Destination: North Korea
North Korea: The Leader in “Don’t Do It!” Vacations
by Jim Benning | 12.07.04 | 5:43 PM ET
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Yahoo! BuzzThank You, Department of Homeland Security, For Protecting Americans from British Novelists
by Jim Benning | 07.12.04 | 9:18 PM ET
The author of “Amsterdam” and other acclaimed novels made the tongue-in-cheek remark in front of a Seattle audience after he was initially refused entry into the United States. Officials told him the $5,000 speaking honorarium he was to be paid disqualified him from a visa-waiver program. Unfortunately, he is but one of many writers who have been harassed by U.S. officials since the Department of Homeland Security took over border and immigration control last year, writes British journalist Elena Lappin in the New York Times. Lappin was handcuffed and detained for 36 hours after she arrived in the United States without a special journalist visa. Understandably, she wasn’t pleased. “American journalists working abroad, especially in free countries, are not accustomed to monitoring of this kind,” she writes. “By requiring foreign journalists to obtain special visas, the United States has aligned itself with the likes of Iran, North Korea and Cuba, places where reporters are treated as dangerous subversives and disseminators of uncomfortable truths.”
Fun Tips For Your Next North Korean Holiday
by Jim Benning | 01.20.04 | 11:01 PM ET
And Perhaps the Least Used Guide Books of 2003
by Michael Yessis | 12.08.03 | 9:36 PM ET
Holiday in Pyongyang
by Jim Benning | 01.27.03 | 10:56 AM ET
New York fiction writer Suki Kim traveled to North Korea last year during celebrations marking the 60th birthday of Great Leader Kim Jong Il, and she offers a fascinating account in the Feb. 13 New York Review of Books. Her story covers a lot of ground, including the not-so-festive flight from Beijing to Pyongyang aboard North Korea’s national airline.
“Upon boarding the aircraft, I was immediately struck by the martial music, the sort that would be played at a military procession,” she writes. “It soon drifted into a melodic song about the Great Leader, Kim Jong Il. The stewardesses in navy-blue suits and white blouses and gloves were in their early twenties and uniformly pleasant-looking. What struck me about them, other than the Kim Il Sung badges across their chests, was that they did not smile.”
It’s, Like, So Cold War!
by Jim Benning | 04.09.02 | 5:01 PM ET
North Korea is opening its doors to thousands of foreign visitors this month for a gymnastics tribute, of all things, to its founding father, Kim Il-sung. Analysts wonder if the famously reclusive communist nation just might be “coming out of its shell,” according to a report on CNN.com. If the country does become more accessible, what’s in it for travelers? “It’s the last bastion of Communism,” said the owner of one tour company. “It’s also the last vestige of the Cold War. That is the enticement.”
Welcome to North Korea. No Spitting! No Flower Picking!
by Jim Benning | 12.30.01 | 11:43 PM ET
South Korean tourists allowed into tightly controlled North Korea are treated to a long list of rules and regulations, little interaction with locals and, oh yes, a welcome ceremony that features a Filipino band performing “California Dreaming.” A Los Angeles Times article highlights just how political travel can be.
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