I just finished coming back from South Korea, and now I want to try traveling to North Korea.
Has anyone by chance ever tried doing it? Would it even be worth going over there?
I really just want to see how crazy that country is first-hand.
You cannot backpack in North Korea. You can only go places if accompanied by a government approved guide.
If you really need to witness public executions, isn’t somewhere like Sudan or Saudi Arabia easier to get into? Surely North Korea doesn’t have much else to offer?
There is a specialist travel agent based in Beijing. I don’t have it to hand but if you Google North Korea Tours or similar, it won’t be long before you find it. The problem is that you have to arrange the tour, pre-pay, go to Beijing where the visa will be applied for. At this point, there is NO GUARANTEE that the trip will go ahead. It may take a few days for the visa to be issued and you will hav eto make hotel arrangements in Beijing. North Koreans don’t care how silly this is or how inconvenient it is. Then at the airport you will be joined by a North Korean or two. You will only be able to travel in a group and then only on specific dates which the travel agency has set aside for tours. A lot of people actually choose to take the train to Pyongyang and then fly out. In this case you will be accompanied all the way on the train. I do know that the first thing you will HAVE to do on any tour is go to Kim Il-Sung square and bow to the great leader. Your rooms will be bugged and if you look carefully, on your tours around the city, you will notice that a lot of the people you see around you are the same; they are actors all designed to give the impression of a socialist paradise and designed to illustrate the success of “juche” or self-reliance.
In my opinion, the extreme effort you will need to make to get there and arrange everything will be worth it. It will be expensive and if you are an American, you can just about forget it. You may not take any cell-phones or video cameras into North Korea. You cannot use credit cards.
I know a few people who have been there and the above is a mere snippet from the information they passed on. I personally would love to go. If you can go and see one of the spectacular displays in the stadium, it will be unforgettable.
As for Sudan, I have been there and it is relatively simple to get a visa. However I went before Darfur really become widely known and at the beginning of a famine. Sudan is well worth a visit though; the Friday display of whirling dervishes in Omdurman at sunset is brilliant and you end up chanting and swaying along with the hundreds of others there. If you go to Sudan, take the train from Cairo to Aswan, the ferry to Wadi Halfa in Sudan (Mondays only) and the train to Khartoum (Wednesdays only). YOu may arrive in Khartoum a couple of days later but give yourself a week to get from Cairo to Khartoum. MIchael Palin’s “Pole to Pole”, though 20 years old gives a good insight into travel into the Sudan. Fantastically friendly people, awful food, except for the buffet at the Hilton and a VERY difficult place to get around. Of course, this was before oil had an impact on Khartoum in particular where I gather development is rapid. You will alos need to get a photography permit before you take any pics, don’t take any pictures near the presidential palace or you may be shot at and if there is a curfew (there was when I was there) be VERY careful. Unfortunately, the train I took from Wadi Halfa was nearly two DAYS late and arrived at 4 a.m. Soldiers were very rough on some Sudanese piled into the same pick up I was in; nervous, wearing sandals and heavily armed. Lots of road blocks. When there were some serious political tensions and tanks were deployed on the streets, I was forced to remain inside but it was relaxed after a couple of days. Other than that, one of the best places I have ever been to, to experience something a little different. Gorgeous-looking women.
Try Iran. Absolutely brilliant.
Er…that’s it, I am digressing.
BroonArirang
A snippet from a friend that went to North Korea through the Beijing based travel service Broon mentions above. Apparently the hotel you end up in with the tour has a shop selling foreign goods. This friend spotted a bottle of foreign wine there that was going for the asking price of US$10, probably the price expected years ago when it was bought. When he picked it up, it was worth well over US$150.
Another oddity, Apparently drugs and hookers are rife outside Pyongyang . . . and unfortunately, so too some very fierce local gangs.
So why isn’t North Korea the next big thing for sleazy, drug addled wine buffs?
HG
koryogroup.com/ is the tour operator.
Americans can go during the Mass Games; it’s just more expensive for us Imperialist Running Dogs.
The Hyundai Asan tours to Kumgangsan are supposed to be starting up again soon: it’s a cheaper way to get in, but you won’t visit the capital via this tour.
The Red Cross used to give tours to some of the tunnels under the DMZ.
[quote=“Huang Guang Chen”]
So why isn’t North Korea the next big thing for sleazy, drug addled wine buffs?
HG[/quote]
So, who is going to book this? You, me or Lord Lucan?
BroonArirang
Hmm, I’m thinking a special last ever Fredfest would be best. We just have to get him into the country on, say, a Cannuck visa, then expose him and watch the fun!
HG
I enjoyed the NGC episode where the French guy goes there and when they are going to shoot a rooster at the firing range he throws everything into a fit by explaining that it is the symbol of France.
Ah… it sounds too inconvenient to go. That and I don’t have that much money to head all of the way over there. Oh well, maybe one of these days when I get a decent salary or something.
BroonAle that’s some interesting experiences you have had.
I went there. On a group tour of one. With two guides and a driver. As others have said you can only do group travel. Of course DPRK government endorsed travel. I did not go on the Koryo tour, but I have only heard good things about them (was quite a while ago and I did not know of them at the time).
I found it to be the most fascinating week of my life. I am sure a week on Pluto would have seemed more normal. If you do go don’t miss the hilarious fun and excessively short title of the “glorious fatherland liberation American war museum”.
Be warned the North Koreans drink on a level I have only otherwise experienced in Asia in Mongolia. If you had to spend your entire life under the “Great Leader” and “the Dear Leader” you would probably learn to drink a lot too. The food on the tour is adequate, but certainly very Korean. I highly recommend going by train from Beijing or ShenYang rather than plane. You can see things you would not otherwise see from the train. And on the way there I got my claim to face in life. Got shitfaced with the North Korean Olympic wrestling team. They spoke almost no English or Chinese (some had a little of either, but really a little) but they were tough on a level that I would have otherwise thought only appeared in cartoons. I will never forget one of them who weighed something like 46kg and was probably even shorter than the dear leader beating me in an arm wrestle. Him with 1 arm, me with two. Me weighing about 75 kg and being 23 years old at the time. He did not just defy my expectations, he appeared to be able to defy physics. No doubt the dear leader had taught him how.
If you are in Kaohsiung/GaoXiong some time you might also want to know that the real attraction of my restaurant is not really the beach and the food, but the fact that we have a few copies of the PyongYang times and a DPRK magazine or 2.
Are they looking for copy editors?
A couple weeks ago, th DPRK announced that starting this year, Americans can go on the same tours as anyone else. I suspect that this means we Yanks can go for the same price as others, too. I will keep an eye on developments (Koryo Tours will send me updates). I really want to go. Maybe this is the year.
I visited the DPRK earlier this year, indeed the most fascinating week of my life. I went with Koryo Tours, and I can surely recommend them. They are by far the biggest
(over 50% of all western tourists)
and most experienced travel agent. Although once inside the country they don’t have to do that much
(everything is organized by the local Ryohaengsa travel office)
, but they do know the guides and they get things done most other agents simply can’t. In our case we we did visit the Juche Tower while the area was closed because of fireworks, which almost started a riot at the hotel with other tourist that weren’t allowed there. And recently, our guide has been the first foreigner ever since the war to visit some remote areas, which will probably be part of future tours.
I expected it to be very impressive and a mostly sad, but it was actually very good fun. Sure, you do see there’s a terrible lot wrong in the country, no matter how hard they try, it’s impossible to hide. And you do get very cynical of their almost religious worship of the Great Leader. But we did get to talk to local people much more often than expected, of course it did help one of the group members also spoke Korean, not just the guides. And we did have good fun with those people, especially during the birthday of the Great Leader, when everyone in Pyongyang seemed to be in the parks for a barbeque. Sharing their food and booze with us, dancing, singing, taking pictures, just having a great time together. They were even smiling when we got to skip a huge line for a rollercoaster, for which they had to wait several hours. Or maybe that was just because they knew we were paying 10,000 times as much as they did, according to black market exchange rates 
Starting this year Americans can indeed visit the country all year round, not just during the Arirang Mass Games. There were three Americans in our group, one of them even with a South-Korean background. Only thing is for some reason they aren’t allowed to take the train into or out of the country. Which is a shame, although the flight with an old Russian jetliner is quite an experience, it doesn’t match seeing the country from the train, probably as real as it gets for tourists.
Writing a travelblog and more particularly sorting the pictures is still a work in progress
(on average about 400 a day, taking pictures is not that restricted at all…)
, but there’s an English version at WiredNewYork.
By the way, I would strongly discourage going to the DPRK with Young Pioneers (from NZ). On the train back to China their tour guide was totally drunk long before the border, barely able to stand, acting like a total jerk. Not something you want to happen when you’re about to cross one of the most notorious borders in the world. And this didn’t seem to be an incident, his boss was at that same moment in a hospital in Beijing with a broken leg. On their previous tour he was the guide, also got very drunk, and fell of the train…
I went there as well and as others have said, it is a pretty fascinating week.
I also booked with Koryo tours. However, note that Koryo is only a booking agent. They do not run the tours themselves. The tours are run and staffed by the DPRK state travel service. Basically Koryo just sent us off from Beijing airport and we never saw any of them again.
This means you can book yourself onto exactly the same tours through a Beijing travel agent which caters to Chinese tourists to North Korea. The booking will be for exactly the same hotels , the same restaurants and the same level of transport. You can ask the Beijing travel agent to book English speaking tour guides for your stay in North Korea (or French, if you want). If you book through the Chinese travel agencies the costs would be much cheaper (about 30% less than Koryo). If you get a group of five or more people, then basically the whole set up would be much, much cheaper. If you are only alone and on a real budget, you can join a Chinese tour group but IMHO I’ve never had a happy experience on a coach full of Chinese mainlanders.
One thing is that the tour itineraries between Koryo and the Beijing operators might be slightly different. However, for groups of five or more you can specify what you want to see and do, so you can customise your trip to include the same things that Koryo offers. You might also be able to get feedback from other travellers to find out what is really worthwhile to see and what is not - then from the menu of available places to visit you can then ask the travel agency - they’ll fax (ah, remember faxes… no email in North Korea) your request to North Korea, the North Koreans will set up a suitable schedule and pass a quote to the travel agency who will then give you a final quote.
Having said that, the Koryo tours are pretty well designed and do include a lot of very interesting stuff. In my one week there, there was only one day which I would say was a bit of a waste - it involved travelling the whole day on the coach to look at a coastal barrage - the time could have been spent doing something else a lot better. If you’re planning to go by yourself then do use them. All the best stuff is actually in Pyongyang so you don’t need to travel far - the only thing outside Pyongyang I found interesting was the museum at Mt Myonyang.
[quote=“greenmark”]Basically Koryo just sent us off from Beijing airport and we never saw any of them again.[/quote]Didn’t someone from Koryo join you during the tour? With our tour, Simon was with us from Beijing until the day before we left the country
(he had to fly back to Beijing earlier)
, on the last day we simply joined the “short tour”. Although he didn’t have that much to do, it’s good to have him around. He does get things done from the guides
(this was his 88th tour, so he does know the people)
, but he also can put things into perspective. The most difficult part of such a tour is determining if what the guides tell you is the truth or if it’s just propaganda, for that it’s good to have someone around who knows the country probably better than any other non-Korean.
[quote=“greenmark”]In my one week there, there was only one day which I would say was a bit of a waste - it involved travelling the whole day on the coach to look at a coastal barrage - the time could have been spent doing something else a lot better.[/quote]Wasn’t the hilarious picture of Kim Jong-Il at the visitor centre alone worth the trip?
Did you stay in Nampo or did you go there just as a day trip? We did stay in the spa hotel, which was not too bad
(a hot bath turned out to be a great hangover cure…)
. The barrage itself wasn’t that interesting itself, but the video they showed was very funny. Well, it wasn’t meant that way, but don’t tell someone from the Netherlands that “only Koreans could build such a masterpiece”. We built a very similar structure, four times longer, half a century earlier, the Afsluitdijk. It even seemed like they used footage from an old Dutch documentary…
^ No, Simon nor anyone else joined us. They had organised so many tours at the same time that they just left us with the North Koreans. Not that it bothered us much - it was quite fun trying to work out what was real and what was not.
And we missed the film about the barrage. Probably because the tide was turning and we had to get across before it closed. Mind you, I do have a photo of that painting with little Kim.
It’s also on Youtube, in three parts: 1, 2 and 3.
It’s not as good as the propaganda video in the war museum
(I got that one on DVD)
or on the USS Pueblo, but like I said, for someone from the Netherlands this one is pretty funny. I’m curious if they would also make such a video about the Ryugyong Hotel in Pyongyang: “Only Koreans coud build a 330 meter tall hotel”…