| Submit your comments on this article |
| Korea |
| "Holiday in Hell" -- a review of the new Bradt Travel Guide?s chapters on North Korea |
| 2004-01-09 |
| by John Fund, Wall Street Journal EFL The guide, written by British journalist Robert Willoughby, sometimes twists itself into knots to be judicious, but when it comes to politics Mr. Willoughby can be quite candid: "Remember that this guide is only useful in the country if it's allowed in, so what I haven't explicitly written about I've included [Internet] links to." . . . Even with its pulled punches, the book does a mind-bending job of describing the personality cult that surrounds the late dictator Kim Il Sung ("the Great Leader") and his son and successor Kim Jong Il ("the Dear Leader"). The guide laconically notes that tourists will "be asked to 'pay respect' to statues and shrines" of the two men. "Just do it" is its terse advice. After all, this is a country where even the newspapers are folded in such a way as to avoid creasing the photos of the Leaders. . . . Mr. Willoughby quotes the North Koreans saying that Pyongyang, the capital, is "the political centre, the centre for culture and education and a wellspring of our revolution." But it's apparently dangerous to let guests too close to the wellspring. Most stay in a high-rise hotel on an island in the middle of a river where guards can easily block unsupervised access to the city. The guide calls the island "an Alcatraz of fun." It was once planned that visitors stay in the Ryugyong Hotel, a 105-story pyramid whose construction was halted when famine hit North Korea in the 1990s. Though brochures show it brilliantly lit up in night photos, it is still an empty shell that has never been wired for electricity. Some Pyongyang sights teeter between the comic and the sinister. The Mangyongdae Fun Fair features a grenade-throwing ground and machine-gun stalls. A museum on the Korean War features "the gruellingly written confession of one U.S. helicopter pilot whose handwriting suggests what broke him to spill all beyond his name, rank and serial number." Until recently, the captured U.S. spy ship Pueblo was on display. But nothing quite captures the regime's mindset as a visit to Department Store No. 1. The Bradt guide notes only that, when it visited, "none of the lights were on." But a previous visitor on an unsupervised visit, British psychiatrist Anthony Daniels, was surprised to see it full of goods and shoppers. As he recounted in his book "Utopias Elsewhere," he soon noticed that someone he had seen with a shopping bag was suddenly without one. He followed her to an upper floor and saw her stand in line to collect another bag and be paid with a pair of brown socks so she would continue her Potemkin shopping excursion. That must be the store Jimmy Carter saw on his visit in 1994, when he famously proclaimed that Pyongyang was a happy city full of well-stocked stores. |
| Posted by:Mike |
| #9 But will I get HBO in the Pyongyang Sheraton? My kids usually like having the Disney Channel Available and an indoor pool. They don't have those squat down toilets do they? My wife wouldn't like that. |
| Posted by: Super Hose 2004-1-9 11:40:56 PM |
| #8 jon Shep - A few years ago, I met a bunch of tourists in the Philippines who were railway enthuisiasts. At the time they were touring narrow gauge railways used to haul sugar cane. The previous year they had visited Pyongyang to see the metro system there. I recall it made a big impression on them. Spotlessly clean apparently. Also as I recall no passengers and the whole thing may have just been for show. |
| Posted by: phil_b 2004-1-9 5:32:28 PM |
| #7 HERE (link) is some comments by an American living in South Korea who had a chance to visit North Korea during their 'Arirang Festival' in April 2002. Its is good reading: When was the last trip you took where: * the guide wouldn't allow you to keep your passport? * you weren't allowed to use the local currency? * criticism of the place you traveled could get a guide into serious trouble? * on your return you felt you had to be careful bringing back books, pins and T-shirts because they might be illegal? All this and more can be yours with a trip to the DPRK, the Democratic Peoples Republic of Orwellian Country Names, better known as North Korea. In an age where you can get Starbucks on Thai islands, Baskin-Robbins in Saigon, Coke and McDonalds just about everywhere, it's nice to finally visit a place lacking even the knowledge of such things. The most end-of-the-earth Chinese villager knows of Michael Jordan. In North Korea our big city Pyongyang guides had no clue who he was - until we pointed out his name on an autographed basketball in the Gifts to Kim Jong-il Museum. Then they were sure he must be someone really important. A mere basketball player? No way! |
| Posted by: CrazyFool 2004-1-9 3:11:59 PM |
| #6 what sort of a cock would go there on holiday anyway, must be fuckin brain damaged. |
| Posted by: Jon Shep 2004-1-9 3:00:46 PM |
| #5 You mean North Korea is NOT a socialist paradise? SLANDER! You Yankee Imperialist Running Lackey Dog! North Korea overflows with the |
| Posted by: Cyber Sarge (VRWC CA Chapter) 2004-1-9 12:12:07 PM |
| #4 Any White Slag stalls at the Fun Fair??? |
| Posted by: Yosemite Sam 2004-1-9 11:24:29 AM |
| #3 Is public spittle spewing allowed? Encouraged? |
| Posted by: Shipman 2004-1-9 9:52:16 AM |
| #2 BYOF - Bring your own food! |
| Posted by: CrazyFool 2004-1-9 9:41:45 AM |
| #1 Book your tickets early. Atleast before the backpackers get there! |
| Posted by: Dragon Fly 2004-1-9 7:45:56 AM |