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Tuesday 2006-09-05 - P’yŏngyang, Democratic People’s Republic of Korea
We meet our team
Outside the P'yŏngyang airport, our team for the trip is waiting for us: Mr. Pak, an experienced 44-year old guide (he's been doing this for 18 years, since shortly after the country opened up for tourists), Miss Un Hui ("Uni"), 22 years old and still inexperienced but friendly and open, and Mr. Hwang, a very experienced driver.
While we drive to the city, Uni tells us a little about the country: Korea has a population of 80 million in total, of which 20 live in the North. P’yŏngyang has 2.5 million inhabitants, 1.5 million of them in the suburbs. North and South Korea together are really one country, sharing one culture and one language. She gets a little flustered when interrupted with a question, but recovers fast — it’s just the nervousness of meeting a new group of people. Her English is actually very good, though not completely accentless. She tells me that in middle school students can choose between Russian and English as a foreign language. It’s obvious that she enjoys being a guide, though she’s still very much a junior and has been working for only 1.5 years.
On the way to the hotel we stop at the “Arc de Triomphe” — larger than the one in Paris — but I’m afraid I’m more interested in the people I see dancing on the other side of the street, my attention drawn by the sound of traditional instruments. I ask Uni what’s happening; they’re practicing for the Arirang games, she explains, even though it has been postponed because of the flooding. When I ask if we can go have a look, she says she’ll have to ask Mr. Pak; but we end up taking pictures and I even make a small video with my new camera.
On arrival at the Yanggakdo hotel (which I recognize from the satellite picture on Google maps) our passports are collected for registration but Mr. Pak promises we’ll have them back after two days and they’ll take good care of them.
Wednesday 2006-09-06 - P’yŏngyang, Democratic People’s Republic of Korea
Greeting the great leader
In Korea, people believe everything starts again after 60 years so at your 60th birthday there is normally a big party. When president Kim Il Sung turned 60 in 1972, obviously there was an extra-big party: for the occasion the Mansudae Grand Monument was erected in P'yŏngyang; it consists of a big copper-colored statue of the president, flanked on on either side by two 50-meter long memorials celebrating the liberation from the nearly 40-year long Japanese occupation. The sculpture is remarkable - not just the stark realism most of us associate with art from communist countries but with an inspired simplicity added to it, especially in the statue of president Kim Il Sung. I'm impressed.
As all tourists here (including North Korean tourists) do, we visit the monument to deposit a bunch of flowers as a tribute from our “delegation” at the Great leader’s feet, stand in a row, and bow. We’re “required” to do this of course, but when in Rome…
Crossing the bridge
From Folklore Museum we continue our P’yŏngyang city tour by walking to the Taedong river, across the bridge, and then along the other side to the Tower of the Juche Idea (“Ju che” means something like self reliance, the philosophy introduced by the Great Leader Kim Il Sung). The tower, designed by the president himself, forms a remarkable landmark in P’yŏngyang with its 170m height, 20m of which is formed by a flame that at night is lighted and flickers like a candle. Along the river, more people are gathered to practice for the Arirang games — these are playing the People’s Army and fitted out in fake (but realistic) uniforms. When a few of us (me included) go to the top of the tower (by elevator, of course) we have mot only an excellent view of the huge city around us but also of the people exercising below.
Before the tower, on the river side, is a statue that symbolizes the three pillars of North Korean society: three people carrying the symbolic implements, the hammer for the workers, the sickle for the farmers, and the brush for the intellectuals. (The latter indicating how different North Korean culture actually is from the Chinese where intellectuals were abhorred during the cultural revolution.)
Later, we hear from Mr. Pak that we are actually the first tour group ever in North Korea to be allowed to walk across the bridge to the Juche Tower like we did today. Mostly, he tells us, this is because we are disciplined, and don’t run off all over the place — like Russians tend to do. With us, he can “manage” it so that we have a little freedom without causing problems. We’re to experience many more examples of the way in which Mr. Pak tries to build a little flexibility into our schedule, and not just show us what is required to be shown, but also try to accommodate our wishes.
