These are the photos from my last 24 hours in North Korea.
Tag Archives: Kim Jong-Un
North Korea in Photos: On-The-Spot Guidance
Day Four
At nearly every single visit for our last two days in North Korea, various tour guides attempted to impress upon us the extent of leaders Kim Il-sung and Kim Jong-il’s “on-the-spot guidance” in moving North Korea forward.
The first journey of day four would be by subway.
North Korea in Photos: Day Two
Keeping up with the Kims
Editor’s note: continued from Day One in North Korea.
Part of Day Two in North Korea.
“No mercy for the enemies! That’s why our NATIONAL ANIMAL is the tiger!” exclaimed Mr. Hang, our tour guide, staring me in the face. His tone switched instantaneously as he smiled at the group at large and calmly asked, “can you understand?”
“Yes!” we affirmed.
It was early on Sunday, May 1st, May Day, and our tour bus was barreling through Pyongyang, North Korea. On passing the Pyongyang Zoo, the tour group oo’ed and ah’ed at the massive tiger head surrounding the door. A tourmate had asked “Why is it so big?” and that’s how Mr. Hang responded – to me.
Thirty minutes later, in shirts and ties, we were dropped in a group of what must have been almost every foreigner in the country, and caught our first glimpse of today’s destination.
Formerly the home palace of Kim Il-sung, it is now he and his son’s final resting place, the host of authoritarian communism’s favorite pastime: deifying bad people by lying them in state.
The only major lesson to take from this experience was to truly internalize the depth of love many North Koreans have for their leadership, and to acknowledge the challenge this portends for democratic nations, either before or after the potential collapse of the North Korean government.
Here is my story of visiting this most unusual place.
Day One in North Korea
The Arc of Triump
No turning back now.
Stepping out of the gate at the small Pyongyang International Airport, there was no indication of what to do next. For a moment this felt like a gross oversight.
Luckily it only took a few seconds to spot what must have been the Koryo Tours group (read: white people). Within a half-hour I was onboard a bus with the first eight of my ‘tourmates,’ my two North Korean tour guides, Mr. Hang and Ms. Jeon, the first talkative and jovial, the second patient and informative. We also had a Western tour guide, a German woman. I was too glued to the window to consider being grateful that most of them were young people like me.
It was the weirdest bus ride I ever took.