My trip to North Korea (The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea) shattered all expectations and was really amazing. It is unbelievably unique, and I will definitely go back some day. There’s so much more to see and so many more preconceptions to explore and clarify.
For clarity: I went with Young Pioneer Tours, because going on your own is not allowed. They arranged the visas and guides for our group through their Beijing offices/Beijing embassy from DPRK.
Let me say that nothing in the DPRK was what I expected. From everything you see on western news and the travel warnings from the US government, I was rather nervous and tense about the trip. These fears were completely unfounded, from my experience. They may or may not have monitored me while I was there, but there was no harsh treatment at passport control, no mistreatment, no sense of fear during the trip. It really seems like you have TRY to get in trouble, which confirmed my suspicions of people who had been detained in the past and removed the minuscule amounts of sympathy I had felt for people who got caught trying to steal/evangelize/etc. I followed the rules, and I had some really great experiences. I will even add that members of our group got really drunk & stumbled through the hotel lobby making quite a bit of noise, but they were never bothered or mistreated or questioned. You have to intentionally do something serious to wind up in trouble; that’s my experience.
My trip started out with a little bump: despite waking up extra early and catching the airport train in time to have breakfast before our meet-up time, I fell asleep on the train and wound up back at the starting point. Thus, I was 20min late, but the check-in counter wasn’t open yet, so it wasn’t a huge deal. I just felt like an idiot.
After checking in with Air Koryo (official airline of DPRK), the flight boarded over 30min late and then sat at the gate for another 30min, both without any explanations. My “vegetarian option” on the flight was just a slice of tomato on a bun (since everyone else got a hamburger). Oh, well, I was going to DPRK, and nothing could break my nervous excitement. The plane was also only half-full, so there was a lot of room to stretch out, which is nice.
It is possible to take an overnight train, starting the day before, from Beijing to Pyongyang (the capital of DPRK), but Americans are not allowed to enter the country this way, so the 3 Americans on the group tour had to fly. There were also 2 other people who opted to fly, because they couldn’t leave the day prior with the train people. Passport control was pretty smooth, baggage claim was fast, and then we met our Korean tour guides in the airport. They were really nice. I tried to make a joke with one of them, and it fell completely flat. He asked if it was my first time visiting DPRK, and I said, “Yes. Is it your first time here?” Crickets.
We took a little drive through Pyongyang, got to know the guides a bit, and then checked into the Yanggakdo Hotel to hang out while waiting for the train group to arrive. I got to know my roommate, we explored the hotel a bit, unpacked, and then met everyone downstairs. There was so much excitement in the air, you could feel it. Dinner at the hotel, then some karaoke at the karaoke bar in the hotel basement. It was SO MUCH fun.
Day 2, we were up early for hotel breakfast and then the 3-hour drive down to the DMZ/border with South Korea (Republic of Korea). On the way, we passed the reunification statue over the road. The visit included a DPRK army officer explaining to us their view of why the countries remain divided, what caused the war, etc. It was super interesting to hear (and, of course, it included numerous uses of the phrase “the US imperialists…” ha). We even went in the buildings where the armistice was signed and the current buildings that straddle the border for holding talks between the two sides without having to cross over. I shook the army officer’s hand, and someone told him I’m American. He smiled at me while squeezing as hard as he could. Well played.
I should also point out that the rest stop on the way down to the DMZ was selling Coca-Cola, which I found hilariously ironic. I definitely bought one and was using the new slogan, “Drink the irony.”
After the DMZ, we visited Kaesong, which was the ancient capital of the Koryo (Korean) empire. There’s an ancient university/Confucian temple there, next to the present-day university, and it houses cultural artifacts and is a UNESCO heritage site.
After lunch in Kaesong, we drove back to Pyongyang to the Schoolchildren’s Palace for a performance on the eve of the Children’s Day holiday the next day. We saw lots of ballet, children playing traditional instruments, Tae Kwan Do, dancing & singing. It was a really good performance, especially factoring in the age of some of the kids.
After dinner, we went to a local department store and did some shopping with the locals, including buying in local currency (which is really hard for foreigners to get/use), and I purchased some not-too-bad DPRK-made cola. Afterward, we took a walk down the new “Science Street” completed in the past few years to show the priority DPRK is placing on science. All scientists/university teachers got a new apartment in the new buildings, which is obviously an incentive for people choosing a major in school.
Back at the hotel, I went bowling (next to the karaoke lounge, of course) with a few people. I won!
Day 3, we put on some nice clothes and visited the fountain park near the DPRK parliament en route to giant, bronze statues honoring the 1st & 2nd leaders of DPRK: Kim Il Sung & Kim Jong Il. We laid flowers and bowed our heads before the statues, which are traditional signs of respect. Only 1 person opted to not get flowers, so when we all went up to lay them down, I got a good chuckle out of seeing him standing there alone.
Next, we went to another performance/fun day in the park for the Children’s Day holiday. It was interesting to see all of the other foreigners there, such as families of diplomats/UN workers/etc.
Our next stop was the Juche Tower (Juche is an idea that essentially says that you control your own destiny), which has an elevator up to just under the flame.
Next stop: monument to the foundation of the Worker’s Party of DPRK. This statue lines up directly across from the bronze statues from earlier, so the leaders are basically looking at this monument to the party.
After lunch, we went to a foreign language bookstore, where someone bought this great book of Korean phrases. This is the first and last page:
The next stop was the Kim Il Sung square, which is what you see featured in all of the parades/military demonstrations in DPRK. It’s huge and impressive. People were lining up to prepare for something, but we couldn’t figure out what.
On the drive to our next stop, I saw a taxi that was a Ford car, which really surprised me—possibly more than the Coca-Cola.
Our next stop was at the site of Kim Il Sung’s childhood home. The site was interesting, but not as much as what happened while I was there: I ran into my Austrian friend, J, whom I’d met a few weeks prior in Mongolia and been on trains/at hostels with previously. Unreal. He was with a different tour that started on a different day, but there he was. People in our tours were freaking out, saying, “How is it that you know someone who is in North Korea?” Unreal.
Before leaving the park, we drank from the well that supposedly has wish-granting capabilities. I’ll let you know whether mine comes true.
Back in Pyongyang, we rode a few stops on the Metro, which is very utilitarian, but they attempted to make it pretty, as well. The subway cars are old cars from Germany, and I emphasize “old.” I haven’t ever ridden a subway car older than me, I don’t think. However, they were in good, working order. Since they’re old cars from Berlin, we tried asking if they stopped at Potsdamer Platz. Another joke that didn’t land.
On the way out, we passed the sports stadium and Arch of Triumph.
Our final sightseeing spot for the day was the war museum, which is all about the Korean War of 1950-53. It had some huge displays of captured US tanks, planes shot down, and even the USS Pueblo, the surveillance ship captured in 1968. Of course, there was a lot more obligatory “US imperialist” / “they started it all, and we did nothing” rhetoric from the museum guide, but I knew to expect that. There are 2 sides to every story, and the truth will be somewhere in the middle.
After dinner at a Korean BBQ restaurant, we did some karaoke on the bus with the guide’s microphone while en route back to the hotel. Everyone wanted to hang out, since it was our last night all together, and we wound up in the karaoke bar again, which wasn’t much of a surprise.
After the karaoke bar closed, we moved upstairs to all hanging out in someone’s room, well into the night.
Those of us flying out had to be in the hotel lobby at 7am, which meant most people had very little sleep, while those taking the train got an extra 2 or 3 hours of sleep and wouldn’t get back to Beijing until the next day.
At the airport, the check-in process was pretty simple and smooth, and we said goodbye to our guides and thanked them for making everything so interesting and seamless during the trip.
There was a bit of a pulse-raising moment during passport control, because one of the other Americans got held up for a while for a supervisor to come over and check his documents, all without an explanation or a single word spoken, but everything went off without a hitch, the flight left on time, and we were back in Beijing.
I really enjoyed my time in DPRK. Some of it seems like there is a façade that I’d like to see behind, to experience the real culture and life of the people. I’m not sure if or when that will happen, but experiencing the authentic DPRK is something I want to try, and I really will go back some day. The people are friendly, the nature was beautiful, and I experienced a people and culture who have had essentially none of the same experiences or embedded views with which I was raised. That’s always fascinating, and I want to see more of the country—outside of the capital and tourist hotspots.
I will also say that members of our group kept comparing the trip to 2 movies: The Hunger Games & The Truman Show. The first, because there’s a growing capital with lots of resources, while the countryside seems like a hard life with little resources. The latter, because we wondered how much of what we had seen was a show being put on for us to see and believe, while the truth might lay somewhere else. It’s impossible to know, but I really had a great time.
DPRK, thanks for the memories.
Next up: Zhengzhou, China and the Shaolin Temple–birthplace of Kung Fu.
Did you/do you speak Korean or Chinese? At what minimum age would you recommend such an adventure? Wonderful account and photos. Peace.
@MarshaJWilson I speak neither. Young Pioneer Tours provides a Western (English for ours) guide from their company plus 2-3 local guides from DPRK, who spoke varying levels of English but gave all information during the tour in English, including translating for people at various stops, who would give us presentations in Korean. It was quite seamless. As for age, anyone could go, but I think YPT would not accept someone under 18. I don't know if there are legal restrictions on ages for tour groups or not. That is something you'd have to ask. YPT is based toward the younger traveler; average age on our tour of 17 people was around 25-ish.