More on North Korea

CNN's travel section just published my story on the Mount Kumgang trip. You can see it by clicking here

Food for Thought

Some of the food consumed during my travels

More Korea Pics

More photos can be found at my flickr site

Be Careful Out There

Safety signs posted at the ship engine building factory of Hyundai Heavy Industries in Ulsan:

What a Relief - Capitalism in North Korea

Prices were not cheap when it came to touring in North Korea. Most curious was the bathroom policy on the Kumgang Trail.



In order to protect the environment, we were told, there would be a charge to use the outhouse. Actually, there are different prices depending what you want to do.



For just one U.S. dollar (dollars only, no wan accepted here) you can urinate. For $2 you can sit down and really enjoy yourself. The sign explains everything. Though I got chased away for taking the pictures.

Neighbors to the North

Judging what life for North Koreans is like from encounters at Kumgang Mountain is a little like making conclusions about oranges based on drinking Tang. It’s a watered down version.



Or is it?

Theories abound about the North Koreans who work at Kumgang Mountain. Theories because few will talk to you. Fewer will let you take their picture. None will let you take a picture of the Kim Jong Il pin that they all wear because “they want to” said one and “so you can tell us from the South Korean workers,” said another. Ask for a photo and they all say the same thing: “not while I am working.” As if we would have a chance when we were all hanging out aftwards.



You’ll never see a North Korean alone in the Kumgang region. They always travel in pairs so that each can keep an eye on the other.

The ones who work at Kumgang Mountain are hand picked. Most, it seems, attended a hospitality trade school. Almost all are of average height and weight. Taller and more filled out, it seemed, then the gaunt soldiers we saw along the way. North Koreans are said to be shorter than their South Korean counterparts because of malnutrition. Those working at the resort were not.



They were also dressed in western style hiking clothes – goretex jackets, hiking boots and pants. All seemed new. But every so often you’d see a worker walk by who was not meant to deal with the public and he or she would be dressed in more modest wool clothes. The North Koreans you got a glimpse of beyond the fences also seemed to be more moderately dressed. All seemed to be wearing dark colors.

They also all wear this pin to differentiate them from the South Korean employees. All said it was their choice to wear the pin, they were not asked to.





If Hyundai Asan knows more about their situation, they certainly weren’t telling the group of reporters I traveled with. One military official told us he thought the Kumgang Mountain workers were kept separate from other North Koreans so as to prevent them from telling others what they had glimpsed of the South Korean life. But some of the workers we talked to said they did go back to visit their families.

It goes through your mind that the workers must see the South Koreans with their fancy hiking clothes, new shoes, gadgetry and lots of money, and recognize that their situation is different. But does it bother them? I got the sense that some of them looked down on the western style of life. Whether they believed in the communist lifestyle, or were indoctrinated to believe in it is a question that can’t be answered.



They certainly had rehearsed answers to tell us. At least that was our theory. One snack vendor seemed to find it curious that we were asking whether she wanted this job that allowed her to encounter foreigners, versus a job elsewhere.

“Why would it matter?,” she asked. “All jobs are important.”

We were advised by Hyundai not to talk politics and current events. But the North Koreans we encountered seemed versed in the current news, though with a different spin than ours. The snack vendor asked why the US was holding off on sending oil and rice to North Korea, despite the six-party agreements. I explained that the US wasn’t the ones responsible for sending that, it was South Korea’s role and only once North Korea shut down its reactor.



Another asked if it was true that the US was amassing equipment to attack Iran. Papers in Russia and Kuwait and reported that the week before we were there.

Two of them said that they didn’t hate Americans, just what President Bush was doing to them. That seemed to be the practiced response. Another hypothesized that the US wouldn’t invade North Korea because they are scared of the great leader who would protect the Koreans. That was the only mention of Kim Jong Il. The subject was relatively taboo.

A waitress got very upset that the journalists had taken her photo. She asked that the photos be erased. Then she insisted. It wasn’t clear if she was offended that she hadn’t been given permission, scared that her photo was taken or just really shy. But she was upset enough to raise the issue with our handler from Hyundai Asan.

Road to North Korea - Spiritual Hiking

People seem to have two reasons to go to Kumgang Mountain. The first is why I was there - to get a chance to go into North Korea. It is the easiest way though it is a bit like being in the Truman Show, as one person I was with observed. You are always being watched and it all feels very planned and programmed. But hey, you are in North Korea.

The other reason is that for South Koreans the place is very special. One South Korean named Im Yong-Shik told me that he remembers singing a song about the place when he was in school and he's always wanted to come since then.



He thought the place was beautiful and the water was "pure and clear". But he did find it sad that the North Koreans

Yong-Shik is right. The place is beautiful. The hike is 8.5 km roundtrip to waterfalls, ponds and along a river.











Along the way you see lots of things carved into the stone. The ones with red lettering are North Korean propoganda, according to my translator. Some of it is from when the Chinese were in power. Most of it praises the purity of the air and water and also the great leader and his father.

Road to North Korea - In the Zone

Once inside North Korea you are greeted by music and, for some reason, a man dressed in a bear costume waving at you. Bet you never knew about Smokey's commie cousin.

Since we were a group of U.S. journalists (there were seven of us) we got our own escort from Hyundai Asan. And a special bus.



We drove for about ten kilometers from the border and headed to the Kumgang Mountain resort area. Again, no pictures were allowed. But this time there was the slightly intimidating factor of North Korean guards periodically posted along the road, lying in tunnels that were dug by the road, and standing on perches overlooking the road. Each soldier had a red flag that would be raised if you were seen snapping a photo.
That would mean the bus would be stopped, we were told. Though it wasn't clear what would be done.

The reason, we were told, was that we were driving through a military base. Indeed there were tanks and anti-aircraft equipment perched on the hills overlooking the road and tucked inside cement bunkers. But there were also farm fields and villages and big paintings of the president and his father on a building and a billboard.

Nonetheless, I decided it wasn't the time to try and risk the picture taking. The soldiers had a way of always seeming to be looking right at you. I figured I'd give this Axis of Evil the benefit of the doubt that they could see you.

The road, built by Hyundai Asan, is lined by green fences with barb wire at the top. North Korea proper is on the other side. When you finally get to the resort, it is the same thing.

On one side there is typical tourist shop and information center:







On the other side is North Korean villages:










It's surreal.

Road to North Korea - No Camera, No Camera, No Camera

The road from the South Korean border to the Kumgang Mountain takes you through the DMZ and what is described as a 'North Korean military base' though it has villages and farmland in it too.

From the minute you get on the bus you are told no pictures allowed. They tell you that many times. Here's the one picture I managed to sneak of the DMZ:




There is not much to see in the DMZ, it looks like a nature preserve with cranes and other birds flying around. We were told that other than the road, and the train track bed, the area is pretty much all filled with land mines.

After about a ten minute ride we arrive at the North Korean border. We are shuttled into a tent where we must line up according to a number on our visas. When you get to the border agent you realize he has your picture printed out with information on you. Not too much conversation though:
"CNN?" he asked.
"Yes," I replied.
"First time?" he asked.
"Yes," I replied.
"Have nice day," he said, then stamped my passport.

I was now officially in North Korea.

Road to North Korea - Get on the Bus

It takes a lot of buses to do the tourism thing in North Korea. We were headed to Kumgang Mountain resort in North Korea, one of the few places foreigners can get in and out of North Korea with ease.

The resort was set up by the Hyundai Asan company, a subsidiary of the carmaker, back in 2005. It is in south eastern North Korea set in an area of the spiritual importance for Koreans. The company paid $1 billion for 50 years of exclusive rights to develop the area and spent $400 million building it. So far 1.4 million people, mostly South Koreans and South Korean expatriots have visited it in the two years it has been open. The resort breaks even now but they haven't recouped the investment yet. You wanna bet Hyundai is banking on unification?

We spent the night at a hotel on the South Korean side of the border. The hotel was set on the shore which is fortified with a fence and patrolled by South Korean army.



The next morning, we started our day at a bus stop in Yongpyong, South Korea. After breakfast, we picked up our visas. We had submitted the information weeks before and the visas included our name and pictures, information about us (and the media outlets we worked for). Interestingly, our visas were different in color from the other South Korean tourists. The two Korean-American journalists with us had different color visas too.



We also had to submit information on our cameras - type, serial number, lens power. The first hint this wasn't a trip to Disneyland.

After boarding a different bus we headed to the border where we needed to go through South Korean customs and immigration.




There was some duty free shopping and information on various things, like malaria warnings, as we waited the next move. Across the way from the immigration stop was a railway station. The Hyundai corporation had built the station, and railroads, to North Korea but on the day the South Koreans were going to send the first train, the North Korean government changed its mind and refused to let it enter the country. Fickle fickle fickle.




Then we headed through immigration, and boarded another bus. We were off to North Korea.

South Korean Reaction to Virginia Tech Shooting

A posting I did for the CNN.com blog:

South Korean: 'I am ashamed'
Here in Seoul, the reaction among South Koreans is shock and shame that the Virginia Tech killer came from this country. Local news programs and papers are filled with news on the deadliest shooting in U.S. history.

One shipping company worker told us, "It's a tragic incident. But to find out that he is a Korean, I am ashamed and confused."

This South Korean added, "I keep asking myself what would have made him do such a thing. It's a very bad day."

A bank employee said she was surprised by the news and said it is the only thing people at her bank are talking about.

The story of the shootings is of great interest to South Koreans not just because of Cho's connection to the country, but also because of the number of Koreans that have ties to the United States, including a large number that are studying in the United States.

The U.S. embassy in Seoul told me that more than 90,000 student visas were issued for South Koreans to go study in the United States, more than any other country in the world.

There's concern among some here that there could be a backlash against Koreans in the United States. We took a call at the bureau here from a parent with a child studying in New York who was very concerned that all the coverage would affect things.

She told us she was home with her friends, who like her have kids studying in the United States, and they are watching the TV coverage. Their children are worried that American students are looking at them differently now and "seems like they are avoiding them." She said she and her friends are also worried the news makes all Koreans look bad.

A newspaper here also reflected that concern.

"Now we find out that the criminal behind the massacre is Korean. It is shocking," said an editorial in Seoul's Hankyoreh newspaper. "But we are also hoping that this incident does not create a reason to discriminate against Koreans or Asians."

Seoul Searchin' - You Should See 'Pash' Spice's T-Shirt

T-shirt worn by a 12-year old girl:

Seoul Searchin' - Got the Munchies

A local delicacy here in Seoul is silkworm lavae. Your daring blogger gave it a try.



It taste a lot like eating soil with a little crunch. If it were a wine, I would say earthy and smoky with a pungent bouquet reminiscent of a the moldiest french cheese one could conjure up.

I only ate two of them.

Seoul Searchin' - No Fan of Mr. Bolton

We met today with Chun Young-Woo, Deputy Foreign Minister and a representative of South Korea at the six-party talks.

It seems Mr. Chun is no fan John Bolton who wanted complete denuclearization before talking to the North Koreans. Bolton's "insistence on perfection" from the North Koreans probably delayed dealing with the North Koreans enough to allow them to expand their plutonium enrichment much more.

It shows that "good intentions can produce bad results," Chun said, suggesting that a less hardline stance against the North Koreans earlier might have prevented the development of the country's program and subsequent missile test.

Not everyone would agree with Mr. Chun, mind you. Others have told us that they believe the North Koreans would not sit down until they tested a missile, figuring that would gain them some clout.

Seoul Searchin' - Pueblo Publishings

The Korea Tims published a story about the USS Pueblo today. Three days after your blogger told you about it.

By Lee Jin-woo
Staff Reporter

North Korea expressed its willingness to hand over a U.S. spy ship, the U.S.S Pueblo, captured by the North’s navy in the late 1960s, on the visit of a U.S. governor to Pyongyang last week, diplomatic sources in Seoul said Sunday.

It was belatedly known that the North hinted at the possible return of the captured U.S. spy ship, which has been exhibited as a war trophy at a North Korean port for three decades, to Gov. Bill Richardson of New Mexico and his delegation, according to the Yonhap News Agency.

The delegation, which also included Anthony Principi, a former U.S. secretary for veteran affairs, and Victor Cha, a White House advisor on inter-Korean affairs, was invited to see the insides of the 906-ton ship, which has been displayed near a river at the North’s capital since 1999.

Last Wednesday, Gov. Richardson crossed the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) to Seoul with the remains of six U.S. soldiers killed during the 1950-53 Korean War after wrapping up his four-day trip to the reclusive North.

The Stalinist state, however, did not disclose any specific plan on when and how they would return the ship.

``It remains to be seen whether the North has a sincere attitude about returning the symbol of Cold War confrontation between Pyongyang and Washington,’’ an unnamed diplomatic source was quoted as saying by Yonhap.

If the U.S. takes concrete steps to normalize relations with North Korea, the Pyongyang regime may actually give back the ship, said the diplomatic source.

The North has disclosed its intention to return the ship several times.

After a 2005 visit to Pyongyang, former U.S. Ambassador to South Korea Donald Gregg quoted North Korean officials as saying that they had no need to keep the ship if a top-level American official makes a trip to the North, a goodwill gesture toward normalizing relations between the two countries.

Aides to former Prime Minister Lee Hae-chan said Lee demanded that North Korea send back the ship to the U.S. during his four-day trip to Pyongyang last month.

However, as no reporter was allowed to accompany him on the trip, details of the discussions have not been revealed to the public.

The latest gesture comes amid active international efforts to denuclearize North Korea.

A Feb. 13 accord at the six-party talks calls for the normalization of diplomatic ties between Pyongyang and Washington, in addition to making the Korean Peninsula nuclear-free.

The U.S. ship was seized off North Korea’s coast on Jan. 23, 1968.

In the attack, one U.S. crewmember was killed and several others wounded. Eighty-two surviving sailors were held there for 11 months before they were released.

The North Koreans contended that the Pueblo had violated their territorial waters, a claim vigorously denied by the United States. The crewmembers were repatriated on Dec. 23, 1968.

The ship was retained by North Korea, though she is still the property of the U.S.
Navy, according to its Naval Historical Center

Seoul Searchin' - Have Fun Stormin' the Castle

A visit today to Changdeokgun Palace. It was built in the 1405 for King Taejong. It was rebuilt in 1610 after the Japanese burned it down. Out of an abundance of caution, they now have a lot of fire extinguishers. Though the only Japanese I saw were wielding cameras, not torches.

The palace is a huge complex of buildings within the walls. It also includes a garden where the royalty use to go hunting. There are only three english tours a day so it is quite popular. Our tour was an intimate gathering of a good 150 picture snapping tourists (including this guy). The drill sargent/tour guide kept us going at a quick pace on the 2.5 km (1.5 miles) tour. Barely enough time to snap photos (to be posted later).


Despite the speaker around her neck, and mike in her hand, about the only thing I heard was her callin everyone to attention with a loud "uh uh". So I am afraid you will have to google it to find out more information.

Seoul Searchin' - Elevator Safety is Fun

Seoul Searchin' - USS Pueblo To Be Returned?

We met today with Lee Hwa Young, member of the Uri Party. Mr. Lee was in North Korea meeting with what he characterized as "high officials" in Pyongyang to discuss North-South relations.

He said that last month the North Koreans told him they were considering two gestures of good will. The first, which just came to fruition this week, was the return of the G.I.s bodies to the U.S. The second, which hasn't happened yet, is the return of the U.S.S. Pueblo, a U.S. ship captured by North Korea in the 1960s. It currently is moored on a river in Pyongyang and is used as propoganda by the North Koreans.

Given how little information there is coming out of North Korea it is very hard to verify this. But a spokesman for Governor Bill Richardson, who was just in North Korea to retrieve the G.I.'s bodies, says the subject never came up when he was in the country. Mr. Lee said the North Koreans were considering the move to further build trust between the U.S. and North Koreans.

Mr. Lee also described a bleak economic situation in North Korea, which is not surprising. It's all about trying to read subtle clues. He took a comment from one high level official of a sign of even worsening conditions.

The official told Mr. Lee that heating supplies were so scarce that he could only heat one room in his house so his entire family, three generations, could keep warm. The fact that a high level official can't get proper heating supplies is significant, and the idea that an official would admit that to an outsider and expose a weakness, gives a sense of how bad things are, noted Mr. Lee.

Seoul Searchin' - A Theory on Competitive Noraebang

Noraebang, or Korean karaoke, is a must-do for a night on the town. It means room of music. The traditional evening out in Korea involves the three stops - dinner, drinks, noraebang.



The catch is that at the end of each song you get scored. It, like the videos that accompany each song, is entirely random. But close observation shows that one does better with Beatles than 80s pop like Duran Duran. Even better with Neil Diamond. But to achieve true perfection, it is best to try something soulful that appeals to an international audience, like Sweet Child O' Mine.



If that doesn't encourage Axel Rose to make his comeback, nothing will.

Seoul Searchin' - Fun with Signs and Logos

In the elevator at the Ministry of Economy and Finance:




In a bathroom at the Korean Broadcasting System:



At the Namdaemun outdoor market: