North Korea Trip

[dtool242]

I work for a company that was doing some work for the US government over in North Korea, that is untill we got kicked out a couple years ago. I made one trip over there back in Oct '08.

Obviously you can't fly directly over there from the US, so I flew into Beijing where I met up with the other members of the US team. We stay there for a couple days while we wait for our North Korean visa.


This is a picture I took of mine, as they don't attach it in your passport, it's a separate piece of paper that they take away from you when you leave the country.

That couple days in Beijing was cool. Took in some sights, Tienamen Square, Fobidden City and some of the awesome nightlife!

Then we fly to Pyongyang where we are greeted at the airport by our 'handlers'. Spend the night in the Koryo hotel.


Picture of the loby. (I posted a view from my room on another thread and hence the start of this one)

And then the next day we are driven out to Nyongbyon. We check in at the 'guest house' (imagine a large B&B with a stone wall around it and an armed guard posted at the gate) and relieve the out going team.
For the next two weeks we stay at this guest house and twice a day (Monday through Friday) we are driven out to the nuclear facilities and 'aid' them with the disabling activities as agreed to by the six-party talks.
Also staying at this guest house is the IAEA team, but they were mostly old, snooty, schollarly European types.
On the weekend we could go out and see some of the sights (we were told what we could and could not photograph).

So on with the pictures:


You'll notice in the back ground there is a traffic light, but it seems that none of them in Pyongyang actually work. So they have what us Americans reffered to as 'Traffic Babes' directing traffic at the major intersections. Don't know if it was the uniforms or thier robotic movements that made them so hot.

[dtool242]

The Dear Leader museum. Basically a repository for all his gifts from other world dictators and Democrats. Seriously, the few gifts in there from the US were all from Democrats.


View from the balcony of the Dear Leader museum.




At a Buddhist temple on Mount Myohaung

[dtool242]

Our handlers, Mr. Kim and Mr. Kim
(90% of the people over there are either Kim or Li)


A large tile mosaic map of the Mount Yak recreational area.


A poem paying tribute to some Korean General carved in the side of Mount Yak.


The countryside near Nyongbyon

[Rick Lee]

Very cool and thanks for sharing. I have only met one American who's been there and he was a journalist covering Madeline Albright's visit. Did you get to talk to any locals? Were the handlers with you every minute? Witness any shenanigans? I get the feeling Pyongyang is way more sanitized than even E. Berlin once was and you'll never see anything they don't want you to see. Some of the hidden camera footage I've seen from the countryside, other cities and even labor camps was pretty depressing.

[daepp]

Like a Potemkin village?

Great thread - thanks for sharing!

[bivenator]

What were the nuclear facilities like? Modern or an accident in waiting?
That is really quite an experience, share more pictures if you have them.

[azasadny]

Thanks for posting those!!

[speeder]

Very interesting place. My brother and his wife were invited to NK last winter but they then denied my brother's visa and only allowed my SIL to go. She took a lot of pictures and emailed them to me and other family members but asked that they not be further disseminated. (Not sure what the risk would be now but not going to disobey her request).

My brother is American and my SIL holds French and Swiss passports, maybe that's why my bro got denied(?) They are both in the relief business in South Asia and the trip was connected to a vaccination program that their org. is helping NK with somehow.

Her experience was very similar to what you describe in terms of handlers and everything being controlled. Thanks a lot for the pictures, just when this OT board was getting a little dull. Bravo!

[A930Rocket]

Great pix! Thanks for sharing.

[Normy]

I've heard that PyongYang has some OUTSTANDING architecture! Did you get to see any of the famous buildings?

N

[pegasus9]

Fascinating. Did you happen to see the hotel of doom?

[Won]

Originally Posted by dtool242

A poem paying tribute to some Korean General carved in the side of Mount Yak.

Very cool. It says "A song for General Kim Il-Sung" who of course is Jong-Il's father.

[Rick Lee]

I'm headed to China around Thanksgiving and really want to make a sidetip to Jilin and Heavenly lake, which are on the N. Korean border. I think that's where those two idiot "journalists" were seized a while back until Bill Clinton brought them back. I'll be sure to behave myself. Anyone here ever read Aquariums of Pyongyang? Amazing book. I've been to a few press conferences held by N. Korean defectors too. Also very touching stories.

[varmint]

Originally Posted by Slasher

Fascinating. Did you happen to see the hotel of doom?

[Normy]

Originally Posted by dtool242

I work for a company that was doing some work for the US government over in North Korea, that is untill we got kicked out a couple years ago. I made one trip over there back in Oct '08.

Obviously you can't fly directly over there from the US, so I flew into Beijing where I met up with the other members of the US team. We stay there for a couple days while we wait for our North Korean visa.


This is a picture I took of mine, as they don't attach it in your passport, it's a separate piece of paper that they take away from you when you leave the country.

That couple days in Beijing was cool. Took in some sights, Tienamen Square, Fobidden City and some of the awesome nightlife!

Then we fly to Pyongyang where we are greeted at the airport by our 'handlers'. Spend the night in the Koryo hotel.


Picture of the loby. (I posted a view from my room on another thread and hence the start of this one)

And then the next day we are driven out to Nyongbyon. We check in at the 'guest house' (imagine a large B&B with a stone wall around it and an armed guard posted at the gate) and relieve the out going team.
For the next two weeks we stay at this guest house and twice a day (Monday through Friday) we are driven out to the nuclear facilities and 'aid' them with the disabling activities as agreed to by the six-party talks.
Also staying at this guest house is the IAEA team, but they were mostly old, snooty, schollarly European types.
On the weekend we could go out and see some of the sights (we were told what we could and could not photograph).

So on with the pictures:


You'll notice in the back ground there is a traffic light, but it seems that none of them in Pyongyang actually work. So they have what us Americans reffered to as 'Traffic Babes' directing traffic at the major intersections. Don't know if it was the uniforms or thier robotic movements that made them so hot.

That's totally cool! I want to go to Pyongyang to see the architecture and the monuments.

Your picture is amazing- right there in PyongYang is my mothers 2003 VW Passat! It it is even the same color-

I didn't know that Volkswagen AG did business in that country. But now I do. I bought a used Subaru in February; I'm very happy with this used car. Perhaps I will patronize this Japanese manufacturer in the future. The fact that my Memphis Subaru was built in Lafayette, Indiana is another good reason.

N!

[Don Plumley]

Great story and pics - thanks for sharing!

[dtool242]

Although anti-American sentiment runs pretty high over there, the people you talk to are pretty friendly. The handlers could be a hoot at times. They loved when we taught them new slang phases and curse words.

The nuclear facilities were pretty scary. Picture something inbetween an 18th century blacksmith shop and a turn of the century textile factory. A couple examples: in the reactor building there is an elevator that goes up to the re-fuel floor, which didn't work the whole time I was there, so you had to take the stairs. The rise and run for each step was different from the last. On the refueling machine there is a B&W monitor that shows a view of the grapple they use to attach to the fuel rods. You follow the power cord for the monitor down to where it is plugged in and notice that there is no plug. Just two bare wires shoved into an outlet. I could go on and on.....

I did see the pyramid hotel off in the distance. We didn't get as close as you see in varmint's picture, and I really didn't get any good pictures of it from a moving car. I hear some Egyptian company came in and finished it. I also hear it is all covered in glass now. That would be a sight to see!

As for the cars over there, I believe they get them all from China. I didn't see any car dealerships over there. The cars we were driven around in were black VW Passats that the US government bought over in China.

An insight to the North Korean mentality:
While being driven around you see many people out sweeping leaves off the street using what we called 'stick-brooms', basically a short bundle of twigs. They are only about 2 ft long and the people using them would all be hunched over while they worked. One of the American team members asked our handler, "Why don't they make their brooms with longer handles so they don't have to hunch over so much? I would be so much easier to work that way." The handler replied by telling us a little story about when he was in school and during thier summer breaks they had to go work at one of the local farms. He was given the task of hoeing weeds out of the fields. He also came up with the idea of making a longer handled hoe to make his work easier. When the farmer saw him using this long handled hoe he had made, the farmer chastised him for being lazy and not working as hard as the others then broke the handle of his hoe off back down to the normal short length everyone else uses.

Another insight:
Most North Koreans are excited about the possibility of a re-unification of the Korean peninsula, so that they can "help bring the South Koreans up to thier standard of living". You can't help but chuckle when you hear that one.

The night we were in Pyongyang, we were returning from diner at a restaurant across the street and noticed a couple dozen locals in their most colorful garb showed up out of nowhere in front of our hotel. Someone broke out a boombox and started playing some local music (I can't imagine they have anything other than local music) and started doing something akin to square dancing. After about 15 minutes or so they faded back off into the night.


The city gate to Nyongbyon (we weren't allowed to take any pictures inside the city)

[cairns]

Incredible. Thank you.

[dtool242]

Other random thoughts about my trip over there:

I got pretty good at playing badmitton. Almost where I could hold my own against the handlers. But really, there's not much to do overthere.
I think they only had one TV channel, though it is mainly used for propoganda. We did have a 65" plasma TV in our lounge that one of the IAEA people brought in from China during an earlier trip. And we had a DVD player (also aquired in China so it was tough figuring out how to use the remote) so we watched a lot of movies and TV shows brought in by various team members.

The power went out at the guest house several times a day, usually for only a few minutes and rarely more than half an hour.

The food was pretty good. Not a fan of Bi-bim-bop or kimchi. My favorites were these little mini-casserole type dishes that were seved in a jade pot.

Speaking of jade... dirt cheap over there. At the gift shop of the dear leader museum, they had these jade rings (and I don't mean a ring adorned with some jade, but the whole ring made out of jade) for 1 euro each. I bought all they had (a couple dozen) to make great souvenir presents.

Lots of military types everywhere, and they all seemed like they were 16 year old boys. Armed with AK-47's of course.

Everyone wore a Great Leader pin. A little pin with the picture of Kim Il-Sung on it. That was one souvenir I wasn't able to get my hands on.

Oh and at the end of the tour at the dear leader museum you come to a room that has wax statues of Kim Jong-Il and his pappy. The handlers tell you to stand near the back and not speak as it is a "holy place" then they go up and bow in front of the statues.

[Rick Lee]

Amazing stuff.

I saw some N. Korean diplomats once in Dresden back when it was still the real E. Germany. They were all wearing grey Mao suits with the Kim Il-Sung pins. They got a look at me in my Levis 501's and Chuck Taylor sneakers and must have thought I was from Mars. They stared and stared. And I remember passing a N. Korean flagged boat while taking a hydrofoil ferry from Shenzhen to Hong Kong. I'd love to really get to know a N. Korean, but it's probably impossible to do so when they're still in N. Korea. In the old E. Germany, they weren't brainwashed at all and everyone privately admitted what a joke everything there was. I get the feeling it's the total opposite in N. Korean.