20 February 2019 - Nampo and Pyongyang (North Korea)

Today we started early to visit Nampo City, Nampo West Sea Barrage and a village co-operative farm now called a state farm. As Nampo was a sensitive area there were a number of police checks on our way there. The farms in this area mainly grow rice and maize and though it was winter time there were people working in the fields and in some of the greenhouses. Farmers work a full day and then have access to computer lessons and further learning, all free. In the village we were given a talk by some of the villagers who were more than happy to show us a bronze sculpture, a 500 ton granite carving with carvings of a speech by one of the Kim’s, and paintings of the various Kim’s visits to the village, even saying how many times each had been to the village. The people in the bronze, granite and painting were actual people from the village.

Farm Buildings

Our Korean guides

Kim and the village people

Farm workers

The village and memorials

It was not a very clear day to see the barrage but it was 8 kilometers long with sluices to control the water level behind the barrage and with three ship locks. There were also ten 1MW hydroelectric machines installed.  I was impressed with what could be seen especially as it was built with very little mechanised equipment and completed in 1986. As a result of the barrage the area was also a supplier of salt harvested from nearby salt flats.

    

Visitors building and barrage

Fishing on the ice at Nampo

Then it was onto the Tae'An Glass Factory where sheet glass was manufactured and where we were able to take photos without any problem. I, and others, were intrigued with the number of posters in the factory exhorting the workers to do more. The factory was protected by soldiers having guns with fixed bayonets.

Poster in the factory

Glass production

Poster in the factory

Poster in the factory

                                                                       The next stop was back in Pyongyang at the underground offices and headquarters of President Kim Il Sung and of his Cabinet and Military Commission during the Korean War. There were a number of tunnels but only one of which could be entered as the others were unsafe. In the tunnels were meeting, eating and sleeping rooms and, where it was said, Kim and his officers lived for two years during the war while the Americans bombed Pyongyang. Some of the underground rooms were duplicated using the original furniture in purpose built buildings above ground so as to show visitors how people lived during the war.

One entrance to the tunnels

Inside one of the tunnels

Reproduction of one of the rooms

                              The June 9th Middle School was next on the visit list and where a few of the younger tour members played football with the students while we waited to be escorted into the school. This school is the showpiece school in North Korea because Kim Il-Sung ordered it to be built as a showpiece in 1969 - on June 6th and hence it's name. Education is compulsory for all up to 12 years of age here. The years are split up as one year of Pre-school, five years of Junior School and three years each of Junior High and High School. University is freely available for the best students while those not so good are expected to join the workforce. Should those in the workforce excel then it is possible for them to be streamed into university study. I was impressed to learn that all the schools are connected by an ‘intranet’ which allows a talk/lecture in any university or school to be watched/listened to by any student at any school in Pyongyang and possibly the country. We were entertained with a concert by the students and staff in the school auditorium which we all enjoyed. 

School entrance

Painting in the school

Students performing

Students and teacher performing

Students performing

Playing football

Dinner was at a special ‘fish’ restaurant but although the food was reasonable it was not what was expected and a disappointment. This, and the cold noodle meal, were the only meals I did not particularly like the whole time in North Korea. Usually fish are kept in glass tanks, but not here, the fish of all sizes, were kept in ponds on the ground floor of the restaurant

Then it was a look around the city in the dark before returning to the hotel where most hung out at the bar until quite late. 

Ponds full of fish

Buffet

The Ryugyong hotel

Unha Tower

18 and 19 February 2019 - Pyongyang and Mt. Myohyohyang (North Korea)

I had a visit from diarrhea during the night but though I was alright in the morning I decided to stay in the hotel just in-case, thus missing the visit to the Pueblo, the American navy ship captured by the North Koreans in 1968. The Korean guide made sure I took the local medicine for diarrhea as well! Joining the group just before a special lunch of cold noodles there was nothing I thought worse than  noodles, and cold as well. I had green tea, bean powder pancakes and ice-cream, the first time we had been offered ice-cream since arriving here. 

Lunch dining room

Then it was off to the Architectural Exhibition Building, the Three Revolutions Exhibition and the Artificial Satellite Hall. It was very cold in all the buildings while in them we were escorted by our own guides and an additional guide for each building who explained what we were looking at.

The Artificial Satellite Building

Scenes inside the building

Don't know which rocket

Equipment made in North Korea

Equipment made in North Korea

Later we went by bus to Mount Myohyang and the beautiful Hyangsan Hotel. The countryside on the way was grey, brown and dry. The fields were being prepared for spring and the extensive irrigation channels tidied ready for the rains to come. Farms are now called communes, each commune having about 100 families working together. The roads were icy so it was a slow journey. It was made clear to us that photos could be taken from the bus even if local people were included provided they were not close-ups and not of the police or military personnel. This was no difference to the requirements in many other countries.

International Friendship Exhibition Building

View up to Mount Myohyang

 

Hotel Hyangsan

The hotel reception area

Mt. Myohyang is called the 'Mysterious Fragrance Mountain' and is around 150km north of Pyongyang. According to legend it was the home of King Tangun, the forefather of the Korean people. The purpose of the trip to Mt. Myohyang was to visit the International Friendship Exhibition. This is a large museum complex with many rooms showing a collection  of gifts presented to former leaders Kim Il-sung and Kim Jong-il from various foreign dignitaries. The items were from 88 countries and said to comprise 150,000 items ranging from animal skins, shells, ivory, gold and silver, and some odd items difficult to describe. Some large rooms had hundreds of gifts only from an individual country while gifts from the UK barely filled one small glass cabinet.

There were dioramas (large paintings) of the Kim's and Mrs. Kim to which we had to line up and bow. 

I was quite surprised to then visit a Buddhist temple nearby, the Pohyonsa Temple, because I did not expect to see signs of any religion here. There was a monk in residence who said that his wish was for the two Korea's to be united again. The original temple was built in 1042 AD, rebuilt later again and then again after being damaged during the Korean War.  

Entering the temple

One of the monks

Shrine area

Some of the temple buildings

The temple bell

The temple guardian gods

We were supposed to drive further up the mountain for the to see the view but the roads were too icy to go very far. We stopped a little way from the temple for people to have a walk, which I did. It was cold and quiet. Some of the others went in a different direction to have an armed soldier pop up in front of them in the forest making it plain that they could not go any further. In some places in the forest it was easy to see guards and buildings though what they were actually guarding was not obvious at all.

On returning to Pyongyang in the early evening we were taken to the Koryo Hotel where there was a post office where letters and postcards could be posted. I think all of us posted something and all I sent did arrive home. Except for one postcard which arrived in an envelope marked 'damaged in transit' to see that the stamp had been cleanly cut off with a scissors. I guess someone in the British Post Office really wanted a North Korean stamp! At least the postcard was forwarded on! Then it was up to the revolving restaurant in the Yanggakdo International Hotel and on the 47th floor. I did go up, stood on the floor which was shaking, and swiftly went back down to the ground. It definitely was not for me! The doormen here would not look out of place at a posh hotel in London what with their coats, gold stripes and braid.

Yanggakdo Hotel

Inside the restaurant

 
















Dinner was not at this hotel, can't remember where, but it consisted of a hotpot with the meat and vegetables being supplied raw and cooked in the hotpot by ourselves. By now most of the group were or had been ill with a fever, flu or diarrhea, one in-particular having been ill for a few days. Back to the hotel, do some light washing and leave on the floor overnight to dry by the underfloor heating.

17 February 2019 - Pyongyang (North Korea)

Today we were to visit the Mausoleum of Kim Il-Sung and Kim Jong-Il or as otherwise preferred to be called ‘The Palace of the Sun’ where the embalmed bodies of the two Kims could be seen in glass sarcophagus. We were given the individual choice as to whether we wanted to go as perhaps some people would object due to religious, political, security or the dress requirements necessary for entry to the mausoleum. To prepare for the visit, which was only at specific times for foreigners, the male had to wear proper trousers (no jeans), shirt and tie (ties were available from the tour leader), and no open sandals. It was easier that all items were removed from pockets and left in the bus as an airport style security check was carried out on entering the building. I had my reading glasses in my pocket and again they were taken out and looked through by the security staff. Women had to be tidily dressed as well and for both men and women all coats had to be left in the cloakroom. Obviously no photographs could be taken inside the mausoleum.

Once through the security check we were told not to talk or laugh and to walk in single file with our arms and hands lying down the side of the body and definitely no hands in a pocket. On the escalator it was single file again and no walking on the escalator, the same for the moving walkway. When there was room in the corridors we were ‘marched’ two by two or four by four until reaching the viewing rooms. First we lined up in lines of four and when told by the guide the front row bowed to the feet of the body. The front row then walked to the left, the second row at the foot of the body stepped forward and all bowed again. The four at the left moved to the right of the body (there was no stopping at the head), the ones at the feet moved to the left and those at the foot stepped forward and then we all bowed again. Those at the right then left the room and movement and bowing continued until we had all finished. This was repeated for the second viewing hall. All this was watched by military guards who never moved one millimetre as far as I could see. The were other men walking round so I assume they were guards as well. We were expected to behave and act as the local people did as locals were there at the same time and behaving the same way.  

The building had rooms and rooms of medals and gifts given to the Kims from other countries, some of which we saw. Some rooms, not seen, were said to be one kilometre long. Apart from the medals and photographs of the Kims meeting world leaders there was a plane, railway carriage and boat with maps showing which Kim had gone where with each mode of transport.

It’s easy to understand why some people would not like to visit the mausoleum!!

It was then a visit to the Revolutionary Martyrs' Cemetery where the bodies of soldiers killed while fighting the Japanese are buried and also the bodies of those killed while fighting the Americans in Vietnam.

Revolutionary Martyrs' Cemetery

Lunch was a burger, fish and vegetables then a short stop at a coffee shop while waiting for.to go to the theatre or circus, our choice. Some of the group would not go to the circus because live animals were used. I chose to go to the theatre as I thought it would be more interesting, and I think I was right. One of the group while walking across the square in-front of the theatre was told by a guard to take his hands out of his pockets.























The show started with stirring patriotic singing having performers dressed in uniforms with the whole performance depicting the DPRK from the Korean War up to today with some emphasis on the destruction caused by the Americans and the rebuilding of the country without any help. We were sat in special seats with the local people not being allowed to sit in the same row. At the end of the performance the people were held back for us to leave first but once out of the auditorium we walked out with everyone else. Apart from the hotel staff and guides I never tried to speak to the local people as I doubted that they could speak English and I did not want to get them into possible trouble should I try to approach them. This is not strictly true as the last night in North Korea was quite different and will be mentioned later on.

STREET VIEWS OF PYONGYANG

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Street Stalls

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A visit to a water park was next where some of the group went swimming and the others sat at the bar. One of the men in the group had ponytail hair and was somewhat embarrassed to have walked into the ladies changing room as he’d been given a key for that room having been mistaken by the Koreans for a woman. There was a barbers in the park and as my hair was getting long I asked if I could have a haircut only to be told that it was not advisable as the barbers only did one style. Then there was an hour spent in a bowling alley before dinner in a very good restaurant dressed out for weddings. Apart from very nice food we were entertained by a small group of singers and musicians. Quite a full day.

Entertainment at dinner this evening

The dining room

Dinner