Last Post On NK I Promise

After the Mausoleum we had to rush at full speed south to go and see the De-Militarised Zone before “it shut” at 12. As always when one is in a hurry there are unexpected delays and ours came in the form of being stopped by the traffic police as they wanted to see if our minibus was licensed to take foreigners. Ri huffed a little and said that as there were obviously foreigners in the car obviously they were allowed to have foreigners. At one point the driver and Mr Kim wandered off to a corner with the policeman and Ri followed leaving Sara and I alone in the car. We had a temptation to jump in the driver’s seat and see how far we would get…

However it was soon sorted out and we were making full speed along the highway. The highway is as straight as a Roman road and a little cracked. As it had been raining there were huge puddles that caused a rather entertaining splash when we whizzed through. North Korean countryside is very beautiful with green fields, rushing rivers, mountains in the distance, clear skies… Occasionally we’d see villages of stone houses looking rather pretty in the valleys. There lots of people around walking through fields and working even though Sunday is supposed to be the Koreans’ day off. I’d love to go back and trek through NK. When that’s allowed. There were virtually no other cars on the road throughout our 2 hour journey.

We arrived at the DMZ around 1 o’clock but they let us in anyway. As the highway reached the start of the DMZ there was a sign saying “Seoul 70km”. So near and yet so far…

There were a couple of small buildings with soldiers and our guides had various ID checked while I nearly fell over on one of the slippery surfaces doing one of those giraffe impressions Korean soldiers find so entertaining…

Then we and three officers climbed back into the van and we entered the DMZ. The DMZ runs the entire length of the border with South Korea and is 4 km wide- each side getting 2 km each. Some Koreans do live in the DMZ, about 300 or something, and they live a rather strange existence tending crops while thousands of soldiers and military hardware wait for Armageddon. The DMZ, as so few humans enter it, is actually a haven for wildlife these days and there is hope expressed that, after reunification, it might be left as a natural park. It is really rather beautiful too, rolling wooded hills etc.

The first place we went was the 6 huts where they have negotiations. The blue ones are American run (Ri kept saying American but I think she meant South Korean but was reluctant to admit it) and the white ones are North Korean run. Through the middle of the huts runs a concrete ridge-the border. We went into a blue one which was filled with tables. The table in the middle had microphones placed exactly along the border apparently. On the wall was a picture showing the flags of those who fought with the South Koreans including a British flag which caused an awkward moment when the guard pointed it out. Outside on our side there were North Korean soldiers standing right by this. Unfortunately there were no South Korean soldiers to be seen and when I inquired where they were the NKorean Major we had with us looked at his watch and seemed to imply it was lunchtime. I had wanted to see the different Korean soldiers next to each other as I’d heard there was a good 6 inches height difference between the two so poor show Republic of Korea.

As well as the huts there are two larger buildings glaring at each other. We went to the top and stared at the South Koreans and waved. As the windows were blacked out, I don’t know if they waved back, but we can be certain they were watching…

Then to some other buildings that had housed negotiations. In one our guides and officers wandered off so we seized our opportunity and Sara planked on the floor. I think planking in the DMZ gets internet points.

Then to lunch cooked by the army chefs but unfortunately we didn’t like very much of it. Small portions of things were served in small brass pots with lids and after we’d eaten what we liked we put the lids back on but the major came back and proceeded to lift off all the lids to judge how well we’d done.

The Major was quite a character and really rather sweet. I’d been lavishing cigarettes on the soldiers so we were best mates. I felt a bit guilty about giving cigarettes as they are poisonous but they are all hooked so it’s what they like. The Major gave me a toffee and we had a good laugh. It’s rather sad that such great people are in the position they are in.

Then it was off to Kaesong, the town nearest the DMZ. The buildings were all rather old and mouldy and there were no cars. There were some tanks/swimming pools that had lots of kids playing in them. Near the town was the only traditional Korean thing we saw- an old university/temple. It was very nice, but I’m not a temple person…

Then along a very long dirt track to another DMZ post. We’d pass lots of people on bicycles and flowing streams and children up to something. All very rural. The post itself was a small building on a hill looking at the Americans in a small building on a hill a few kilometres away looking at us looking at them looking at us. The Koreans had some powerful binoculars and we had a good peer. The Americans had cleared vegetation from their building and I couldn’t see much inside. We waved and I feel like I saw movement through a blacked out window but who knows. Then I looked at the bits of SK you could see and there were cars and things. It was a very peaceful place.

Our officer for that part was a Captain and he was great too. We were the first foreign twins he’d seen. We had a chat, using Ri as an interpreter, about twins and triplets and Octomum in the US. He said that when we were pregnant we could use Pyongyang Maternity Hospital as it’s really good.

Then we left and steamed up the highway back to Pyongyang. We paused briefly at a statue of two women in traditional Korean dress reaching towards each other holding a disc with the map of the Korean peninsula. It symbolises reunification.

Then to a meal of Pyongyang BBQ duck, which was very nice but again I couldn’t eat all the food they were giving me. The last thing we did was go for a brief walk. Technically foreigners are supposed to go everywhere by car but Ri figured we weren’t spies and as it was such a lovely evening we had a little pootle near the hotel.

The next day we posted some postcards and caught our train back to Beijing. There were no delays and we reached Beijing in time to go to the airport, go to the wrong terminal, go to the right terminal and finally meet our parents who had just arrived.

In conclusion about North Korea… The Koreans are fantastic- really friendly people who like a laugh. It was very sad to see how thin they were. The whole country was just so behind and yet so stable. Most poor countries have weak government and recent war damage but this one was a full functioning state. I have never seen such a controlled spiral into starvation. Which is the only outcome of Korea’s current path.

It’s a shame that they are pariahs which brings me to the political problem. Someone somewhere has to work out a way to deal with people who are effectively living in one giant cult. If Modernity comes knocking I fear that they will not be able to cope. North Korean refugees who make it to South Korea (they have to go via Bangkok so you can imagine that’s quite an undertaking) have to spend a few weeks being shown how to pay bills and work phones. They are like children. And if Korea is ever to be reunified they have to respect that the North Koreans worship Kim Il Sung and work around that. They wouldn’t be able to process it if you said that actually he’d caused untold misery on their country. Ri said that the Koreans were one people but she didn’t realise how different SK is now. The North Koreans’ dearest hope is reunification… Ri asked me when I thought “things were going to get better-5 years? 10 years?” I wasn’t sure how to reply. The only thing I do know is that the current diplomatic strategy is not working. Confrontation does not help anyone-it just backs NK into a corner where of course it’s going to be aggressive. If I was in charge I’d remove all the American soldiers from SK, laughably obvious NK won’t attack, so that NK can’t pretend they are facing American Imperialism. Then I’d remove all sanctions and discuss giving NK the light water reactors the Americans promised but never gave. I can guarantee NK would take the offering of peace. No one wants to be a pariah. Then I’d wait for Kim Jong Il to die and with China’s pressure, NK would start economic reform similar to what China did. And then as modernity seeps in NK can catch up with SK and voila, reunification.

But nobody listens to me.

Kim: It's Really Him

They have a Children's Palace in Pyongyang, the site personally chosen by Kim Jong Il. Or Kim Il Sung. Inside kiddies do things in unison. I'm not convinced as many people need training in the accordian as Pyongyang seems to be doing but if France ever runs out, I would say that North Korean children are pretty good at it.

I disliked the children's palace because there were lots of Chinese tourists wandering around being rude and loud and annoying.

There was a performance in the afternoon and was mostly brightly coloured children dancing and singing. Our guide fell asleep. The Chinese tourists loved it. Around 25 000 visit NK each year, compared to 3500 westerners. At the end the performers lined up and the Chinese rushed to get photos with their favourite one. As they pushed and prodded the children, I noticed their smiles become slightly fixed. Chinese bluntness offends North Koreans as well as South Koreans it seems.

Then to see their Arch of Triumph, which is larger than France's. Medals all around.

Then the Juche Tower. There were soldiers practising being in unison as next year is the 100 year anniversary of Kim Il Sung's birth. The Juche Tower was decorated with plaques of Juche societies from around the world.

That night we had Korean hotpot. I spent a while looking out of the window at a playground where children were messing around after school. Cute.

That evening we went to Yanggakdo Hotel which is a "posh" hotel in Pyongyang. It has a bowling alley which Sara and I used for a bit. It also has the world's saddest turtle existing in a tank a couple of metres cubed.

That morning we forgot the pancake part of our marathonly long breakfast and as we left our lovely waitress hurried after us to remind us but her English wasn't so good so we did not understand and only realised later. Oops.

The next day we went to Kim Il Sung's memorial to stare at his dead body. We had to wear our Sunday best. The Mausoleum is rather large, as it used to be his offices. On arrival we went over a shoe duster and through a large hairdryer. Instead of walking we were conveyed everwhere on escalators and travelators. As well as us there were a handful of tourists and some people from UNESCO as well as Koreans visiting. It took a rather long time, through many corridors and marble lined rooms before we reached one with carvings in it. Here we were handed a recording of someone explaining what it was like when he died. I had heard about this recording beforehand. It was described as "hysterical" and my god it was. There was a man intoning in a shuddering voice about all the lamentations and weeping and how tears were so hot they melted the floor and became fossilized.

Difficult to keep a straight face. In a place where it was quite important not to laugh.

We went into a large hall with a large statue of the guy. Then finally entered the room where he was. While I reckon Mao was a fake I think it was probably him this time. We bowed in three different places and then left and were slowly conveyored out.

I talked to Ri about how it was when he died. She had been at university then and she and her students had noticed something had happened but didn't know what. At first they thought that maybe reunification had happened, revealing what a heart-held dream that is, but that dream quickly dissolved as they found out. She said they thought they were going to die without him and that they couldn't believe he had died- she said that they hadn't thought he was quite as human as that. She then told us what an amazing humble guy he was. He's quite important there.

WHO STARTED THE WAR

Foreigners in NK use euros or RMB (none of those Imperialist dollars) but Ri sold us some notes and coins in a way that made me suspicious it was a side line of hers. She came up to our room with brown paper envelopes and we swapped currencies. She casually mentioned not putting it in our purses, just you know because people might see it, so I stuffed it in my rucksack.

Kim Il Sung is not on the money, as one would imagine. This is because money is used and crumpled etc and his mug is too good for that so they use scenes of industry and things. Sara and I got copies of the Pyongyang Times (English language newspaper) and you aren't allowed to bend it where there's a picture of him or Kim 2. Similarly you can't take a picture of just part of his statue. The Pyongyang Times mostly focuses on what the "South Korean Puppets" are up to, problems in the south and how well China is doing. Oh and Kim giving "on-the-spot field guidance". "On-the-stop field guidance" is a special NK thing where he goes and looks at things and gives advice on subjects he doesn't really know anything about to people who do.

Examples here: http://kimjongillookingatthings.tumblr.com/

There is, of course, a War Museum. Or rather the Victorious Fatherland Liberation War Museum. This refers to the Korean War. This we went to after another square with statues of groups of people symbolising bits of the war. In NK statues there is always a man at the front surging forwards heroically, a man carrying an injured comrade, and another man looking back urging the followers on.

The NK version of the Korean War holds that the Americans attacked first unprovoked blah blah and after 3 days were driven back and NK proceeded to liberate Seoul happy times celebration and then to gradually liberate more and more of the south until only a corner was left. Success hurrah. Most of the museum is dedicated to this part of the war and glosses over the next. The American Imperialists struck back and cowardly took everthing including Pyongyang itself and then they were so scared of the North Koreans they signed an armistice. No mention was really made of the Chinese volunteers.

I don't really know much about the Korean War and I suspect it is one of those things that a lot needs to be known about. However it is odd for an invading force to launch a surprise attack that they have been preparing for a long time and then be driven back in 3 days and proceed to lose a lot of territory. So maybe North Korea attacked first which tallies with other evidence- particularly that Kim Il Sung had been looking for Stalin and Mao's support for an invasion. The Americans, not wanting a hostile Korea in their little Cold War (how much damage have they caused fighting Communism? And still cause fighting Socialism?) then came in and with their help the South Koreans regrouped and retook ground. The Chinese then got involved and basically saved Kim Il Sung by fighting his war. North Koreans say it was they who avoided defeat, well it was the Chinese. So ranks of Chinese versus ranks of Americans in a country neither was that bothered about caused them to sign an armistice. This armistice NK calls a victory. Which I would quibble with. In their museum they had a letter from a US commander lamenting leaving Korea without a victory and they use this as proof that the Americans admit they lost.

Throughout the tour of the museum I had this urge to point out that the War was not Victorious and the Fatherland was not Liberated. But wasn't sure it would have much effect.

Our guide was a rather cute girl from the army in her vintage uniform. As we progressed through each room her pointing cane got longer and longer.

We watched an introductory video about the war which began with someone declaring in a sonorous tone "WHO STARTED THE WAR?". This then made it rather difficult to keep a straight, respectful face.

Most of the displays are photos and include letters from some moron in Utah writing to Kim to give support as thought he represents the US. The basement is where they keep all the scrap from the war and is full of planes, tanks, weapons and helicopters from the 50s. No jokes about it being state-of-the-art in NK please...

One plane was supposed to be a training plane but the North Koreans used it to drop planes. It was mostly flown by females apparently, which was an interesting tidbit. Another 50s plane seemed to have wet paint.

There's also a tree trunk from a "Hero Tree" which was so big it could shelter Korean supply trucks from bombers.

The odd American spy plane was shot down and they have copies of the pilot's confessions about being very contrite and promising never to do it again and they have wife and children sowwy.

The last exhibit was a 360 degree panorama that has been very cleverly painted. It shows the battle in Dajong from the Korean War, including the capture of the US commander of the 21st Division William Dean. This event was mentioned several times. In the panorama he is depicted as a big nosed ugly git hiding under a tree in an ordinary soldiers uniform cowardly hiding.

Someone asked where the Great Leader Kim Il Sung was in the battle. "There's a picture of him on one of the houses" said the guide brightly.

More DPRK

Kim Jong Il was born near Mt Paekdu, to the accompaniment of lightening flashes, but Kim Il Sung is a true Pyongyang boy and was born in a hovel in the suburbs, to which we were taken. The hovel, or "native house", looked a little....rebuilt. It consisted of three small rooms of one building facing a workshop type building opposite, with a bamboo platform at the end for sleeping in in summer. In each of the rooms were various pictures and artefacts. The pictures showed his grandparents, uncles and brothers. The 2nd generation, rather sadly, died fighting the Japanese but the grandparents lived long enough to see their grandson In Charge. Officials suggested moving them to comfy houses in the city but they nobly declined special priveleges. Communist, you know.

It was all a little bit "this is the real sleeping mat he used!" but there was a touching moment when the house guide seemed a bit teary when discussing Kim's death. She wore traditional Korean clothes as well as slapped on white powder which did not succeed in making her skin look paler at all...she was also considerably smaller than Sara and I. Afterwards she took us to the well He used to use and scooped up some water for us to drink. We parted, best mates.

Then we went for a walk through neighbouring trees to a hill overlooking the city.

Lunch was in a restaurant. To get there we walked through a clothes shop. "These are normal prices" said Ri. Yeah right, if they were there'd be people looking at stuff...

Apart from the above, I have to say very little of our trip seemed staged. We had a good snigger beforehand about our train not actually moving but was a succession of boards of views of prosperous farms carried past by Koreans-and when we stopped unexpectedly for over an hour that they were having a rest :P I had heard that the metro was not really used and that the two stops foreigners can see are stuffed with actors, but it didn't feel like that at all. For a start, people were annoyed when they arrived just as doors closed. The stations we did see were over 100m below the ground, I believe the lowest in the world (doubles as a bunker apparently) and the walls featured carvings of Communist scenes. The candeliers were tacky coloured glass supposed to represent fireworks. The trains were leftovers from East Germany and looked it. There was a double portrait of everyone's favourite leaders in each carriage. Rather quaint.

More to come, including the Children's Palace (UNISON) and the War Museum. WHO REALLY STARTED THE WAR.

Day 1 Morning 1 of Communist Sight Seeing

They have white dots marking straight lines across their main square. This is so on lovely Communist parades everyone can stand in perfect Communist lines. Their main square, which is the "perfect centre of Pyongyang" whatever that means, is surrounded by various buildings that are something to do with Communism. I lost track of precisely what-there were rather many. I do remember the Study Hall of the People-which is their library. Kim Jong-Il apparently said he didn't need to study abroad as everything he needed was there.

NK apparently has three political parties- the Workers' Party of Korea (which is the main one) and then a token religious one and a token democratic one. Nothing is known about the last one- only the name of its leader and that it still exists. Maybe.

We also visited the Square of Fountains, which was mostly half dry ponds with dribbles. The constant drizzle was more impressive.

Then off to the Foreign Language Bookshop, which was conspicuously closed to Koreans and only opened for us. Inside were translations of various works explaining the Juche idea (NK's philosophy) and just how really amazing Kim Il Sung is. And the odd book explaining how the IMPERIALIST AMERICANS STARTED IT FIRST. I bought a book about Kim Jong Il which contained various touching stories including my favourite one about how he waited in line for petrol and didn't queue-jump. Such humility. I also bought a Korean phrase book which contained amusingly different phrases to my South Korean one. And some postcards which a few Chosen may or may not receive- depending on how good NK censors are at spotting sarcasm.

Favourite quote from Ri- "unlike other countries, we have a close relationship between the leader and the people". So close, she's never seen him.

Juche is the philosophy expounded by Kim Il Sung and is based on Marxism. A link explains more here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juche but in short, it means what Kim Jong Il says it means.

"Are there any horses in North Korea. I like horses."
"Um, there's two in the zoo I think".

Not just the French who like horse obviously...

Then to the Martyr cemetery which contains the copper busts of various martyrs in the fight against Japanese occupation and during the Korean War. As well as soldiers there was one of a woman who sent her entire family off to war, sons, daughters, in-laws etc, and none came back. Kim Il Sung's wife is there too- she died aged 31 from illness, possibly picked up from living rough while being a guerilla. Kim Il Sung's uncle is there too.

Ri was curiously reluctant to say the Kim Il Sung had died-rather she referred to when "his heart stopped beating".

When Sara and I laid some flowers at the cemetery, there was a hush from the Korean schoolkids there at the foreigners paying respect and bowing.

Ri had a Louis Vuitton patterned umbrella. I wonder where she acquired this and if she knows. She said she had never left the country but that might have not been entirely true.

Lunch. We didn't finish.

NK 2

We headed to our hotel from the train station.

"This is rush hour" announced our female guide, Ri. I could see about 10 other cars on the road.

Our hotel, Changwangsan, was a 3star hotel near the ice rink and a conference building. Not convinced the ice rink is open. The first thing we saw in the hotel was a picture of Kim Il-Sung, the President whose heart has sadly stopped beating, along with his son, Kim Jong-Il, who is the Dear Leader. They were standing by Mount Paekdu, which is in the north of the country and was the base for Kim Il-Sung's guerrilla action against the Japanese who had occupied the country. Pictures of those two are everywhere and every (loyal) North Korean wears a badge with Kim 1's face on to show their love- like Christians wear a cross.

We were ushered to a small room with a table laid out with cutlery they haven't been able to replace in decades. Our waitress happily bounced in and proceed to give us a succession of dishes one by one. I'll say now that the Koreans seemed determined to prove how much food was around and always gave us far too much. At first I resolutely ate everything, concious that people really were starving here, but eventually I gave up and just ate until I was full. The food itself was not great- something stale about it. I suspect a lot of what we ate, especially the meat, was imported from China. NK, according to Ri, has 2 beef and milk farms. 2.

Our waitress, Kim Sung-hui, was fantastic. We could only communicate in bad english/chinese but she was so sweet. I wrote my name in Korean, about the only thing I can write, and she wrote hers in English and we had a connection.

Then to bed- our rooms, predictably, were very old-fashioned and age was slowly killing everything off. We never had hot water in the shower. The tap hiccoughed every time we wanted water. The decrepit tv only showed one channel of N koreans crying over something. There was shampoo in bottles which I stuffed in my suitcase. Even shampoo gets exciting when it's from NK.

Our guides for the first day were Ri and Mr Kim. Ri is a very sophisticated older woman whose platform shoes didn't quite hide how short she was. She spoke English very well and often wrote down phrases we used she hadn't heard before. Mr Kim was 61 and a bit stern until he asked how many hours separated Sara and I. "Ten minutes", I replied, to which he burst out laughing. Unfortunately he had back pain and was replaced by another Mr Kim who was younger and and rather sweet.

Pyongyang is the capital of NK and is cut in half by the river Taedong. It was mercifully cool and clear after a hot and smoggy Beijing. No cars or industry do keep a city clean. The buildings are mostly skyscrapers that look pretty awful. I suspect that they don't have lifts. Contrary to reports, there were lights on at night. It has two metro lines. Which may or may not be working.

Shall write more later- not much in this post somehow!

DPRK

I have always regretted (or should that be lamented?) never visiting China in the 70s and 80s. In my defence I hadn't been born. It must have been a fascinating place- and genuinely different to what I've already seen. So I cast around for the 2nd best thing and that's how Sara and I ended up on an overnight train to Pyongyang on Thursday 14th July.

North Korea is technically called the Democratic People's Republic of Korea because saying North Korea implies there are two Koreas and THERE AREN'T THERE'S ONLY ONE, BASTARD AMERICANS. The capital is Pyongyang, 平壤, Ping'rang(Chinese pronunciation-Korean can be written with Chinese characters) or 평양 with their characters. Pyongyang is actually a very ancient capital but as it was bombed to tiny tiny kimchee sized pieces by the AMERICAN AGGRESSORS it was rebuilt after the war in the 1950s. And has resolutely stayed in that decade. The trolleybuses are similar to what I've seen in museums and the train is like that in a heritage railway that Mum makes us go to on rainy afternoons and men in anoraks like riding. On the way in our train never lumbered above 35mph and had to have a rest every now and then. The cars, of which there are pitifully few, are mostly vintage mercedes, Soviet cast offs and shiny 4x4s probably belonging to the international aid workers. The metro trains are from East Germany from the 70s. Sara thinks she saw a coal fired truck. The decor of our hotel reminded me of classic sitcoms like Porridge. Even the hairstyles are straight from the past-all set waves in the 40s housewife style and combed for the men.

Politically they have not moved on either. Kim Il-Sung is still the president, the small problem of his death over a decade ago not a resignation matter obviously. They have not moved on from the Korean War. At all.

My first reaction to NK is that the Koreans are tragically thin. The first ones I saw, soldiers at the border, were short (although all Asians are) and their overlarge uniforms were cinched with leather belts round supermodel-esque waists. The faces were pinched, even on the young ones. Made all the more obvious by the huge hats they wear. The children are all sticks. And don't forget we were kept in the cushy parts of NK and I can well believe that they are, if not starving, then slowly sucumbing to malnutrition in areas where we are not welcome.

Getting a visa is fairly straightforward process- you just pay a lot of money. The rules are that you get two guides/minders who follow you everywhere and you can only take pictures when they say. You can't say North Korea. And you have to respect "that you may have been taught a version of history different to theirs". We pootled off to get the visas from the embassy in Beijing. Despite it being 35 outside, it felt rather chilly... Then we hopped on a train, first to Dandong on the border. The two countries are split by the Yalu river. On one side, Dandong, there are skyscrapers, tv towers and the smog of industry. As one travels across the bridge you see the road bridge stop halfway across. NK got rid of their half. Then to the Korean side where there is...trees. And a ferris wheel from a rather tragic park, built to show how much fun they are having. It never moves.

Then to Sinuiju for a 3 hour stop while visas are checked. And our first interaction with a bona fide North Korean. Ooo. I'd heard a lot about NKoreans. They are brainwashed. Aggressive. Warmongering. A bit nuts. And maybe they are but they are also very human. Like a geriatric rottweiler they might have teeth, but they are actually kinda cute. The border guards soon dropped the stern face and were happily joking around. There was another western tour group on our train (why wherever I go are there westerners) and when they checked their cameras, 3 produced big, black proper cameras and one guy got his tiny point and shoot out which caused the guard to fall around laughing. Then they came and stared at Sara and I to judge how similar we were and then finally I gave one some twix, which he liked. Then an Australian offered him oreos and he pulled a face, which made us laugh. He doesn't like oreos. Then he nabbed some more twix, slapped the Australian on the inner thigh, and sauntered off. I waved at a soldier passing the train and he stared fixedly in front before shyly waving back. He sneaked a glance at me and broke into a grin at his shyness and then I laughed and he laughed and we shared a moment.

Another rule is that mobile phones have to be left at the border, along with anything with GPS. Cue a long conversation with completely un-techie people where I tried to explain that the phone shaped thing with a button marked maps was in fact a music player and only worked when connected the internet.

So Ipod stayed at the border. Sniff. To add insult to injury they wrote "ipad" on the envelope.

Eventually we headed off. North Korean countryside is actually very pretty. There are fields everywhere. Habitation consists of stone houses with traditional roofs. Roads were mud tracks with the odd 50s bus, 50s tractor and many many ox carts and bicycles. (I asked our guide if they had horses in NK. "Not really-there are some in the zoo"). And men with obedient geese. One thing we noticed was that every square inch of land has something edible being grown on it. That's not a sign of a food-secure nation.

Our train had a rest halfway. We stopped by a gate in a wall, which was locked. However there was a steady stream of Koreans wanting to get through. It was interesting to see whether they went for option A, climbing over the top, B, squeezing their emaciated bodies through the bars or C, crawling through a hole in the mud. Noone went for D, getting it unlocked. A boy wandered past and foraged in a pile of rubbish. There was the obligatory man squatting doing nothing (wherever you are in Asia there will be a man squatting by the road doing nothing). Soldiers walked past the train.

Their guns were fake. Quite obviously fake.

We pulled into Pyongyang late at night, 3 hours behind schedule. A westerner asked why the delay and their Chinese guide chuckled and said you can't ask "why" in Korea. We emerged into a crowd of Koreans pouring from the ancient train, to the sound of rather ghostly, eerily communist, revolutionary music. Our guide hurried forward in the gloom and we had arrived...