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Photos from Inside North Korea (2014)
- jpatokal 10y ago(2014), and posted to HN before: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10003615 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10003615 But still fascinating!
- idlewords 10y agoKeep in mind these are photos of the capital, in areas that tourists are allowed to see. There's a fascinating photoset from 2008 by some Europeans who through a bureaucratic miracle were allowed to enter and cross North Korea by train: http://vienna-pyongyang.blogspot.com/2008/09/khabarovsk-khasan-border-russiadprk.html http://vienna-pyongyang.blogspot.com/2008/09/khabarovsk-khas...
- kough 10y agoWas just about to post this! Highly worth checking out if for the story alone.
- idlewords 10y agoMy favorite part about it is that the blogger is a rail nut, so even in the North Korean part of the travelogue—photos from a place almost no one gets to see—there are tons of locomotive beauty shots. It's pretty charming.
- waqf 10y agoDid you read the first few lines of the page? Or pretty much any of the captions? > Most tourists only experience the political smokescreen of Pyongyang; I had the privilege in visiting all corners on one of the longest tours ever executed (no pun intended) for foreigners into the hermit kingdom. Photos from an officially supervised tour, yes, but limited to Pyongyang, definitely not.
- idlewords 10y agoMy mistake; thanks for the correction!
- jpatokal 10y agoIt's not quite that straightforward: through exploitation of a bureaucratic loophole, they managed to enter the DPRK through a border that's supposed to be closed to foreigners and had quite a bit of time essentially unsupervised (although most of it was on a train).
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]
- elastic_church 10y ago"Isn't it stately and above board national defense, not subservient to outside forces?" of course why do you ask!
- brianshaler 10y agoThe photo and caption about the spectacular paintings in North Korea remind me of how much I regret going into the country without a good amount of cash. On the tour, we visited several galleries and artist studios stocked full of large and exquisite paintings—most not propaganda—at what I remember being very reasonable prices. Obviously, they were unable to accept Visa, MasterCard, or American Express.
- idlewords 10y agoThat is the most capitalist regret ever.
- United857 10y agoFascinating pics -- however, his guides in North Korea will likely get in trouble due to their publication.
- spodek 10y agoNo they won't. These are the views every tourist gets shown. Some are nearly the same as pictures I took on my visits. These are the parts of the country for show.
- icantdrive55 10y agoThese are the areas tourists are allowed to see. O.k.--I didn't find these pictures depressing. The lack of urban sprawl, overcrowded--overbuilt cities, traffic congestion, airplanes is not a bad thing to some people. Yes--I'm missing the starving people we just read about, and the horrid treatment of prisoners. I'm just saying, these pictures were not depressing. Then again--I don't find the crowded parts of San Francisco, and New York someting to ooo over. Especially when we just step over the homeless because they are everywhere. No, I don't like their political system. There's got to be a happy medium between America, and this country? Why do I feel it's many parts of Europe?
- mproud 10y agoAlready seen these. As another poster has bred, this is not the first time these have been posted.
- nchammas 10y agoRelated: A YouTube channel [0] dedicated to videos of "everyday life" in North Korea, from an Indonesian expat living there. Couple of random examples: * Walking around Pyongyang in the winter. [1] * Going to a computer store in Pyongyang. [2] [0] https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCzvCf_q10UZkUJE0lOav0ag https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCzvCf_q10UZkUJE0lOav0ag [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=If2ZkXz_1U8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=If2ZkXz_1U8 [2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FtDWYzwwuUs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FtDWYzwwuUs
- Keyframe 10y agoWell, that was unexpected. How is this even possible?
- snackai 10y agoLook in the comments of the computer store video, he is a Diplomat so he can "roam freely" as he puts it. Somewhat interesting anyway!
- Keyframe 10y agoYeah, I don't know what to believe. Anyways, streets that aren't littered with advertising is certainly an interesting sight!
- clubm8 10y ago>...streets that aren't littered with advertising is certainly an interesting sight! Personality cult propaganda doesn't count as "advertising"?
- genkaos 10y agohttps://youtu.be/A8T-kesKvC8 https://youtu.be/A8T-kesKvC8 "#NOTE: I am not a diplomat and didn’t work for embassy.#"
- 4ad 10y agoI am curious as well. I have no doubt that a small number of foreigners live and work in North Korea, move around freely without minders, and are allowed to have cameras and make videos, but how do they get the footage out? Even if they work at some university and have access to the internet, I very much doubt it's unrestricted like that. I am willing to believe some of them might smuggle it out, but this guy walks around and behaves like it's nobody's business.
- egourlao 10y agoI had already read a couple of blogposts relating travels in North Korea, but this is the first one that made it feel like a gleeful adventure. The corn fields, the countryside cities, the small picnic and barbecue parties with food and soju... It reminds me of good times that I had in South Korea. Of course, it always has to be considered that it's also NK's propaganda machine/tourism industry in action, but some of those pictures warmed my heart up.
- iamjeff 10y agoThere is an element of adventure to these pictures. Some of his pictures are clearly illegal, disallowed, or uncomfortable in the North Korean context. There are examples of these especially in the second instalment [1]. Having spent some time in small-town Russia, I could almost taste the soulless architecture. The sense of adventure is further heightened when watching vlogs from Jaka Parker (noted elsewhere here), including this one video of him travelling almost 200km outside of Pyongyang along North Korea’s major highway [2]. There are remarkably few cars on the road and at several points, it felt like B-roll footage from a movie set a-la The Walking Dead: the desertion in the roads of this nuclear power is simply astonishing. On a related note, several tour companies across Africa offer overland tours including a 73-day journey across 10 countries in Eastern and Southern African countries [3] and a terrifying 27-day trip across the western edges of the Sahara Desert [4, 5, 6]. [1] 100 Photos Inside North Korea – Part 2 (http://www.earthnutshell.com/100-photos-from-north-korea-part2/ http://www.earthnutshell.com/100-photos-from-north-korea-par...) [2] 100kms outside Pyongyang - North Korea (https://youtu.be/zCjpxZDTyqs https://youtu.be/zCjpxZDTyqs) [3] Nairobi to Cape Town Overland Tours (https://www.absoluteafrica.com/The-Absolute-Safari/AS71 https://www.absoluteafrica.com/The-Absolute-Safari/AS71) [4] (http://www.overlandingwestafrica.com/trip-overview-availability/ http://www.overlandingwestafrica.com/trip-overview-availabil...) [5] Mauritania 2013. Exploring West Africa by expedition truck (https://www.flickr.com/photos/128667255@N04/sets/72157649867575375/ https://www.flickr.com/photos/128667255@N04/sets/72157649867...) [6] Overland West Africa - MAURITANIA - 2013-2014 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eRHiAXjyHTk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eRHiAXjyHTk)
- toomanybeersies 10y ago
- yequalsx 10y agoIt's immoral to visit such a country. It has concentration camps. It tortures on a large scale. It's citizens suffer and visiting the country gives money to an evil regime.
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]
- tuna-piano 10y agoWe've had a strategy of isolationism towards them for 50+ years, and it doesn't seem to have worked. If you wanted North Korea to be as free as possible in 20 years, what would you do today to help enable that? I think visiting might in fact be a net positive. Also, Jimmy Carter went there, so maybe you should too! That said, I struggle with this question. In some ways you're absolutely correct. My personal struggle: North Korea has a chain of restaurants abroad, and I walked by one quite often while I was in Bangkok. Out of (morbid) curiosity, I would have loved to dine there and talk to the (very attractive) North Korean waitresses. I couldn't stomach giving the regime the $3 for the meal though. In some ways, going to the NK restaurants supports the quazi-slavery of the workers in the restaurant. But in other ways, that spending enables the restaurant workers to live in Thailand and not North Korea. In the end, I decided not to visit, as I couldn't help but think of how I would feel about someone dining at a Nazi restaurant in the 40s. Difficult ethical questions though.
- JabavuAdams 10y agoThis is absolutely a valid criticism and should be debated rather than down-voted. EDIT> Is it moral to give money to a regime that has killed millions of its own citizens? I mean, unless you're secretly giving medical supplies to the poor, your money is only benefiting the elite.
- Zombieball 10y agoI am in agreement. Especially considering they put up a front and try to show visitors a fake / happy version of the country. People often boycott and don't like visiting circuses or shows that generally abuse and exploit animals (elephant shows in Thailand come to mind). I can't see why visiting NK is any different.
- foobarian 10y agoIt strikes me how expensive these visits must be for NK. It seems that every tourist gets a dedicated guide, while someone (or multiple people) is probably also monitoring them remotely. Then, consider the little details like that empty restaurant they cleared for the sake of a tourist. In terms of manpower it's probably a factor > 1 relative to the number of visitors. Imagine every visitor to the US was escorted by a government employee, with background surveillance attached. It would cost a fortune!
- ajdlinux 10y agoNot when the tourist themselves has to pay for the tour.
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]
- toomanybeersies 10y agoNorth Korea tours are also very expensive, about 1300 € for 3 nights (http://www.koryogroup.com/tours/dprk-north-korea/group#itineraries http://www.koryogroup.com/tours/dprk-north-korea/group#itine...)
- mseebach 10y ago"'Best Jobs In North Korea' Pay $62 A Month" http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2013/04/03/176121772/best-jobs-in-north-korea-pay-62-a-month-now-theyre-diplomatic-pawns http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2013/04/03/176121772/... NK is not exactly resource-constrained on labour. As others have pointed out, the visits are a valuable source of foreign currency. (And propaganda - the number of people in this thread uttering variations of "that doesn't look too bad" is staggering).
- dominotw 10y agoThis documentary has real footage from inside north Korea, not the usual 'north Korea show' you usually see everywhere. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=csI1EoMOXXk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=csI1EoMOXXk Secret footage shot by an activist inside north korea. eg: markets inside a north korean town https://youtu.be/csI1EoMOXXk?t=1366 https://youtu.be/csI1EoMOXXk?t=1366 dead bodies of people who tried to escape in the yalu river https://youtu.be/csI1EoMOXXk?t=1145 https://youtu.be/csI1EoMOXXk?t=1145
- iamjeff 10y agoAs an African (hardship implied), this hit hard- indescribably heartbreaking.
- dimitar9909 10y agothis looks like china 50 years ago.
- FTA 10y agoHere is also a recent (2015) sequence of dashcam photos through Pyongyang: https://www.mapillary.com/app/?lat=39.02463076010619&lng=125.7870475241894&z=9.475876720316464&pKey=IjWuV2iAi43ARg4sLdh6tA&focus=photo https://www.mapillary.com/app/?lat=39.02463076010619&lng=125....
- bane 10y agoThere's a very recent and pretty interesting series of interviews with Thae Yong-ho on Arirang. He's the highest ranking North Korean to ever defect (he was the Deputy Ambassador to England and defected last year). He provides some pretty fascinating insights into life in North Korea from a North Korean perspective. https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=Thae+Yong+Ho+Special https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=Thae+Yong+Ho+Sp...
- rgerganov 10y agoThe female tourist guide may have problems after the leakage of these pictures.
- thewhitetulip 10y agoAre NK citizens having complete access to the regular Internet? If no, then it wouldn't matter to them
- palerdot 10y ago>Even military officers traverse the streets of Pyongyang by bicycle. Cars exist few and far between, reserved only for the wealthy and elite. This is really fascinating, albeit being an unintended consequence of disproportionate wealth distribution.
- ionised 10y agoOne thing I always think when seeing images of NK towns and cities is how clean they look. They seem to be immaculately maintained. Though I suppose that is all for show and another word could be sterile.
- 0x54MUR41 10y agoI also recommend to check out this one [1]. It's about someone who has traveled to North Korea for 8 days. His travel documentation is awesome because he told us from start to finish. Beside that, he attached photos inside it. [1]: https://medium.com/swlh/8-days-in-north-korea-5c651c3883de https://medium.com/swlh/8-days-in-north-korea-5c651c3883de