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Thursday 2006-09-07 - P’yŏngyang, Democratic People’s Republic of Korea
Transportation
Bikes
Apart from public transportation (more about that later) the main means of transportation seems to be the bike and you see them in a large variety of shapes and ages. If you want to have a bike, you have to buy it in a shop (many second-hand from Japan; most local bikes are still of inferior quality, although there is now a joint venture with China to produce bikes). Once bought, the bike must be registered at the district security office (the equivalent of a police station) and you get a little round license plate, usually attached at the ubiquitous front basket on the handle bars (I have actually seen only a single bike without such a basket). These little baskets are used to transport all sorts of things, from schoolbooks and other papers to pet dogs and even small children.
Apart from the simple luggage rack (sometimes used for very heavy loads), there may be a basket mounted on the luggage rack as well, and once I saw a man peddling by with a whole gaggle of ducks in his back basket, all curiously peering around.
Apparently at one time women were not allowed to ride bikes but that is definitely not true any longer: I’ve seen women on bikes, and our Uni rides a bike as well. One remarkable feature about bikes in the DPRK: I see not a single bike with a lock — apparently bikes are not stolen here. In all, variation and usage of bikes here is very much like that in China, with the most noteworthy difference the lack of locks, and the fact that on average they’re a little older.
Cars
Apart from buses and trucks, there are actually very few cars in the DPRK, most of them “public” (state-owned) but there are some private cars as well. One way someone may get a private car is as an award for a special service to the country (say, winning at an international sports championship). Another is that relatives living abroad may send someone a car as a present. There are (at least) three different kind of license plates by which you can tell what type of car it is: all publicly owned cars (ordinary cars, taxis, buses and trucks) have a white plate; black is for the army, and yellow is for private cars — I noted only two of the latter, but of course with so much to see, I did not only look at license plates!
A huge problem is a serious shortage of oil (the country has none of its own, and the military comes first). This explains the curiously smoking trucks we sometimes see, especially in the countryside: they are powered by cokes, with a little gasification plant in the back (the part that is producing all the smoke — similar to how many cars were run in the Netherlands during the second world war: it’s a little more complicated than oil, but ingenious and effective.
The shortage of oil also causes blackouts, making the trams and trolleybuses used for public transportation not always very reliable, with the result that buses in P’yŏngyang are usually packed. Buses may have a series of stars painted on the side: one each for 50,000km safe transportation — I see quite a few with a whole series of stars.
