music, with thousands more holding large cards that are flipped from color to color to create words and images as a backdrop. The last Mass Games was in 2002 - the next is supposed to be in 2008. They are planned to celebrate major events - in this case, the 60th anniversary of the liberation from Japan.
He also makes a trip to Panmunjon from the North Korean side, visits Kim Jong Il’s mausoleum, and checks out the casino for foreign tourists:
Definitely a weird place - chips were only in U.S. dollars, which I purchased with Chinese RMB. The dealers spoke Mandarin, and since casinos are illegal on Mainland China it was the first time I heard a casino dealer running a game in Chinese - and I had to come to North Korea for it. The playing cards said “Pyongyang” on them and I really wanted to buy a deck - perfect for my home game - but unfortunately they wouldn’t sell them. However, I was able to walk out with a few chips that say “PY” on them.
Dan’s lengthy posts also include many observations on the North Korean version of history and current politics, and on the members of his tour group:
Our guide also commented on George W. Bush’s “Axis of Evil” statement - she wasn’t too fond of it. But she did say that “normal American people are friendly.”
She also said that “North Korean people hate Bush,” to which one woman in our American tour group quickly replied, “We do too.”
As I mentioned earlier, in general I have no problem with people hating the President and saying so. Furthermore, showing the North Koreans that we can dislike our own leaders and freely talk about them in a negative way can be healthy because it is a stark contrast to their world in which their leadership must be revered and can not be questioned.
…
I had heard other similar statements on the trip, but this comment stood out and infuriated me even more because of the use of the word “we” - she was appearing to represent the whole group, including me. I didn’t want to get into an argument, but I had to speak up.“Not all of us,” I said, and left it at that.
- Inside North Korea
- North Korea: Day One (Saturday)
- North Korea: Day Two (Sunday)
- North Korea: Day Three (Monday)
- North Korea: Day Four (Tuesday)
- North Korea photo album
- North Korea video collection
via BoingBoing
previous BoingBoing article on North Korea vacation promo (flash movie)
