Travel North Korea

[vir-jin]

Ok, I am thinking about going to North Korea in golden week. I'll have to apply for the visa very soon. Since my oh so clean personal records will turn to garbage if I go, tell me some reasons that are NOT worth it. anybody that heard of travelers to North Korea- any suggestions, support, information are welcome. What might be places worth to see?

Your recommendatins, Ladies and Gentlemen, post them here.

[GuyJean]

Your recommendatins, Ladies and Gentlemen, post them here.

Bring your Canadian flag travel pin..

GJ

[Crambo]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/3113352.stm

That has some great info. and reasons for going there. It won't be around for ever, it will surely democratize itself or be so within a decade.

[AssKissinger]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/3113352.stm

That has some great info. and reasons for going there. It won't be around for ever, it will surely democratize itself or be so within a decade.

That's a bold prediction.


You won't be able to do damn thing on your own and you'll only see exactly what they want you to. Still, I think it would be tough as nails to go there! Go for it!

If North Korea ever opens up I'd love to be one of the first whiteys to travel to the small villages and stuff. Some of the reactions people had about foreigners in remote areas of Bangladesh were just mind blowing. People just mob you all the time out there. At restuarants people would get out of their seats and stand around my table to watch me eat. Groups of up to 100 people would follow us (I was with three other tourists most of the time) around town. It was unnerving. At a train station so many people came to stare at us that the police came to break it up. At first, it seemed like we were being arrested! But the police just took us to an office in the station and gave us some tea. People threw rocks at us another time, we were riding on top of a bus and it was stuck in traffic. We were like sitting ducks taking cover. No one was hurt but we were hella glad when the bus started moving again. But NK won't be like that now because they won't let you interact with the locals. If you could go out into it by yourself...woah poppa that would be wild!

[tidbits]

Maybe you already know, but just to remind you not to take their police/army 's photographs.

[Mulboyne]

It's worth going. Certainly, you will only go where you are allowed to go but it isn't difficult to meet the foreigners who live in North Korea (aid agencies, "diplomats" and bankers) who can tell you what they know. You may even get a few moments where you think you've stumbled into 1950's Japan.
The tours that used to run had you going via China; I don't know if that is still the case.

[vir-jin]

I'm going to meet a korean friend in 10 minutes. We'll see if there's a cheap way. Has anybody ever heard of a homestay in NK???

[karekora]

...

mad

sounds interesting tho. make sure if you go , you post what it was like there, and if its worth it.

still think you are mad...

[vir-jin]

Chung Ju-Yung, founder of the Hyundai industrial empire, pulled post-war Korea out of poverty and ruin while building his own fortune. My friend just told me that he made the South Koreans way to North Korea with 500 cows and more...

In 1998, Chung became the first civilian South Korean to enter North Korea without a military escort. At that historic juncture, which garnered international media coverage, Chung, 83 years old, led a cow across the border at Panmunjam, site of the war end truce, while his sons followed with another 500 head of cattle that were donated to feed Chung's old village of Asan. Chung declared that the gift to the impoverished township was his repayment for the theft of his father's cow more than 60 years earlier. Chung additionally received permission to establish businesses and a hospital in the district for the care of its people.

more...
http://obits.com/chungjuyung.html

But 1989 was too soon. Chung didn't get to see Kim Il-sung, and neither government would give him the green light. Fast forward to 1998, and that famous convoy across the DMZ bearing Chung and 500 cows: "Sorry, dad" in capital letters. Corny maybe, but brilliant political theater, again using a cultural language all Koreans can relate to. Chung met Kim Jong-il, and got to run cruise tours to Kumgangsan - at a price. Hyundai agreed to pay almost US$1 billion over six years in fees alone, plus all costs for building ports, roads and facilities. It also accepted other loss-leaders, like a $50 million gym in Pyongyang.

At $12 million a month, paid in Macau, these tour fees are a major source of foreign exchange for the North. Hawks in both Seoul and Washington worry that Pyongyang may be using this subvention to buy arms.

Politically, Kumgangsan was the breakthrough that made the summit possible. In just over two years, 300,000 South Koreans have seen at least a slice of the once forbidden North. Incidents have been rare. North and South found they could do business without the sky falling. That laid a crucial basis of trust. But Chung Ju-yung had bigger plans, and needed to make, as well as spend, money. He sought to build a huge industrial estate near Haeju, a short ride from Seoul's port of Inchon, with output worth $20 billion a year: 20 times more than North Korea's total exports now. But the North Korean army jibbed, and Kim Jong-il tried to persuade Hyundai to go instead to Sinuiju, way up on the Chinese border, with higher logistics costs.

more...
http://www.atimes.com/koreas/CC30Dg02.html

Verses extolling Kim Jong-il adorn the rocks around Lake Sam-il-Po-
see the beautiful pics here...
http://www.globaltravelwriters.com/Kumgangsan-Images.html

seems that before you enter the North there will be an obligatory course on how to behave- most important: don't laugh!glad I can't read hangul

[sillygirl]

Send me a postcard!

[vir-jin]

Send me a postcard!

I am pretty sure that it is forbidden