Destination: North Korea
South Korean Tourist Killed in North Korea
by Michael Yessis | 07.15.08 | 2:31 PM ET
Park Wang-ja was shot by a North Korean soldier while strolling on the beach near the Mount Geumgang resort in North Korea. “The timing of the incident, given the delicate juncture of the outside world’s diplomatic engagement with Pyongyang, could hardly have been worse,” reports Time.
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* A Visit to Pyongyang
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Yahoo! BuzzA Visit to Pyongyang
by Eva Holland | 07.14.08 | 11:06 AM ET
An article in the Times of London—written anonymously—offers some darkly compelling details about the secretive North Korean capital. From the unsolicited life advice issued to the author at the border (“A single man may live like a king, but die like a dog”) to the constant surveillance from official “tour guides” (“That is a very journalistic question”), the story creates an eerie portrait of Kim Jong Il’s city. I can’t quite decide if it makes me curious to visit Pyongyang, or glad I’ve never been.
Related on World Hum:
* Top Five Forbidden Vacations for Americans
Top Five Forbidden Vacations for Americans
by Julia Ross | 06.18.08 | 10:07 AM ET
Fancy a retreat at North Korea’s Mount Kumgang Zen monastery? A leisurely tour of the ruins at Persepolis (pictured)? Dream on. Foreign Policy has a tongue-in-cheek look at five alluring destinations off-limits to Americans.
Wheeler: You Shouldn’t Always Mind Government Travel Advisories
by Elyse Franko | 06.17.08 | 4:47 PM ET
Lonely Planet founder Tony Wheeler says Iran, North Korea and other countries that appear on government travel advisories are worth the almost-guaranteed hassles. “There are plenty of reasons they’re worth the extra effort, and, furthermore, they’re generally far less risky than the rumors, horror stories, and ‘don’t go there’ warnings would have us believe,” he writes in GOOD Magazine’s travel issue.
The Ryugyong Hotel: ‘The Worst Building in the History of Mankind’?
by Michael Yessis | 02.05.08 | 10:14 AM ET
Longtime World Hum readers will be familiar with the Ryugyong Hotel, a sad icon of North Korea. “It’s a hotel that stands 105 floors, has 3,700 rooms and is crowned with five revolving restaurants,” we wrote in 2005. “No one has ever stayed in it. In fact, it has stood derelict since 1989.” Esquire recently dubbed the building the worst in the history of mankind.
Gadling Goes to North Korea
by Jim Benning | 12.13.07 | 12:13 PM ET
Gadling blogger Neil Woodburn has been posting some interesting pieces about his recent trip to North Korea. My favorite so far: The Sexy Traffic Girls of Pyongyang. Turns out there are no traffic signals in the capital. Hence, the “traffic girls.”
Border Stories: A Journey to Korea’s Joint Security Area
by Michael Yessis | 09.14.07 | 12:01 PM ET
North Korea and South Korea meet at just one place, the Joint Security Area (JSA) at Panmunjom, about 40 miles north of Seoul. The demilitarized zone, the mine-riddled buffer between the two countries, doesn’t extend there. Instead, “on the demarcation line itself stand five huts,” writes the Telegraph’s Alex Bellos about a trip to the JSA. “In the middle one, which tourists are allowed to enter, the line bisects the middle of a shiny, wooden negotiating table. Meetings between the two nations still go on here. Once in the hut, you can walk round the table—thus stepping a few yards into North Korea.” Bellos provides a brief but insightful look at the JSA, with some telling details about the efforts of both sides to control the propaganda war tourists are inevitably sucked into.
‘Welcome to Pyongyang’: The City in Photos
by Michael Yessis | 05.25.07 | 10:23 AM ET
Photographer Charlie Crane and writer Nick Bonner of Koryo Tours have teamed for a new book, Welcome to Pyongyang, which compiles photos and commentary from three trips they took to the North Korean capital. “Pyongyang” comes out in the U.S. next week, but The Guardian and Budget Travel both have sneak-peak slideshows. The pair’s commentary accompanies the Guardian presentation, and Budget Traveler has an excerpt from the book’s introduction.
Trains Cross Between North Korea and South Korea For First Time in 56 Years*
by Michael Yessis | 05.17.07 | 5:30 PM ET
The test run of two five-car trains today was met with “jubilation and pride,” according to the Washington Post. One train ran from Munsan, South Korea to Gaesong, North Korea, and the other linked the Diamond Mountain resort in the North to the town of Jejin in the South, and both journeys were covered live by South Korean television networks. Each train carried 150 people from North and South and “new hopes of peace and unification,” writes Joohee Cho in the Post.
Knife Tricks: A Blogger Goes to North Korea
by Michael Yessis | 05.10.07 | 6:19 AM ET
On his blog Knife Tricks, Paul Karl Lukacs posts a Q&A with himself and asks this: Why go to North Korea? His answer: Why not? He knows the $2,200 he paid for his trip will mostly go to subsidize Kim Jong-Il’s totalitarian regime—he went with a Beijing-based group called Koryo Tours to attend a government-sanctioned festival—but he sees a benefit. He writes: “As the Dalai Lama said about travel to Tibet, ‘Go, and tell the world what you see.’”
The Critics: ‘Bad Lands: A Tourist on the Axis of Evil’
by Michael Yessis | 04.24.07 | 10:57 AM ET
It’s not a new idea, visiting the countries U.S. President George W. Bush dubbed the “Axis of Evil.” Ben Anderson, for instance, did it several years ago, and the BBC broadcast several programs based on his travels. Now Lonely Planet founder Tony Wheeler has written “Bad Lands: A Tourist on the Axis of Evil,” in which he chronicles his travels through Bush’s original three “axis” countries—Iran, Iraq and North Korea—plus Afghanistan, Albania, Burma, Cuba, Libya and Saudi Arabia.
Welcome to Naypyidaw: Burma Unveils New Capital City
by Michael Yessis | 03.28.07 | 7:49 AM ET
International media have been invited by Burma’s military rulers to visit Naypyidaw, the country’s new capital city. Like North Korea’s recent decision to allow U.S. citizens to visit, Burma’s move revolves around a huge, state-sanctioned event. In Burma’s case, it’s the country’s Armed Forces Day parade. According to the BBC’s Jonathan Head, it’s the first time outsiders have been allowed to see Naypyidaw since Burma made the confounding decision in 2005 to move the capital from Rangoon.
Dictatorship Tourism: North Korea Opens (Briefly) to U.S. Citizens
by Jim Benning | 03.14.07 | 4:01 PM ET
Yes, in its infinite wisdom, Kim Jong-Il’s regime has generously decided to allow U.S. citizens to visit the Orwellian nation this year—during two stadium festivals, one taking place this spring and the other in the fall. According to Elisabeth Eaves’s story in Forbes, the president of Asia Pacific Travel, based in Illinois, “received an e-mail from the North Korean tourism authority saying it was appointing his company the sole travel agent it would deal with for the U.S. market.” Nice work if you can get it. I exchanged e-mails with Eaves today. She wasn’t too surprised that North Korea has opened, if only briefly, to Americans. The country needs the money, she wrote, and “it’s the foreigners who can afford the priciest festival seating.” (Festival seats go for up to $300.) But what about the ethics of visiting North Korea?
You Scored a North Korea Travel Visa? Hold Everything!
by Jim Benning | 11.11.05 | 1:11 PM ET
Today’s Los Angeles Times has a terrific story about a small group of hard-core American travelers, including one Californian claiming to be the world’s most traveled person, who were recently awarded visas to visit North Korea and made the highly unusual trip. Times reporter Bruce Wallace put the visit into perspective this way: “Opportunities for American tourists to visit the secretive state that makes no secret of its loathing for the U.S. are mighty tough to come by. A North Korean visa for an American is like round-the-clock electricity here in the North Korean capital: not impossible, but rare enough to be appreciated when it unexpectedly arrives.”
Welcome to Bizarroland
by Frank Bures | 09.21.05 | 7:49 PM ET
Guy Delisle spent two months working in the strangest and most reclusive country in the world, North Korea. The result was his new graphic novel/travelogue, "Pyongyang," which Frank Bures finds insightful, funny and, at times, touching.