DPRK - Part I

I still intend to write more about the Philippines, and the hyper-organized (if always a bit behind) side of me wants to finish those entries in uninterrupted sequence. But with North Korea in the news so much recently, I'm reminded that I never wrote about my day trip there last fall. This blog is the only form of travel journaling that I do, so I'm thinking I'd better get those memories down on paper, as it were, before they become too blurry.

Many people were surprised when they heard that I was going to North Korea since the common perception is that Americans are not allowed to travel there. It's certainly true that we can't travel independently in the DPRK, but until recently there were two fairly easy ways to tour limited sections of that enigmatic nation.

The first way was a tour to Keumgang Mountain, which a couple of my friends did last year. That tour was especially popular with South Koreans, who love to hike and to soak at the bathhouse - which is pretty much the extent of what you could do at Keumgang. Tourists were strictly controlled and they stayed/ate/shopped in a sort of South Korean bubble, a hotel complex complete with convenience store chains from the capitalistic South. Keumgang tours were suspended last year after a middle-aged South Korean woman was shot and killed by North Korean soldiers. She had strayed beyond the limits of the compound on an early morning walk and ignored repeated warnings to turn back.

The second option was to take a day tour to Kaesong, which was the capital of Korea's Koryeo dynasty (918 - 1392, which preceded the Choseon dynasty, during which the capital was moved to Seoul. Obviously for my entire lifetime Korea has been a divided nation, so it's easy to forget that the North and the South have so many centuries of shared history.) Kaesong is the city I visited last fall - just in time, because those tours have also since been suspended by the North. There was no drama in this case - simply, it seems, someone in the DPRK wanting to prove their power to control people, even if it's for nothing else than to close the border to would-be tourists.

Apparently the North was also trying to prove its upper hand the day of our tour. After we'd gone through an early-morning security check on the South side of the DMZ - and after we'd been reminded again and again to leave ALL printed matter in lockers on the South side, reminded again and again that only digital cameras were allowed, reminded again and again that we should NOT mention the name of the leaders of South or North Korea at any time, etc., etc. - we sat in the parking lot and waited. A phone call needs to go through to the North before any tour buses can cross the border, and it seems the phone operator on the other side was refusing to pick up - a practice which our guide told us this was not unusual. Eventually someone did answer, and we were on our way.


The DPRK refuses to recognize the ROK as a legitimate nation, so ironically we used U.S. dollars instead of Korean won for all of our purchases on the tour. Of course a renegade pseudo-government is not an entity that can license vehicles either; hence the covered plates you can see on our South Korean buses here.



Our first stop was Pakyon waterfall. I've seen bigger, more impressive falls, but it was definitely a pleasant spot to wander around for a morning. The drive to the falls was picturesque too, the fields and forest scenery punctuated every kilometer or so with a DPRK soldier. Some of them were standing in the middle of unpaved roads, some outside villages houses, and some in the middle of fields; all of them were standing straight and tall under the warm autumn sun. They were motionless until the last vehicle in our motorcade passed; at that point they executed a crisp salute. I'd insert a picture of one of those soldiers here, except that of course we were told again and again that under no circumstances were we to take photos of any military personnel - or, for that matter, of any North Koreans whatsoever. It would have been pretty easy to snap a photo from inside the bus, but ALL cameras are inspected on the way out of the country, and any photos which the border control disapproves of are deleted without apology. I'm not sure if there could also be further repercussions for taking forbidden photos, but I certainly wasn't going to try to find that out firsthand.


Time for a break - lunch on the tour day, and from blogging for now. Part II is coming soon - promise! And then back to the Philippines.