The “Hermit Kingdom” of North Korea is allowing tourists to return. It’s the first “officially sanctioned trip” in five years. While Westerners are allowed in, they don’t get to wander around loose on their own. Everything is so highly structured you need to get permission to use the bathroom.
North Korea welcomes tourists
Recently, North Korea quietly opened its arms to tourists. A small group was allowed to visit the “remote” town of Rason, which has been heavily sanitized to show the ruling regime in a carefully regulated light.
Events included “a surreal performance of North Korean schoolchildren dancing and singing against a backdrop of animated ballistic missiles.”
Those who saw the “unsettling choreographed display” say it was only “the tip of the weirdness iceberg.” The daring vagabonds came from a variety of European nations including “the U.K., France, Germany and Australia.”
North Korea doesn’t trust their visitors at all. “One tourist revealed the trip was so closely monitored by Kim Jong Un’s repressive regime that he even had to ask permission to use the bathroom.”
Another member of the tour relates “they’ve had five years to fix things. North Koreans are so sensitive about what they show tourists. If this is the best they can show, I dread to think what else is out there.”
This is “the first time since 2020 tourists were allowed to enter.” North Korea went on total lock down “at the start of the pandemic, leaving many to wonder whether Westerners would ever again be able to cross its border.”
Young Pioneer Tours
There’s only one agency which books tours to North Korea, a Chinese firm called “Young Pioneer Tours.” Before the pandemic, they frequently arranged trips into the interior. They’re excited to be “finally able to resume operations.”
Before the borders shut down tight, they ran groups into the capitol city of Pyongyang. That’s not happening in the foreseeable future. “The roads are awful, the pavements are wobbly, and the buildings are weirdly constructed.”
According to Rown Beard, who runs the Chinese tour company, “the North Koreans aren’t robots. They have opinions, goals, and a sense of humor.” Before they leave, the agency briefs the group on what to expect.
“We encourage people to listen to and understand” the locals. Once North Korea gave them the approval, they “had no trouble filling its available slots, which sold out in just five hours.”
Tourists are quick to realize how connected they’ve become in their daily lives because there’s no cell phone or internet service in North Korea. There’s “not so much as an ATM available for use.”
Tourists are all handed a “strict set of guidelines to follow.” You can’t “insult the country’s leaders” or mock their ideology. Most importantly, nobody is allowed to complain about the “unusual and repressive way of life” in North Korea.
