What you see and what you don’t see

Important is what you don’t see, a wise friend keeps telling me. Let’s have a closer look at some things or people that you don’t see.
You don’t see homeless people, drifters, or the rural population leaving the villages to roam around the bigger cities. You don’t see people in rags. How could there be drifters? You can’t simply leave the village as you would be seen immediately. Everything is under control. You could walk as far your feet will get you, but you could not hop on the bus as there is none to bring you to farther destinations. In the cities there aren’t only the police, but there are also these two or three ladies at every street corner watching.
You don’t see much intercity traffic though there are highways and railway tracks. No regular bus service, no train with merry old people, who had visited a sightseeing in the country and return home, which you see immediately after you cross the border to China. So people have to stay in the vicinity, where they live. There aren’t many good that are transported, so you have to live on the goods you produce regionally.
You don’t see old or disabled people. If you are disabled and live on the 16th floor and you don’t have a working elevator, then you don’t leave you home much often. If you don’t have a wheelchair, especially an electric one, when you can’t move your legs, how could you move around? Maybe some people are kept out of sight on purpose, but most will simply not appear because of lack of transport.
Your hardly see young men. Well some of them in other countries you would better like not see, like members of street gangs. But in North Korea it’s because of the long military service. That also means a drain of work force.
You don’t see starving people, even if you go on long trips throughout the country. You see the well to do cooperative farms. You don’t see shrivelled corn; you see nice dark yellow corn being dried. How is it that you don’t see attributes of famine? You travel in the long stretched of good arable land. You don’t see the not so easy land strips, where corn doesn’t ripen or rice can’t be grown. Even the Great Leader Kim Il Sung had to face the fact that arable land in Korea is limited and can’t be expanded. What you see is any bit of land that is arable will be put into use. Where other countries simply have grass in front of apartment houses, you see salad, turnips, or cabbage. What does it mean in terms of environment protection? Corn is draining the soil. Monocultures like vast corn fields will lead to erosion and loss of fertile land. You don’t see starving people, but you see how slim the average North Korean is. So, even if the pictures aren’t showing starving people, you might be inclined to accept that there are people in North Korea, who are starving.

Laughing in North Korea

Mads Bruegger thought that laughter is a rare commodity in the nation led by Kim Jong Il. You might be overwhelmed by the sombre atmosphere that the spotless streets, the absence of disabled or elderly people, the Stalinist personality cult, and the emotionless faces. You might be comparing the movie “Equilibrium” (

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Equilibrium_(film)) to real life in North Korea. You also might come to the conclusion that people go into the cellar to laugh.
And then you hear people singing and laughing as the walk along the dark streets after a day of work (Kaesong). Or you see people laughing at public places.

Poverty and Starvation

Do you see poverty and starvation in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea? Yes and no.
If you look at articles on the internet or the press you’ll find accounts of people, who wanted to find starving people, but didn’t succeed. This fact does not necessarily mean that there isn’t, but that conditions to find such things aren’t optimal. If you look at full faced “starving” children in these articles, you look at propaganda. If you read about the accusation of cannibalism, you read propaganda. I think, we better leave propaganda to the Stalinist state.
Poverty stricken people in rags, which you are accustomed to from the poor countries of Africa, you don’t see them in North Korea. Actually you see properly clad people, you even see dandified kids visiting the Zoo (I know, you might argue that one only sees the children of the well doing cadre class). You don’t see beggars. You don’t see people starving at the next street corner. What you can see, however, is a society that is much slimmer than in the West, the US, or China. So people generally eat less than the overfed societies. This and the fact that people have to rely on walking and climbing stairs instead of car, public transport, or elevators, might even lead to the conclusion that the people of North Korea are healthier. Might be, might be not – if the well doing are slim, there might be even large numbers of people close to starving. Thought having travelled a couple of hundred kilometres through North Korea in 16 days, I wasn’t able to see these people. That doesn’t mean that there aren’t, it only means that one should be critical about revelations of certain reporters, who think that they can discover starvation on a four day trip.
You might see poverty in buildings that are unrendered like most of the buildings in the city of Haeju. Or in the fact that people have to climb stairs because there isn’t a working elevation due to the lack of electricity – 20th floor might not be funny. You might see poverty in the lack of public transport. You see railway tracks but no train. You drive on highways with hardly any traffic. You see traffic wardens regulating an amount of traffic that doesn’t need regulating – though these women simply look good (OT). You can’t speak freely to people and the people you may talk with like guides or interpreters, however open they are with foreigners, avoid certain topics. No access to the internet, controlled cell phone network. North Korea’s situation is perhaps best described as moving in a traffic circle at the end of a dead end street.

Detailed route and activities in North Korea

Day 1: 08:30 a.m. arrival in Beijing. 01:00 p.m. flight to Pyongyang.-Sightseeing Liberation Tower, Arch of Triumph, Monument to Victorious War. Check-in Yanggakdo International Hotel.

Day 2: Taedong Gate with bell, Korean Art Gallery (opposite of Central History Museum), Underground, Central History Museum, Movie Studios with streets, Railway Museum..

Day 3: Drive to Myohyang Mountains, Pohyon Temple, hiking in the mountains, picnic at waterfall, Check-in Chongchon Hotel.

Day 4: Visit International Friendship Exhibitions, drive back to Pyongyang, back to Yanggakdo International Hotel, Morangbong Circus (military circus), Tower of the Juche Idea, evening at May Day Stadium (Arirang).

Day 5: Drive to Wonsan and then along the coast to Kumgangsan Mountains.

Day 6: Hiking to Kuryongyon Falls, afternoon little hike to Manmulsang.

Day 7: Hiking in Kumgangsan district, strolling around Lagoon Samil, Lake Sijung, Check-in hotel at Lake Sijung.

Day 8: Chonsam Cooperative Farm, Ryangchon Temple, Anbul Temple, Wonsan Habour, Revolutionary Museum (Old Railway Station and Hotel), Songdowon International Children’s Union Camp, walking to the lighthouse in the evening.

Day 9: Drive back to Pyongyang, on the way King Tongmyong’s Mausoleum, Jongnung Temple, Lunch in Pyongyang (including dancing with the waitresses and singing the International Anthem), Mt. Taesong, Kwangbop Temple, Ryonggang Hot Spring House.

Day 10: Chongsan Cooperative Farm with Museum, West Sea Barrage, Mt. Kuwol, Woljong Temple, Mt. Suyang, Haeju, walk in the afternoon/evening.

Day 11: Drive to Sariwon, Sariwon Folk Street, Pakyon Falls, Kwanum Temple, Kaesong Folklore Hotel, walking in the evening though the city (workers return home).

Day 12: Walking to Kaesong Nam Gate, Mt. Janam with Kim Il Sung Statue, Songjuk Bridge, Sungyang Lecture Hall, Buddhist Temple, Koryo Museum with ongoing movie shooting, King Wanggon’s Mausoleum, King Kongmin’s Mausoleum (Twin tomb), and older tombs not yet restored.

Day 13: Panmunjom, Lunch in the Demilitarized Zone, Mt. Jongbang, Songbul Temple, drive back to Pyongyang, Yanggakdo International Hotel.

Day 14: Pyongyang Grand Theatre, Apple plantation, King Tangun’s Mausoleum, Grand People’s Study House, Victorious War Museum

Day 15: Fountain park, Revolutionary Martyr’s Cemetery, Central Zoo, Central Botanical Garden, Obstetric and Gynaecological Clinic, Central Youth Hall.

Day 16: Railway to Dandong (China) about 6 hours.

Religion

„Every citizen in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea enjoys full freedom of and right to religion.“
It doesn’t seem so. There are no Buddhist worshippers at the temples. These temples are historical sites and aren’t places of worship. There are only a few churches and it isn’t clear if Korean people attend mass; some people from embassies do, however. But it isn’t a living religion of the Korean people.
The reverence for Kim Il Sung and his family is growing into a religion. Relics are kept, for instance a chair on which the Great Leader had sit during a visit. Or the birthplace of the Eternal President Kim Il Sung it kept like a pilgrimage destination. It is depicted on steles in the villages “for the eternal life of President Kim Il Sung”, as it had been translated for me. There is the national heroes graveyard near the Pyongyang Zoo with the place of commemoration of Kim Jong Suk, wife of Kim Il Song and mother of Kim Jong Il. It may be compared to worshipping St. Mary. At least that’s the atmosphere.

Buddhist Temples

There are some Buddhist temples in North Korea. Somehow Kim Il Sung knew that he had to stop revolutionary forces to destroy the rest of their old heritage that fires and shells of the Korean War hadn’t consumed. Nowadays North Korea tries to rebuild its history and sometimes, e.g. the kings’ graves, with surreal effects. Not so with the Buddhist temples. The ones you can visit are in good shape and masterly restored. You will see “monks” in the temples, but I think only one was really a monk, the others were actors, who only knew how often the Great Leader Kim Il Sung had visited the temple. There is an easy question to make sure, who may be a real monk: “Are you really a monk?” The wrong answer is: “Yes, of course.” But the real monk will answer: “Maybe.”

The pictures show Songbul Temple at the foot of Chonsong Peak (built in 898) and Anhwa Temple near Kaesong.

Die linden Winde

Die linden Winde
Die linden Winde sind längst fort
Der Abend drängt sich auf
Im letzten Licht denk ich an Sommer
An Licht, Duft, blauen Himmel
So wie das Leben muss auch er
Dem ew’gen Kreislauf folgen
Wo kommen wir nur her?
Wo geh’n wir hin alsbald?
Ach, wo die linden Winde wehen