North Korea, An Introduction

I recently returned from my Chuseok holiday vacation from North Korea. Impossible! Some might say, but some might be wrong. There is a tour group based in Beijing, called Koryo Tours, that specializes in taking tours into Pyongyang and the neighboring areas of the DPRK. The North Korean government has been opening its doors to more tourists every year. As of now, more than 1,000 westerners visit the country each year. The tour was 5 days spent mainly in Pyongyang, but also ventured out to the DMZ, Kaesong, and a small village that I don't remember the name of. The tour group itself was an interesting group of people. All independent travelers that hate being in group tours. There were about 50 people total on the trip broken into three smaller groups. There were people from everywhere in the world - England, Canada, Ireland, Germany, France, USA, Australia, you name it. Aside from one cocky Brit and and overly-talkative Canadian, the group of people was quite alright. I even met one guy that was actually there undercover working for the United States government. No joke. This group was full of some interesting folk.

North Korea obviously does some terrible things to its people. They are starving, over-worked, heavily policed, and the slightest negative remark about the Kims has them, along with their entire family, in a prison camp faster than they can even imagine. On our tour, we had North Korean guides and minders. The guides were to show us around and explain the North Korean views on things (because everything else we've learned was wrong) while the minders literally watched us. The guides and minders were truly fantastic people. Fluent in English, funny, outgoing, and very educated (for a North Korean, that is). They seemed a bit skeptical about the state of their country since they interact with foreigners on an almost daily basis, but they are still clearly loyal to their Great and Dear Leaders. They do a great job of avoiding answering controversial questions asked by curious tourists.

For those of you that don't know, the people in North Korea are divided into three classes - The core, the wavering, and the hostile. The hostile class are deemed as threats to the Worker's Party and are most likely in a prison camp if not en route to one. The wavering class are basically not good, but not bad. They live in any city that isn't Pyongyang. And any city that isn't Pyongyang is a dump. And by dump I mean sporadic electricity, crumbling buildings, and very rarely running water (if any at all). The core class have a family history of being loyal to the party and are the elite of the population. They live in Pyongyang. I wouldn't doubt that every single person in Pyongyang knew that we were there, because they put on a hell of a show trying to look happy. The city is pretty much a run-down over-sized village with no building (other than monuments) built post-1960. The people wander around on empty streets (cars are reserved for the best of the best) or ride their bicycles past buildings that look like they've been on fire five or six times and countless murals of the Kims looking majestic and heroic on their propaganda signs. It really is like traveling back in time.

Now, obviously I have a lot to say about this trip. However, I knew this going in. So I took with me a small notebook, in which I kept various notes and writings about what was going on in this bizarre country. Because, believe me, it was bizarre. To best write about as much of the trip as humanly possible, I will do it on a day-by-day basis, looking back on my notes for what exactly we did each day.

So, here's to a long-winded journal of my five-day vacation to Pyongyang, DPRK.