A staged spectacle

A country like no other, North Korea was always in my bucket list and only last month could I tick it off. Only a handful of tourists travel to North Korea, an experience which can’t be described by just pictures and a few updates. On arrival at the Pyongyang Airport, I was surprised to find it gleaming. The North Korea Government has strictly banned any kind of religious literature, so make sure that you don’t carry any such material. As soon as I met my group guide Zo, I was requested to surrender my passport and was assigned the government guide to monitor me 24x7. We left the airport in our shuttle bus and headed straight to my hotel.

The next day, we started early for Panmunjon. During the three-hour drive from Pyongyang to Panmunjon, we didn’t see many cars — just a few bikes and military jeeps. All the security checkpoints had grim looking soldiers. Monument-like towers were being built on either side of the road.

However, the other cities I visited — Wonsan, Hamhung and the mountain city Kumkang — are far inferior in infrastructure to Pyongyang. Due to shortage of power and even water, people stored water for daily needs in bath-tubs. But the hotels were decent and showcased the government’s mission of portraying the DPRK (Democratic People’s Party of Korea) as a stylish country.

The entire itinerary of our travel schedule was so controlled to just show the few highlights of North Korea, which has a long trail of human rights abuses. People here live in a near-total information bubble. North Koreans are taught to believe that they are lucky to live here with salaries at just US $50-100 per month. They are imposed with the fact that they don’t need any money as the government provides them with all the basic necessities. It felt like travelling back in time, when North Korea began to isolate itself from the outside influence.

Only a handful of tourists visit North Korea, hence the itinerary was designed in such a way that only what looks hi-tech or prosperous is shown to tourists. Many of the sights I visited looked as if a drama was being staged by the tour guides; the country’s attempt to portray perfection looked so contrived. The whole feeling was so unrealistic.

For me, the most memorable moment was when there was a chink in the facade and the fake drama slipped off for a moment and this is what I would love to share, about some good things, some bad, some stupid, some dumb, some outlandish and some of pure innocent simplicity.

North Korea was easily one of the most interesting trips I have ever made. I can recommend it to anyone who wishes a great learning of history and war. The war museum I was surprised to find that people in the DPRK constantly talk about war with South Korea and then talk about unification, and I myself got to see the huge monument of both Korean statues of women joining hands for a United Korea. The newly renovated war museum is a piece of art and technology. The highlight was the US navy ship Pueblo captured by submarines in 1968 on charges of espionage from North Korean waters. The North Korea Government describes all the battles won by them whereas the fact is that they hardly played any role in any war. The Juche idea North Korea nurtures an intense desire to be respected admired and feared by outsiders. Their national mentality is called the Juche idea which embraces national isolation. The Juche idea is memorialised by a large sculptural tower in the centre of Pyongyang topped with a flame symbolising the eternal nature of the ideology. You could see a huge colourful set of plastered buildings, a communist city hiding in capitalist times.

The writer is a travel enthusiast