North Korea Blog

North Korea

This page collects together my amateurish scribblings regarding a trip to North Korea in October 2005, as well as linking to the experiences of some other visitors and a tossing in a few useful sites.

Kim in Kaesong

My stuff
Day One – Pyongyang airport, Grand Monument, Arirang Games
Day Two – Morning – Mausoleum of Kim Il-sung
Day Two – Afternoon – DMZ, Korean Wall, Kaesong Folk Hotel
Day Three – Mt Janam, Koryo Museum, King Kongmin’s tomb, Reunification monument, Kim Il-sung’s birthplace, Pyongyang subway, flower exhibition, State Circus, War Memorial
Day Four – USS Pueblo, War Museum, Arch of Triumph, TV Tower, Chollima Statue, Juche Tower, Kim Il-sung Square, Yanggakdo Hotel.
Day Five – exit

Other traveller’s tales from 2005
Mike from Omaha 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6
Austin Arensburg 1, 2
John Goodman
Dan Schorr 1, 2, 3, 4
Staypuff
Yeohaeng Ilgi 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17
Chanuchan 1, 2, 3, 4, 5
Ari on The Web 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16
Adam Malis on NKZone
Paul & Rick Bakker
The Long Haul
Zmrzlina
Stephen Codrington (Visit One)
Stephen Codrington (Visit Two)
Nicolas Jansen
Carol Rueckert
J. Scott Burgeson
Andrei Lankov – Korea Times
Andrei Lankov – Asia Times
LA Times report

Flickr Sets
Blogjam – North Korea 2005
John Goodman – DRRK 2005
John Goodman – Arirang 2005
Puma – DPRK 2005
Mark Wang – DPRK Tour 2005
Veji – North Korea
Soda Zurich – North Korea 2005
HKP – North Korea
Austin Arensberg – North Korea
Prime8z – DPRK, April 2005
courier888 – Pyongyang 2005
scarycurlgirl – Pyongyang August 2005
Staypuff 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9

Other photos
Amazing Mass Games pictures from Werner Kranwetvogel
Lars Bech
Time magazine
Der Spiegel
BBC News

Travel info
Koryo Group – excellent organisation, lovely folk, tell ‘em Fraser sent you.

Further online reading
A Year In Pyongyang
NKZone

Read these
Bradley K. Martin – Under the Loving Care of the Fatherly Leader: North Korea and the Kim Dynasty: the Motherlode. Ferociously detailed, lengthy account of the World’s only communist dynasty.
Guy Delisle – Pyongyang: graphic novel that captures the atmosphere and absurdity of the capital city better than anything else I’ve read. Truly lovely.
Bruce Cummings – Another Country: essential reading if you want to understand why the DPRK behaves as it does. Generally well balanced, occasionally let down by the author’s obvious determination to show the North in the best possible light wherever possible, dwelling on the positive without ever properly addressing the negative.
Robert Willoughby – North Korea (Bradt Country Guides): all the places you’ll never get to see.
Michael Harrold – Comrades and Strangers: Behind the Closed Doors of North Korea: somewhat sad story of an Englishman’s seven-year stint in Pyongyang working for the Foreign Languages Publishing House.
Paul French – North Korea: The Paranoid Peninsula – A Modern History: a decent modern history of the country. Not a bad place to start.

Official DPRK Literature
www.north-korea-books.com. Your best bet for officially sanctioned DPRK literature online: from military history to recipe books to subscriptions to the Pyongyang Times. Purchase such eternal favourites as The U.S. Imperialists Started The Korean War and Let Us Advance Under The Banner Of Marxism-Leninism And The Juche Idea.

Watch these
The Game Of Their Lives
A State Of Mind
Crossing The Line
North Korea: A Day In The Life

26 Comments so far
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[...] I’ve assembled the majority of the photos I took into Flickr set, as well as tracking down the stories and photos of several other travellers and compiling the links on a single page alongside some other useful links. Happy reading. [...]

[...] [...]

[...] Visit his website to read all about it. Related posts: » “Defend the DPR of Korea!” [...]

[...] blogjam » North Korea [...]

[...] me of Fraser’s North Korea expedition. graybo typed this at 8:58 am |&#124 [...]

[...] What possessed me to travel to the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea? I lay the blame squarely on blogjam. Fraser made it sound like a fascinating place to visit, and the opportunity to see the Mass Games just one year after their last offering was just too good to pass up. And anything could happen between now and the next one, I thought. [...]

[...] I googled “north korea vacation destination,” and found out that about 1500 tourists go there every year. Who knew!? You can’t travel there independantly but there are organized (expensive and pre booked) tour to the north. http://www.blogjam.com/north-korea/ is a blog of some guys trip. It has lots of cool pics. [...]

[...] Last time I went to North Korea I brought back a trio of rather dandy social realism posters that Blogjam readers very kindly translated for me. [...]

[...] possessed me to travel to the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea? I lay the blame squarely on blogjam. Fraser made it sound like a fascinating place to visit, and the opportunity to see the Mass Games [...]

[...] Korea must be one of the weirdest places on earth. This blog compiles photos and articles about tourism in North Korea. I hate traveling, but I’d be [...]

[...] I think about it it’s probably the same website that introduced me to the wonderful world of Tourism in North Korea . The webcams of Svalbard captivated my entire office, and it gnawed away at me until eventually I [...]

dear sir am very happy to write his and am a prayer from ghana i want to join another team am very good defender .i aslo pray freindsbaby the team i pray now in ghana and i like to join thge team and i will be happy .thank u very umuch .bye

hi sir it me godfred eyiah from ghana his is my email adress owusu123@yahoo.com

Hello. Are there any restrictions about entering North Korea if one has been to the South or vice versa?

interesting i am going soon to Pyongyang as a tourist,i hope i will engoy,.

Hello, friend:

I visited your interesting blog. I would like to change links with you..
I have 2 blogs
Iam cuban But I live in USA
I hope you respond soon!
Thanks
Rafael

What I feel now is most of the countries try to increase their military power. Not only North Korea but also India (baying AWACAS planes), Pakistan, Israel, China ( they also going to increase the power of their navy), Iran, etc. So are they ready for the another world war?
(http://asanga86.wordpress.com/2009/05/31/north-korean-issue/)

Taking a jovial tour of North Korea is akin to happily strolling through concentration camps in World War 2 on a laugh filled tourist jaunt.

Work until your death in slave labor detention camps, public executions, corpses of children in the streets from people starving to death. You should have mentioned the North Korea your Communist minder would not let you see in your cute little ‘travel blog’.

this is one country that I would LOVE to vist. There would be so much to learn.

korea political situation will be covered at the intl studies steven sears cpa attorney guest lecture.

hello, everybody!
My name is Jambaa and 25 years old.I am specialist for nuclear technology and energy but, i like become Diplomata then i really interesting international relationships espcially, North Korea’s issues! So, i want to take helo from someone who help and contact me for my dream.

I forgetten leave contacts. email:asia_jambaa@yahoo.com

We dont hear about North Korea firing any missles recently. Our American government must have given them more of the taxpayers money to shut them up! At least for 4 more political years anyway or until Kim dies.

[...] Here’s a very interesting blog about some British visitors in North Korea: North Korea Blog | blogjam [...]

Pls i would like 2 play 4 u sir

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