You’re back from vacation, and boy do you have a lot to tell everyone around you. When you announced you were going on vacation,everyone assumed you were thinking of a normal, safe break from normal life. They couldn’t believe it when you told them you were not only going to another country, you were traveling to one of the most dangerousspots in the world for tourists. They all had the same question - what on earthmade you want to take a vacation to North Korea? North Korea is called the hermit kingdom fora reason - there’s no country on Earth more closely guarded from outside eyes. Ruled since 1948 by the Kim Dynasty and passed down from father to son over three generations, North Korea is a totalitarian communist state considered one of the strictest dictatorships in the world. Ruled according to the principles of Juche,a philosophy translated as “self-reliance”, it’s mostly in the news for military conflictsand missile tests.
But few people know about what goes on insidethe isolated nation, which is sandwiched between tea. It makes a lot of noise for a small nationon a small Asian peninsula, but it’s not easy to get inside - and that made you allthe more interested to see it for yourself and all the bizarre things that only existwithin their borders. The strange North Korean facts begin beforeyou even get in the country, starting with their tourism process. They’re the only country in the world wherethe tourism process is handled entirely through state-controlled bureaus. Companies like Korea International TravelCompany and special companies aimed at bringing international athletes to the country approvevisitors and lead them on guided tours, with very limited freedom to explore yourself. Many countries, including the United States,warn or even prohibit tourists from their country from going to North Korea becauseof the regime’s tendency to arrest foreign tourists for the slightest offense. A minor mistake like walking in the wrongarea or disrespecting the leader can lead to a lengthy sentence in a North Korean laborcamp.
Most people can apply to visit North Korea,with one major exception based on profession - journalists. The North Korean regime does not want theirsecrets getting out too easily. Once you entered North Korea as a tourist,the cultural whiplash began quickly. Nothing is like you expected back home, startingwith time itself. North Korea is one of the only countries inthe world that doesn’t use a standardized calendar based around widespread dates, seasons,and measurements. Instead, they have their own calendar thatwas adopted in 1997, on the third anniversary of the death of Juche founder Kim Il-Sung. Time is marked from his birth, known as “Dayof the Sun”, and the calendar is a combination of historical Korean-era calendars and theGregorian calendar. Because North Korean dates only begin in 1912with the birth of their founder, the current year is only 109. That puts them almost two thousand years behindthe rest of us in years, so be careful not to make any “2020 vision” jokes whilevisiting. Those guards don’t look like they appreciatepuns. What’s the first thing you do when you starta vacation? Probably take a selfie and upload it to allyour social media channels. Not when you arrive in North Korea, becausethe internet as you know it doesn’t exist. Think about it - have you ever chatted withsomeone from North Korea on Twitter? To even own a computer in North Korea, youneed to get permission from the government, and each computer is registered with and strictlytracked by the government more seriously than deadly weapons in some places. Few people in North Korea can afford computers,so the easiest way to access the internet is through computer labs and internet cafesin big cities. But don’t count on being able to surf allyour favorite pages - North Korea has its own private Intranet, which runs similarlyto the basic internet from the 1990s, and you’ll only be able to access around thirtywebsites. And most of them are government informationand propaganda websites running on slow dial-up connections. As a tourist, you just have to worry aboutkeeping your head down, not making any waves, and learning what you can about the country.
But for those who live here, proving yourloyalty to the North Korean regime is a constant process and you find yourself marked by howloyal you and your family are seen as. Ever since 1957, the population of North Koreahas been divided into three classes, oddly named after fruits. The Tomatoes, the elite class, are calledthat way because they’re red (the color associated with communism) inside and out. Most likely to be politicians and militaryofficers, they have special privileges and are eligible for elite positions. The Apples, the second class, are called thatbecause they’re red on the outside but not the inside. Most citizens fall into this class, and areseen as needing improvement and frequent surveillance. But they’re better off than the grapes,who are the lawbreakers who committed serious crimes - scandalous things like making anillegal phone call. Every citizen has their status, or songbun,printed on their identification records and it influences every aspect of their life fromschool to career. Committing a crime isn’t good anywhere,and if you did it back home you’d probably be spending some time in jail. But you’d be the only person it affects.
Not so in North Korea, where the three-generationsrule means your entire family can pay for your crime. Those who commit a crime against the stateare sent to the brutal labor camps for punishment and re-education, but so are up to three generationsof their relatives - even if none of them have ever been accused of a crime. Even if you were a loyal, patriotic memberof North Korean society, a tomato can become a grape in an instant because of somethingtheir relative did. Family reunions are great, but not when you’rereunited digging ditches in a labor camp. Well, at least it’s easy to stay out oftrouble. You just have to avoid doing anything thatwould anger the massive surveillance apparatus that works to track down all enemies of thestate at the first sign of trouble. We hope you didn’t dress too casually whenyou came on the trip, because it’s very easy to get into legal trouble in North Koreafor something as simple as your pants. Blue jeans are banned in North Korea becausethey consider them a symbol of American imperialism.
But at least you can easily change your clothing. If you were a resident of North Korea, yourlife would be strictly controlled - starting with your hair. In the Hermit Kingdom, all residents musthave a government-approved hairstyle, one of 28. Unmarried women have to keep their hair short,but married women have more freedom. Women play surprising roles in North Korea,including exclusively filling the role of traffic guards. Remember that grumpy old crossing guard whenyou were going to school? She looked like a grandma, but your grandmanever yelled “Move it along!” quite like that. In North Korea, traffic police are very different. Staffed entirely by young, attractive womenunder the age of 26, this position has existed since the early days of the regime. Because the country didn’t have trafficlights yet, they had humans direct traffic. The traffic women of North Korea are amongthe most prestigious positions people aspire to there, with the workers getting higherpay, free housing, and even military honors for doing their job well.
We’re a long way from the intersection byyour elementary school. In your spare time when you’re not beingtaken on guided tours around the country with the other tourists, you figured you shouldtake in some leisure activities. You heard a game of basketball was being playedlocally, and you love the game. But it doesn’t take long into play untilyou realize this definitely isn’t the basketball you know. They play a game with different rules thananywhere else on the planet. Kim Jong-Il had courts installed in all ofhis palaces, and his son is friends with NBA bad boy Dennis Rodman, but they’ve changedmajor details in the game. Three-pointers are now worth eight points,missing a free throw subtracts one point from the team’s score, and any baskets made inthe last eight seconds are now worth eight points. That makes for a chaotic finish to the game,but a confusing one for any outsiders watching.
Recreation in North Korea is as strange aseverything else they do, but the oddness doesn’t end when you return to your hotel. You’re in a hotel with almost every othertourist in the country, in a centralized location surrounded by water on an island in Pyongyang. The Yanggakdo Hotel is one of the nicest placesin the country, always kept comfortable even when most of the city is without basic comfortslike air conditioning. Power goes out regularly in North Korea atnight, so much that it can be seen from space as the country goes dark, but you don’thave to worry about that. Don’t count on enjoying your favorite TVshows, though - like the internet, you can only get a select few TV channels, and they’realmost all government propaganda. You were lucky enough to be in North Koreafor the biggest event of the year, as the country set the Guinness Book of World Recordsaward for the show with the largest number of participants.
That’s the Arirang Festival, a massive collectionof gymnastics and art exhibits designed to celebrate the North Korean culture and regime. Also known as the Arirang Mass Games, theyretell an ancient Korean folk story about a young couple torn apart by an evil landlord. Romance and anti-capitalism in one show - perfectfor North Korea. Getting selected to participate is a greathonor in the country, and North Koreans are chosen to participate as young as five yearsold. The biggest Arirang Festival set a recordin 2007 with over 100,000 participants. But the biggest, strangest secret of NorthKorea is one very few people get to see, unless they’re members of the North Korean military. The Korean Demilitarized Zone, standing betweenthe borders of North and South Korea, is the most heavily guarded zone in the world andhas been standing since 1953 when an armistice was signed between the two sides of the KoreanWar. But an armistice isn’t a peace deal, andneither North or South Korea acknowledges the other’s legitimacy. That leaves them with a 160-mile long stripof land divided between the North Korean authorities and United Nation control, with a small meetingarea in the middle for negotiations.
But things in the DMZ have been anything butpeaceful, as there have been hundreds of small conflicts between the two sides, resultingin over a thousand deaths among the soldiers stationed to guard it. But just because it’s the most heavily guardedlocation on the planet doesn’t mean North Korea is letting their propaganda game slip. Large loudspeakers installed on the NorthKorean side broadcast messages towards the other side, with South Korea sending theirown right back. They also send balloons with leaflets attachedacross the border. These extensive propaganda efforts only endedin 2018, when a no-fly-zone was established for the DMZ as an attempt to decrease tensions. But one unique propaganda effort is stillstanding, not that it’s easy to see unless you’re living close to the DMZ.
When South Korea built a village on theirside of the DMZ, with 226 residents to show North Koreans why they should defect, NorthKorea decided to build one of their own. It’s a fully furnished town called “PeaceVillage”, filled with houses, schools, and hospitals, but it’s only missing one thing- people. North Korea claims that it houses 200 people,but no one has ever seen anyone there, and close observers say there are a lot of giveawaysthat the village is a shell. The houses don’t have glass installed inthe windows, and the lights seem to turn on and off on an automatic cycle. They did briefly have the world’s tallestflagpole, designed to eclipse the South Korean one, but now the only time anyone comes intothe empty village is to keep it looking fresh and clean. You saw a lot of bizarre things in North Korea,and you can’t wait to share them with all your worried friends and family - now thatyou can access the internet again. Thank you for reading.