Hi everyone,

I recently visited North-Korea as part of a large train journey. I already postent them in other sections, but forgot to place it here. Now here they are. I hope you find them interesting.

Arriving by train in the city was a strange experience in itself. Because of the energy crisis in the country, many parts of Pyongyang don't have electricity on parts of the day. There's also no streetlights in most parts of the city. So we travelled by train along huge rows of commie blocks, which we could only vaguely see in the moonlight. Creepy.

After arriving on Pyongyang's main station (military music blasting through the speakers...), we were waited for by our guides, who immidiately brought us to our hotel. This hotel (160 meter high) is only meant for foreign tourists and is situated on an island in the river (so tourists can easily be seperated from North-Koreans). This means that they can allow things for the tourists that are not allowed outside. We had BBC World on our TV and there's even a casino in the basement! :eek:

The next days we wouldn't go anywhere without our guides. They showed us lots of monumental places in the country at a very fast pace, while trying to ensure you won't see much of the regular life in the country. But they don't fully succeed in that: you get quite a good impression of the poor village life when passing through the countryside by train or car. Unfortuantely, taking pictures of such scenes was out of the question.

In Pyongyang things are a bit more relaxed: you can freely take pictures in most streets. This is because Pyongyang's citizens are privleged citizens: they get better clothes, jobs, food, etc. Also, the city doesn't look bad at all. It's not beautiful though, except when you like huge amounts of commie blocks and giant communist momuments.

The country is getting a bit more modern. There are far more private cars on the streets than some years ago. Also, there are some food kiosks on street, operated privately (!) by people, at the same time competing(!!) the state-run shops. What's more: FIAT recently opened a car factory in the country... and there's even advertising (!!!!) in the streets for the cars produced there.

Anyway, here's are the first pics of Pyongyang. Unfortunately during our entire stay it was very foggy and cloudy. I tried to correct some pics because of that, but this also means that they are a bit grainy and strange coloured.

More pics will follow.

1. The Great Leder Kim-Il-Sung. Still President of the Democratic(?) People's Republic of Korea, despite the fact that he's dead since a couple of years.
http://www.xs4all.nl/~davidee/Vertigo/PYON07.jpg

2. The Arch of Triumph. Of course a little bit higher than the one in Paris.
http://www.xs4all.nl/~davidee/Vertigo/PYON01.jpg

3.
http://www.xs4all.nl/~davidee/Vertigo/PYON02.jpg

4.
http://www.xs4all.nl/~davidee/Vertigo/PYON03.jpg

5.
http://www.xs4all.nl/~davidee/Vertigo/PYON04.jpg

6.
http://www.xs4all.nl/~davidee/Vertigo/PYON05.jpg

7. The Great People's Study House, some sort of central library. Would they have George Orwell's 1984?
http://www.xs4all.nl/~davidee/Vertigo/PYON06.jpg

8.
http://www.xs4all.nl/~davidee/Vertigo/PYON08.jpg

9.
http://www.xs4all.nl/~davidee/Vertigo/PYON09.jpg

10. The Tower of Juche Idea (180 m). The Juche Idea is the principle on which the country is founded. It stresses the importance of independance and self-reliance for a country. A bit weird in a country that could only function because of cheap trade with the Soviet Union. The economy had collapsed since than, and there's even not enough food in the country now. Things are slowly improving though, partly because they now (reluctantly) accept foreign aid.
http://www.xs4all.nl/~davidee/Vertigo/PYON10.jpg

11. The view from the Juche Tower
http://www.xs4all.nl/~davidee/Vertigo/PYON11.jpg

12.
http://www.xs4all.nl/~davidee/Vertigo/PYON12.jpg

13.
http://www.xs4all.nl/~davidee/Vertigo/PYON13.jpg

14. A busy street in the heart of the city.
http://www.xs4all.nl/~davidee/Vertigo/PYON14.jpg

15.
http://www.xs4all.nl/~davidee/Vertigo/PYON15.jpg

16.
http://www.xs4all.nl/~davidee/Vertigo/PYON16.jpg

17.
http://www.xs4all.nl/~davidee/Vertigo/PYON17.jpg

18.
http://www.xs4all.nl/~davidee/Vertigo/PYON18.jpg

19.
http://www.xs4all.nl/~davidee/Vertigo/PYON19.jpg

20. Night view from our hotel room (40th floor)
http://www.xs4all.nl/~davidee/Vertigo/PYON20.jpg

More Pyongyang pics.

21. Again the 180 meter high tower of the Juche idea.
http://www.xs4all.nl/~davidee/Vertigo/PYON21.jpg

22.
http://www.xs4all.nl/~davidee/Vertigo/PYON22.jpg

23. Some pics of Pyongyang's metro. The metro has two lines. Like more metro systems in (former) communist countries, it is decorated with lots of propaganda / art. The metro is located very deep below the surface, so it can also act as atomic shelter. This is clearly visible because of the huge steel doors at the bottom of the escalators. I recommend to visit this great website about Pyongyang's metro (http://www.pyongyang-metro.com/).
http://www.xs4all.nl/~davidee/Vertigo/PYON23.jpg

24. Puhung Station.
http://www.xs4all.nl/~davidee/Vertigo/PYON24.jpg

25.
http://www.xs4all.nl/~davidee/Vertigo/CONTEST01.jpg

26. Puhung Station.
http://www.xs4all.nl/~davidee/Vertigo/PYON25.jpg

27. Yonggwan Station.
http://www.xs4all.nl/~davidee/Vertigo/PYON26.jpg

28. The trains are former Berlin "U-Bahn" trains.
http://www.xs4all.nl/~davidee/Vertigo/PYON36.jpg

29.
http://www.xs4all.nl/~davidee/Vertigo/PYON35.jpg

30. The Koryo hotel, the best hotel in town. Here, busisnessmen and foreign diplomats sleep. Tourists sleep in the second best hotel of the country. Both hotels are usually pretty empty. ;)
http://www.xs4all.nl/~davidee/Vertigo/PYON27.jpg

31. We were told this old farmhouse just outside Pyongyang was Kim-Il-Sung's birthplace. I don't know if that's really true.
http://www.xs4all.nl/~davidee/Vertigo/PYON28.jpg

32. Some building in downtown Pyongyang. At night, those coloured plates on the outside light up like a 70s disco. This while more Pyongyang citizens don't have electricity at night.
http://www.xs4all.nl/~davidee/Vertigo/PYON29.jpg

33. Of course this building in Kim-Il-Sung square is always illuminated at night.
http://www.xs4all.nl/~davidee/Vertigo/PYON30.jpg

34. The weirdest place that we visited was the School Children's Palace. Children come here to do after school activities, like sports, computers or music. We were told they're the best kids of the country. I have to admit the things we saw them perform were amazing. I don't know if the lessons they take are a lot of fun though... (but that's of course irrelevant in this country where the individual doesn't matter).
http://www.xs4all.nl/~davidee/Vertigo/PYON31.jpg

35. The computer room in the School Children's Palace. Of course no internet access. They have Windows XP though...
http://www.xs4all.nl/~davidee/Vertigo/PYON32.jpg

36. A performance in the Palace. Really amazing what kids can do if they're trained in the ""right"" way. Of course the performance was a tribute to Kim-Il-Sung and the Worker's Party.
http://www.xs4all.nl/~davidee/Vertigo/PYON33.jpg

37. We also visited a circus. It consisted mostly of arobatics and those were really amazing. The most interesting thing however was the clown's act: here there made fun of an "American" soldier. Blurry pic, but you get the idea.
http://www.xs4all.nl/~davidee/Vertigo/PYON34.jpg

Ok, this were the last pics of Pyongyang. But soon I'll post some pics more North-Korean pics, this time about Kaesong and the border with South Korea.

My last pics from North-Korea. This time from our side trip to the south of the country: the city of Kaesong and the border with South-Korea.

Kaesong is a large city in the south of North-Korea. It has about 300,000 inhabitants. It's special because some historical parts survived the Korean war undamaged; so unlike other North-Korea cities, it has still some parts from before the Korean war.
Besides, I also found it fascinating to walk around in another city besides Pyongyang. While Pyongyang is really a showcase city, things are different in cities like this. People look more poor and there are almost no cars on the streets, only lots of pedestrians and cyclists. Unfortunately, our guides didn't allow us to make pics on regular streets; although I managed to take a couple (see below).

Kaesong is very close to the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) with South-Korea, an area of 4 kilometers wide (2 km on each side of the border). In fact it is not demilitarized at all; the armies of both countries are standing face to face there, reminding of how the Iron Curtain was in Europe during the Cold War. Very sad that a country is devided like that.

The most special place is the Joint Security Area (JSA). Here there's no fence on the border, only a very low concrete wall. In theory both countries have the right to maintain the security in all parts of the JSA, but since a couple of incidents both armies now stay on their own side of the border. Right in the middel of the JSA there are a couple of barracks, in which talks used to be held between the two countries. The border goes straight through the barracks.

The visit to the DMZ is something I will never forget. It's such a strange and sad place. A bit scary standing in a place with so much international tension. Also because we were "guarded" all the time by two North-Korean soldiers...

Ok, enough text, here are the pics.

1. The busy "freeway..." between Pyongyang and Kaesong. In fact it also goes to the DMZ. Just before entering the DMZ there's a sign: "Seoul: 70 km". But of course you won't reach Seoul from that road...
http://www.xs4all.nl/~davidee/Vertigo/DMZ00.jpg

2. The main street of Kaesong.
http://www.xs4all.nl/~davidee/Vertigo/DMZ11.jpg

3. An overview of a historical part of Kaesong.
http://www.xs4all.nl/~davidee/Vertigo/DMZ10.jpg

4. Just a street in Kaesong.
http://www.xs4all.nl/~davidee/Vertigo/DMZ02.jpg

5.
http://www.xs4all.nl/~davidee/Vertigo/DMZ08.jpg

6. In the historical part of Kaesong.
http://www.xs4all.nl/~davidee/Vertigo/DMZ01.jpg

7. The entrance gate of the DMZ. Picture taken inside the DMZ, looking out to the northern side. Note the freeway sign just outside the gate.
http://www.xs4all.nl/~davidee/Vertigo/DMZ03.jpg

8. The Joint Security Area (JSA). The border runs right through the middle of the barracks. The large building on the other side is in South-Korea, I think it's their visitor's center.
http://www.xs4all.nl/~davidee/Vertigo/DMZ04.jpg

9.
http://www.xs4all.nl/~davidee/Vertigo/DMZ05.jpg

10. A North-Korean soldier just off the border
http://www.xs4all.nl/~davidee/Vertigo/DMZ06.jpg

11. Some South-Korean soldiers.
http://www.xs4all.nl/~davidee/Vertigo/DMZ07.jpg

12. Inside one of the barracks in the JSA. The border runs right through the large table. The North-Korean soldiers stand there to prevent us exiting the building on the South-Korean side.
http://www.xs4all.nl/~davidee/Vertigo/DMZ09.jpg

13. And on the freeway, back to Pyongyang. This is my last North-Korean picture. I hope you found them as fascinating as I found visiting this country!
http://www.xs4all.nl/~davidee/Vertigo/DMZ13.jpg

Awesome pictures Vertigo. I would've been scared as hell taking pictures of the north korean soldiers.

holy crap. i wouldve been scared just going on the trip.

welcome to the forums tchen!
and what an experience traveling in N Korea
( and compare N korean buildings from the S korean visitor's center ;) )

Great pictures! I especially liked the ones from Kaesong, it's rare to see pictures of North Korea outside of Pyongyang.

Definitly very rare pics... that must have been such an unforgettable experience in many ways!

Wo, u know? U make me really wanna go and have a look in Pyongyang.
By the way, what's that really tall triangular building?
It's looks mysterious

welcome to the Korean Forums k2! btw that tall building is the Ryugyung Hotel. Its construction was stalled but it is gonna be continued pretty soon.

welcome to the Korean Forums k2! btw that tall building is the Ryugyung Hotel. Its construction was stalled but it is gonna be continued pretty soon.
Yo, thx for telling me, it's a hotel? amazing! I think it's gonna be the highest hotel in the world!
I just love Korea, dun know why, I learnt Korean and I can read them now, but just dun know how to speak><

Yo, thx for telling me, it's a hotel? amazing! I think it's gonna be the highest hotel in the world!
I just love Korea, dun know why, I learnt Korean and I can read them now, but just dun know how to speak><


The ryugyong hotel won't be finished ever. It's in this condition for nearly 10 years. 10 years of uncovered contrete without any protection against the rain and cold. It's gonna be a serious problem for N Korea because it will be very difficult to demolish and it can't be completed anymore.

And even if they can finish it, 2 meters a floor isn't really a nice hotel.

Kim il sung is not a president but Kim Jung il. He's dead.

김일숭is김중일's father, isn't it?
They are both presidents, but 김일숭is dead now

김일숭is김중일's father, isn't it?
They are both presidents, but 김일숭is dead now

It's 김일성 and 김정일. Keep in mind that North Korea's Romanization is slightly different from South Korea's.

O.................I got them wrong.........
But , thx for telling me there are difference, because I am following the South Korea one to make it up