Here are some of my experiences from North Korea. As you can see, I mix Swedish and English posts by some reason…
First of all: I had a great time there. It is hard not to, they do everything for the tourists and want us to get a good impression of the country. Too bad for them that it is so obvious that it is all propaganda. I was with a really good group. We were eight persons, very nice people. Our guides (supervisors/guards) were nice people as well. Possibly they just played a game with us, we’ll never know. They seemed however decent and genuinely interested in the world outside North Korea. Since the group had to stick together with each other and with the guides all the time (no exceptions) we got to know each other rather well.
It is ironic that it felt like arriving in a democratic and free Western country when crossing the border from North Korea to China. But that is exactly how it felt. That doesn’t say anything about China. But it says a lot about North Korea. And truly, compared with North Korea, China is a free democracy. There are levels in hell.
It is not possible for foreigners to go anywhere without the guides. (Frankly, it is difficult for locals to go anywhere as well) We were taken to monument after monument, often connected to the worship of the dead “Great Leader Comrade Kim Il Sung”.
Kim Il Sung fought in the resistance against the Japanese occupiers during the Second World War, and is now celebrated as the big liberator and father of the nation. Actually he is worshiped like a God. He created after the war the most closed and bizarre countries in the world.
The ideology is not just communism, it is Juche. Juche was invented by, of course, the Great Leader, and states basically that man is the master of himself and can accomplish anything. It also says that the country should be self supporting and not depending on the outer world. Quit contradictory since many North Koreans would starve to death without food supplies from their so called “imperialist” neighbours. Juche is also the name of their chronology. The Great Leader Comrade Kim Il Sung was born in 1912. So in North Korea, it is not 2008 but the year 96.
On many North Korean maps, there is no border to South Korea. The South is “occupied” by the “American imperialists”, but will one day be “liberated” and reunified with the North under the name “Democratic republic of Koryo”. It is already decided in Pyongyang.
It is impossible to describe everything I experienced in this absurd country, in one week you see a lot if you do not do anything else except travel between different places.
# posted by O : 10:32 PM
