The North Korea

[KNiVES]

I found a fascinating website covering and detailing an American and his group's trip to North Korea. As it's extremely rare for western foreigners to be granted access to the country, it was interesting to read about the peoples' reactions to writer. It's easy to see how twisted North Korean society is from the outside world, but it's far more disturbing than at first glance. They are also extremely isolated from the outside world.

Here's a few excerpts;

Once we were away from the others the questions came pouring out. "What's life like in the South? Why do you live there? What's it like living there? What about your students (I'd told her I teach at a university) - what are they like? What do people in the South say about the North?" The woman was full of curiosity about life across the border, barely two hours south of where we were standing.

I tried my best to answer as we both kept looking over our shoulders to see if the others were coming. I felt really sorry for this lady. All she was doing was asking some basic questions about life in another country but she was worried about getting into trouble. I'm going to wonder for a long time if I should even be writing about her . . .

Our conversation lasted about 10 minutes. Mostly with her asking questions about the outside world, especially the South. I found it odd that she was asking an American so many questions about South Korea but she just seemed curious about what life was 'really' like on the other half of the Korean peninsula. As a guide she'd had much more interaction with outsiders than the average DPRK citizen. I guess this inkling of forbidden knowledge is what drove her to take a chance and try to find out a bit more about the outside world.

Later, as I met and tried to talk with other people in a similar way, I realized how unique this woman was. First, she allowed herself to wander away from the group with me, knowing full well others would see, if not hear. Second, she was brimming with questions and curiosity. Something I never got from anyone else the whole trip. Finally, once we were out of earshot, she totally dropped the endless Kim is great droning in favor of just having a 'normal' conversation. Every other time I was able to pull someone aside it just ended up in a fit of ideological proselytizing. Perhaps the independence of the Juche Tower had worn off on her . . .

When we saw the others coming back she returned to telling me how great Kim was, but still got a weird look from Mr. Huk, our young guide, for standing and talking to me alone for so long.

Once everyone got back we paid our $10 and headed to the top of the tower. A couple of ear pops in the elevator later and we were at the top. The view was fantastic, as you can (hopefully) see from some of the pictures above. While looking over the city Mr. Baek and Mr. Huk pointed out our next stop - the Yanggakdo International Hotel.

As for my former conversation partner, I think she felt nervous about what she had just done. She kept telling our guides how nice it had been to be able to talk to a foreigner in Korean and enlighten him directly on the virtues of the Great Leader. I played along, thanking her profusely for all her information and tried to throw out a couple of positive comments on Kim and Juche to make her look good. After a while it seemed like Mr. Baek and Mr. Huk bought the cover story and were satisfied nothing untoward had happened.

I'm going to wonder about that lady for a long time . . .

After that we were taken to see the gifts to Kim Jong-il. This was actually more interesting than his dad's place, mainly because everything was more recent (Kim Jr. having taking over only in the mid-90s). The first room we were taken contained gifts presented by prominent South Korean industrialists during their visits in the late 90s. Sitting side-by-side were top-of-the-line LG, Samsung and Hyundai entertainment systems, complete with large screen TVs, stereos, VCRs and plenty of speakers. Some of the same equipment you might have sitting in your living room, here sitting in a museum showing off the glorious gifts received by the Dear Leader.

The next room contained more gifts from the South, including a Hyundai Grandeur donated by the former chairman of Hyundai (whose family is originally from the North). Mr. Huk asked me if I had ever seen one of these cars during my time in the South. When I said, "sure, my neighbor has one just like it," he gave me another one of his 'you have to be lying' looks. How could such a great gift, a gift implying so much respect, belong to some normal person like my neighbor? This was obviously a car reserved for the elite, capitalist oppressors, not some common car for the masses. When I told him I wished the chairman had given away a lot more so there'd be less traffic in the South he got fed up with my obvious lies, gave me a disgusted look and moved on to talk to someone else.

Ever wonder why CNN seems to be the only Western news organization regularly allowed into North Korea? The next room perhaps offered a clue. In the 'Gifts from America' room a whole section of one wall is taken up by gifts from CNN. A few engraved plaques, a coffee cup (yeah, a freaking coffee cup!), a logo ashtray, etc. Probably at most a couple hundred bucks worth of crap that nonetheless get pride of place in the museum - for they reveal obvious signs of respect from a world famous news organization. The people at CNN are certainly using their heads and showing they know how to play the game. Though one wonders how that fits in with journalistic integrity . . .

Fascinating read. Here's the link;

http://www.1stopkorea.com/index.htm?nk-trip1.htm~mainframe