Sunday, September 2,
2012: Leaving a tour of Jeju Island,
Korea, our Advantage Travel & Tours group flew to Beijing to obtain our
visas for North Korea. Our group of
eleven led by Cathy and Bob Parda included Lynn Bishop (my ex-roommate on many
trips), Linda Marshall and Terry Wharton from our Antarctica South Georgia
aborted cruise. In addition, Edna
Erspamer, Bill Boyd and Edith Ann Pazmino from many previous trips and two new
comers: Mary Alice Warren, Lynn’s high school girlfriend and Carla De Went. At Jeju Island, Mike Bidwell, who had been
with the group on the Jeju Island tour left the group to tour Seoul. He had visited North Korea the previous year.
From Jeju Island we flew to Pusan, Korea and changed planes
for our flight to Beijing. At the
Beijing Airport we had to wait for Carla to arrive from Chicago. David, our guide didn’t have printed sign
welcoming Advantage Travel at the Customs exit.
Cathy and I left Customs first and found David holding a sign for
Cathy. Since Carla was new to the group
she didn’t know what we looked like nor did we know what she looked like so the
wait was a little longer than planned. She
had not keyed on the sign for Cathy and had exited Customs and wandered around the
terminal. Eventually she spotted our group
of American tourists sitting together and she introduced herself to the group.
The ride to the hotel took almost two hours in the Beijing
traffic at evening rush hour. We were
booked into the Crown Plaza Beijing hotel in the center of the city. It was a 5 Star hotel but only had free Wi-Fi
in the lobby. The room was very good and
there was an outlet near the bed for my CPAP.
The bedside console had a separate switch for floor outlets so I was
able to control the lights and still have power for my CPAP.
Dinner was on our own.
After catching up on my email in the lobby I set out to find some place
to eat. As I wandered the streets near
the hotel I saw Lynn and Mary ordering in a MacDonald’s and decided to join
them.
Monday, September 3,
2012: While Cathy and Bob obtained
our North Korean visas. David took the
rest of the group on a tour of Beijing.
We started out at 09:00 and drove to the “798 Art Zone” located in the Dashanzi
area, to the northeast of central Beijing.
It was the site of state-owned factories including Factory 798, which
originally produced electronics. Beginning
in 2002, artists and cultural organizations began to divide, rent out, and
re-make the factory spaces, gradually developing them into galleries, art
centers, artists' studios, design companies, restaurants, and bars.
When Judy and I toured Beijing in 2007 with OAT they did not
take us there so I enjoyed the new experience and hope that my daughter, Robin,
can visit it someday to see the many sculptures and art galleries. Some of the sculptures were very large and
quite impressive.
There was a lot of slow walking around the complex and Edna
was not happy because the guide didn't understand that she can't walk a
lot. From there we drove to the Olympic
Center and had to walk to the "Birdcage" stadium. Edna paid for a tram to give her a ride
around the exterior while the rest of the group walked to the top and were able
to see the most amazing group of performers hanging from cables practicing for
a big show this evening. From the top of
the Bird Cage we had great views of the surrounding area. Across a plaza was the practice track, still
in great condition.
From the "Birdcage" we walked across a very wide
plaza to the "Water Cube" which contains the swimming pools. (I hope Christine can see it someday - it is
very impressive). There were a number of
tourists in the plaza and touring the Stadium and Water Cube. Overlooking the complex was a large building
shaped like a Lion with IBM on the top.
The Water Cube is also called the Magic Water Place and the
Holy Palace of Swimming. Twenty four
world records and 66 Olympic records were set during the 2008 Games. We had a little difficulty finding doors open
to get into the seating area next to the pools.
In addition to swimming pool there was another pool for diving and a
water park for kids. A display of a
London Bus and Telephone booth were set up near the Gift Shop.
Our bus was parked next to the National Jade Hotel where we
were scheduled to have lunch. The hotel
was across from the center so we had a long walk back to that hotel to eat
lunch.
The lunch had a lot of Chinese dishes, not any spicy
ones. Everyone liked it. I had a strange experience at the hotel
toilets. I was the first one up the
stairs to the toilets and down a dark hall to a wide open door way with the
doors to the Men and Women's room doors open.
Next to the large open doorway was a sign with a figure of a man in
black on the left and a figure of a woman in red on the right, so I went in the
room on the left and into a stall. When
I emerged from the stall the ladies from the group were standing at the
sink. I had entered the women's room. We had a little laugh and I was kidded at
lunch.
After lunch we had a long drive back to Tiananmen Square
where our bus stopped at the National Theater for a tour. It is an impressive looking building in the
shape of a large egg. Edna stayed in the
bus and we walked to the theater and discovered it closed for an event. We then walked to the Tiananmen Square and
back. The square had changed since I was
last there in 2007. There is a long wall
in the middle of the square with a large screen that displays a Panoramic
Vision of China in English. The wall of
the Forbidden Palace facing the square was draped in cloth which I think was to
cover some renovation work. Without the
wall as a background the groups of tourists that I observed in 2007 having
their picture taken with the wall in the background were not in the
square. It was not as crowded as it was
in 2007.
We had to walk back to the National Theater to board our bus
and return to the hotel at 15:30 and have our North Korea briefing at
17:30. Bob gave us a briefing on the
does and don’ts in North Korea and we were dismissed to eat dinner on our own.
I lugged my laptop down to the lobby and caught up on my
emails and sent out some messages. After
a while I got hungry and set out in another direction from the night before to
get a quick bit to eat. This time I came
upon a large shopping mall and noticed a sign for a Subway which I soon found
and had my quick dinner. On my way out
of the building I passed a Pizza Hut and saw several of our group eating
there. They were the ones that asked for
forks at each meal so I guess they aren’t accustomed to Asian food.
Tuesday, September 4,
2012: We had a good breakfast at the
Crown Plaza and got ready for our flight to Pyongyang on Air Koryo in a Russian
Tu-204-100B aircraft. The tour guide
taking us to the airport suggested we remove all luggage tags from our bags so
as not to flag us as Americans. We found
out later that only about 100 Americans visit North Korea every year.
The flight left on time, the aircraft was very clean and in
good condition. There were drop down TV
monitors but the seats had no headset plugs and the sound of the TV was
broadcast over speakers above each row.
The show was a musical performance.
The flight was full and we discovered later had a group of Italian
Parliamentarians on board. They sat in
first class and their aids in the front seats of coach. When we landed we had to wait to exit while
the dignitaries were greeted on the ramp and driven away.
When we picked up our luggage in Pyongyang we had to pass it
through x-ray and at that point I had to hand over my cell phone. They gave me the 3rd degree on my
laptop but let me keep it. Our assigned
guide for the duration of our stay in the country was Mr. Kim, a young man that
spoke excellent English. He was assisted
by Ginny, a young intern who
had just graduated from university. Our
bus and bus driver was assigned to us for the duration.
On the drive to the hotel we found the streets to be very
wide with few cars and people on the sidewalks.
We saw very few trucks. There
were rows of five-story buildings along the route and then grounds around the
buildings very clean. As we entered the
center of the city we stopped at the Arch of Triumph celebrating the struggle
between 1925 and 1945 when Korea was finally free of Japanese occupation. It is modeled after the Arch in Paris but
does not have the traffic Paris has.
After taking our photos we continued on through the city, past massive
buildings with wide plazas, void of any crowds.
As we passed the sports complex we saw a number of school children in
the plaza. When we reached a bridge over
a river we exited onto an island in the middle of the river and drove to a 47
story hotel at the tip of the island.
The hotel is a 5 star and was busy with tourists. Bob and Cathy invited me down for a draft
beer in a Pub off the lobby. For dinner
we left the hotel and drove to a restaurant in the city. It was dark and there were few street lights,
very few neon signs and few cars on the streets. The restaurant was well lit and the food
delicious – especially if you like kimchee flavoring. The beer was good.
Wednesday, September
5, 2012: We were asked to wear a tie
for the special places were were scheduled to visit. Our first stop was the newly opened “Gift
House” not to be confused with Kim Il’s International Friendship Exhibition
Hall. It has 11,000 gifts in which
8,000 gifts from 155 countries around the world were on display. The International Friendship Exhibition Hall
reportedly contains 90,000 gifts. It was
not clear if the new “Gift House” contains new gifts or gifts transferred from
the International Friendship Exhibition Hall.
We were told we were the first Americans to visit the new hall. No cameras were allowed inside and we had to
wear a cover over our shoes. The first
room contained a large statue of Kim Jong Il the “Great Leader” which we had to
bow before entering the exhibit rooms.
The gifts were impressive including several Remington sculptures
presented by the Korean-American Business Association. Since we were dressed up with ties on we took
group pictures outside the building.
From the “Gift House” we drove to the Mansudae Fountain Park
and a visit to the Grand Peoples Study House which is a huge marble
library. The library contains large
rooms with adjustable desk where people can check out books from computers
lining the hall and read the books at the desks. Other rooms contain classrooms where students
can take extracurricular classes or obtain extra study on the subjects they are
studying in their school. We observed
classrooms teaching Russian and English.
Every room had pictures of the “Great Leader” and the “Supreme Leader”
on the walls. On the top of the building
we had great views of the city. Down
below we observed wedding couples having their pictures taken in Mansudae Park.
Leaving the building we walked through the park to the
Mansudae Grand Monument on Mansu Hill with two 65 foot high statues in bronze
of the “Great Leader” and the “Supreme Leader”.
We paid our respects and Cathy laid flowers below the statues. On each side of the statues are monuments of
the struggle with Japan on one side and the Korean War on the other side. It was a beautiful clear day and the views of
the city and monuments were outstanding.
Also on Mansu Hill is The 150 foot high Chollima statue on
Mansu Hill was completed in 1961. It was built to honor the heroism and
invincible fighting spirit of the Korean people like the legendary winged horse
Chollima that is said to cover a thousand li (or 250,000 miles) in a day.
Mounted on the winged horse is a worker holding high the "Red Letter"
of the Central Committee of the Workers’ Party of Korea and a young peasant
woman holding a sheaf of rice.
After the Korean War, the country was devastated and the
Korean people had to rebuild everything, starting from ashes. In order to
expedite the construction, President Kim Il Sung devised the slogan “rush as
the speed of Chollima.” It is said that
ten steps were needed when others took one, and one hundred needed when others
took only ten. Every building and
monument we visited we were told was built in an exaggerated short time because
the workers followed the speed of Chollima.
Next stop was lunch.
This time each person had a pot over a Sterno flame to cook meat and vegetables. Again there were dishes of vegetables and
sauces around the pot.
After lunch we drove to the Heavy Industry Exhibit Hall in
the Three Revolutions Exhibition Park.
The Park is similar to the Washington DC Mall with Exhibit halls lining
the edge of the Park. Inside the Hall we
saw diorama displays of mines and power plants, North Korean automobiles and
motorcycles plus other heavy machinery.
They were very proud of their computer controlled milling machine.
We returned to our hotel and shed our ties, had dinner and
prepared for the Mass Gymnastic Games and Arirang Festival. We arrived at the Pyongyang May Day Stadium,
one of the biggest sport arenas in the world, to find the parking lot full of
tour buses, solders and students practicing their routines. The show is held four times a week in 2012
from August 1 to October 10th.
We made our way through the crowd to the beautiful stadium and were
ushered to our seats in the VIP section; about 10 rows up on the 50 yard line
in US Football stadium speak. Our seats
were stand business conference seats with arm rests facing a long green velvet
top table. Below us was a similar row
seating the Italian Parliamentarians who rode in on our flight from Beijing. The end zone seats were empty and we were
told not to take pictures in that direction since they are often filled by the
military. The area from the end zone to
about the 30 yard line was full of spectators in normal stadium seating. When I tried to look behind me an Usher told
me to not turn around and to look straight ahead. I did see that the stadium had three
decks. Across the field sat 20,000
students with a book of 170 color cards that they used to make beautiful
pictures like we saw at the Beijing Olympics in 2008.
Fifteen minutes before the 20:00 show start a column of
performers carrying blue flags trotted into the area and lined the back and
sides. Above the card flippers a sign
displayed 1912 – 100 – 2012 and below a sign board displayed the time and the
performance in Korean. Right on time the
show started with a colorful display of precision marchers which soon blended
in to displays of gymnastics, dance,
acrobatics, and dramatic performance, accompanied by music and other effects. The impressive other effects included
high wire acrobatics, light shows and fireworks. In the background was the ever changing
mosaic of colorful scenes
Our assistant
guide, Ginny, told us that the students start practice in January after school
and each student practices just one routine.
She was in the Games two years ago dressed as a soldier beating a
drum. She politicked for two years to be
accepted for the position. 80,000
students participate every year.
Arirang is a
Korean folk song. The song supports an
old Korean fable about a boy and girl from a poor village. They are in love but the boy leaves to fight
with the rebels and the landlord makes passes on the girl. The boy returns and observes the girl with
the landlord so leaves again. The Mass
Games performances loosely follow the story with happy, fighting and sad scenes
and ended with a happy ending. Some
Western observers describe the performance as Communist Propaganda but I found
it a well-executed display of precision talent based on the same theme of boy
and girl fall in love, boy goes to war and returns to find girl associated with
another man that is the basis of so many operas and plays.
After the show we encountered a mob scene in the parking lot
with our bus hemmed in by other buses but our driver was able to skillfully
weave the bus out of the jam and back to the hotel.
Thursday, September
6, 2012: After breakfast we boarded
our bus and drove 40 miles south out of the city to the city of Sariwon, capital
of North Hwanghae Province, North Korea.
There we got out of the bus and walked along Sariwon Folk Street, a
beautiful landscaped area below a mountain called Folk Village. We exited our bus just as a group of school
children walked by all dressed in white shirts with red bandanas. The boys had black slacks and the girls black
skirts or slacks. I did see some girls
in other colored slacks.
Sariwon is known to produce the country's tastiest Maccoli,
a well known Korean alcoholic beverage.
Kim had a bottle and we all tasted a bit.
The Folk Village had an ancient gate with two ponds on
either side. One pond had a concrete
boat in the center. On the opposite side
of the walkway past the gate was a recreation center with beautiful mosaic
murals and inside game rooms with Yut-nori the Korean form of checkers and
chess boards on the floor. In a cabinet
were the games pieces colored sticks and tokens shaped like bottle tops. Yut-nori is played by throwing the sticks in
the air and the way they land indicates how many places you can move your
token. Outside the building were
concrete tables with the game pattern on top surrounded by concrete
stools. In back of the building was the
larger of the two ponds and boats of kids were rowing around. Large sculptures of animals (including
elephants and tigers) ringed the area.
Back through the gate we visited a compound which had a
series of maps in colorful mosaic tiles on walls that describe Korea’s cultural
ruins and historical relics. Also in the
compound we visited the Provincial History Museum, various pavilions and houses
in the style of the Ancient and Middle era of Korea.
From the Folk Village we visited the base of Mt. Jongbang
where we were entertained by a musical group practicing in an open pagoda
perched on the side of the mountain. The
director sat in back and the singers performed and he critiqued them. It was an interesting scene and performance.
Back on the bus we rode up the mountain to Songbul Buddhist
Temple.
Founded in 848, Songbul Temple encompasses some of the
oldest wooden buildings in the country Rebuilt in 1374, the pavilion sits on a
raised stone platform and features delicate paintings, cow-tongue eaves, and
doors with carved flower grilles. A Koryo period five-story stone pagoda stands
in front of it. Ungjin Shrine, rebuilt in 1327 is one of the oldest wooden
buildings in North Korea. The long, spacious hall sits on a raised platform,
and is a paradigm of Koryo architecture.
One of the unusual features of the Temple is the small figures of heads
that boarded each side of three Buddhas.
The Japanese destroyed the heads but they have been recreated.
We rode back to the city and on the way stopped for photos
at the Arch of Reunification or Monument to Three Charters for National
Reunification.
Erected in 2001, the arch is sited on the Tongil expressway
which leads straight from Pyongyang to Panmunjom and eventually, Seoul. The
three principles (formalized by Kim Il Sung during a meeting with the South in
1972) are independence, peaceful reunification and national unity. The monument
depicts two Korean women in traditional dress, with their arms stretched out
trying to embrace one another and shout ‘long live reunification.’ Each woman
represents the idea that the North and South are the same nation living in the
same territory with the same mind, but are unfortunately divided. The upper
part of the tower body depicts letters reading ‘three charters’, a map of 'one'
Korea, and magnolia designs. Both sides of each platform display group
sculptures based on the themes of the three principles of national
reunification, the proposal for founding a federal republic, and the concept of
Korean national unity. Both sides also have the slogan: “Long Live Reunified
Korea.”
After another great Korean lunch (for a man who normally
just eats a salad for lunch these meals were not helping my waist line) we rode
to the Mansudae Art Studio where the bronze castings, sculptures and paintings
of the Great Leader and Supreme Leader are crafted plus other art work. We visited the studio of one of the full time
landscape artist. In the courtyard was
the 18 foot tall statue of the Kims riding side by side on horseback for
Pyongyang's first public sculpture of the late leader. It was cast before Kim Jong Il died to be
unvalued on his 70th birthday.
During Kim Jong Il’s reign he resisted any proposals to erect bronze
statues of himself. Now they are being
cast to stand alongside his father
From the studio we rode to the Mangyongdae Children’s
Palace. Dedicated in 1989, it is a huge
marble multi story building that includes escalators from the ground floor of a
large round center of the building to the first floor. Ringing the wide open area were classrooms
where students attend extracurricular classes after school. We observed music instrument, needlepoint,
calligraphy, and painting classes. There
was a gift shop where the student’s projects are on sale.
After our tour of the building we were ushered into an
auditorium where the students gave us an impressive performance of their
talents in musical instruments, singing, dancing, jumping rope and performing gymnastics. We were impressed!
Our dinner that night was in a private room in a fancy
restaurant. Delicious! When we returned to the hotel we were offered
the opportunity to visit the Rungna People's Pleasure Ground, a new amusement
park in the capital. It is the location
of the first public sighting of Kim Jong-un’s wife. Only Bob and I accepted the offer.
The Rungna People's Pleasure Ground is located near the Arch
of Triumph and was surprisingly crowded for a week night. We were given the VIP treatment and offered
to buck the lines on any ride of our choosing, but first we toured the grounds
and were intrigued by the snack bar where American style hamburgers, hotdogs,
corn dogs, onion rings French fries and chocolate chip cookies were on sale. The trash bins were just like you would find
in an American fast food restaurant.
The first ride Bob and I selected was a twisting
roller-coaster. We were ushered to the
head of the line and climbed a ladder with our hands holding two arms. A cage was then closed on us and the device
tilted so we were parallel to the ground and away we went rolling through 360
degrees in our cage at the same time we were looping along and up and down on
the roller-coaster. I survived without
losing my dinner. Next we picked the
vertical drop ride. We again were seated
ahead of the crowd and our seats were raised 12 stories high and sat there for
forty seconds admiring the view of the Arch and the city before we dropped and
were eventually braked to a gentle stop to let our body parts realign
themselves. When I left my seat Kim
pointed out that we had sat in seats with a red star which indicated that there
were seats that Kim Jong-un and his wife had sat in.
After that ride we decided to call it a night and returned
to our hotel.
Friday, September 7,
2012: We checked out of the hotel
and rode south to the DMZ. There was a
steady stream of tour busses on the highway and about an hour and one half out
we stopped along with other busses at a rest stop that crossed over the
highway. Vendors had set up tables
selling tourist items, coffee and snacks.
Kim told us we had a scheduled time to tour the DMZ. We were allowed to take pictures of the
countryside along the highway. We saw a
lot of rice fields and soon arrived at Kaesong and then stopped at
Panmunjom. There were about twenty buses
in two columns in front of our bus. We
walked to the Panmun Souvenir Shop which was packed with tourists. Eventually it was our turn for Kim to give us
a briefing on the DMZ and the buildings we would see. It was the first time since we entered the
country that we saw maps that had the dividing line drawn. Before this point all maps showed the
complete country with no mark that there were two countries.
On the wall was a map and depiction of the buildings we
would see. Each side of the DMZ line was
a three story building set back from the line.
Between the three story buildings there was a row of seven one story
buildings with the line running through the middle of each building. Three of the buildings were painted blue (the
shade of the UN flag blue) and the others were white. After Kim’s briefing our bus arrived and we
boarded it for a short ride through tank traps to the complex. We were directed to stand on the steps of the
three story building and await our turn to enter the middle blue building. There we were given five minutes to cross
back and forth in the room, sit at the table and shake hands with someone one
the other side of the table and take pictures.
Next we rode to the building where the Armistice was sign on
July 27, 1953. Again we sat and shook
hands across the table where a copy of the Armistice Agreement resided in a
Plexiglas box. Since this building is in
North Korea it also serves as a museum with extensive displays of the war on
its walls. Include in the displays were
pictures of the capture of the USS Pueblo and the Navy EC-121 that the DPRK
shot down.
From the Armistice building we rode into Kaesong and were
greeted by a very wide boulevard leading to a bronze statue of Kim Il
sung. We stopped for the renowned
Kaesong cuisine which is served in over a dozen brass cups of various sauces, hardboiled
egg, soups, casseroles and vegetables.
The utensils were a brass spoon with a very long handle and brass chop
sticks. Each cup had a brass lid. It was delicious.
After lunch we toured the area and some of us walked up to
the base of Kim Il sung’s statue. We then
visited the Koryo Museum which has replicas of the Koryo king’s tombs. The museum resides in the city’s old
Confucian academy. We toured an Art
Gallery and visited the Sonjuk Bridge, site of the murder of loyal official
Jong Mong-Ju in 1392. We rode to the Nam
Gate and stopped to walk around and take pictures. We also stopped at a Kaesong Folk Hotel were
Kim was able to find a store that sold Coke Zero, the first diet soda we had
come across in the country. Edith Ann
stocked up for the rest of the trip.
We then rode to Hyonjongrung Royal Tomb or the Tomb of King
Kongmin, nominated for World Heritage status, it is one of the best preserved
royal tombs in North Korea which remains in its original state, having avoided
extensive "restoration"
under the Communist government. Kim told
us the following story:
A local tale related how the mountain opposite that on which
the tombs sit got its name; When Kongmin's wife died, he hired geomancers to
find a perfect location for which to place her tomb. Becoming upset when
everyone failed to please him, he ordered that the next one to try would be
given anything they desired if they succeeded; however, if they failed him he
would kill them on the spot. When one young geomancer told him to review a spot
outside Kaesong, Kongmin secretly told his advisors that if he waved his
handkerchief they should execute the geomancer.
While the geomancer took the king's subjects to the spot
where the tomb is now located, Kongmin climbed the one opposite to review the
site. When he reached the top of the mountain, exhausted, he dabbed his brow
and surveyed the area; delightedly, he found it to be perfect and prepared to
personally congratulate the young man. However, upon climbing down the mountain
he found that the man had been executed; the subjects had seen him wipe his
brow and thought that he had wanted the man executed. Hearing of his
foolishness, the King exclaimed "Oh, my!"; his subjects then named
the mountain “Oh,my” as a memorial to the story.
We returned to Pyongyang and checked in to the Pyongyang
Koryo Hotel. Built in 1985, it has two
towers with orange-bronze exterior and a revolving restaurant on the top of
each tower. It is located in the center
of the city. Dinner that evening was in
a local restaurant with a propane grill in the center of the table for four of
us and we could cook our own meat and again there were small dishes of sauces
and vegetables. My room was a small
suite with a bed room an anti-room and a small alcove with two window seats and
a small table.
Saturday, September 8,
2012: Breakfast was in a large room
on the 3rd floor of tower two which was the 2nd floor of
tower 1 where our rooms were. Got that –
two towers with different numbering systems!
Several of our group rode down to the lobby and crossed over to the
tower 2 elevators and rode up to the 3rd floor and discovered that
if they had gotten off on the second floor in tower 1 they would be on the same
level. To further confuse us they
charged for coffee and tea.
The weather had finally turned on us and a light rain was
falling. Our first stop was the book
store. Buses could not park near the
store so we had to walk two blocks in the light rain. The store was not very big and another tour
group was already there which made it very crowded. They soon left and I bought some books on the
history of the Korean war from the DPRK view point.
Our next stop was a ride in the Metro. It was not a long walk from the bus drop off
to the Metro entrance. It is one if not
the deepest Metro line in the world, 360 feet below ground. It seemed like one of the longest escalators
I have ever ridden. It had beautiful
murals and sculptures but the cars were not beautiful looking. They were very clean but plain with a 1950’s
style design. Since it was Saturday
there was not a rush of workers. The
patrons did not look at us but just went about their business. We only rode to one stop which had an
interesting set of chandeliers that looked like fireworks bursts.
Our bus was waiting for us at the Metro stop and drove us to
the USS Pueblo, DPRK’s major trophy. The
ship is fitted just as it was when it was captured in January 1968. The ship was an American ELINT and SIGINT
Banner-class technical research ship which was boarded and captured by North
Korean forces. The DPRK claimed it was
in their territorial waters which reported positions showed that it was outside
the 12 mile range of the coast but could have been within 12 miles of a small
island. The crew was eventually released
in December 1968 after the United States
admitted the ship's intrusion into North Korean territory, apologized for the
action, and pledged to cease any future such action. A female DPRK Naval Officer guided us through
the ship. The ELINT and SIGINT equipment
was still as it was in 1968.
When the incident happened I had recently been assign to a
Top Secret position at SAC Headquarters in a Joint Service unit. The Navy officers in my unit were surprised
that the crew had not destroyed the “spy” equipment on board. The incident was followed in April 1969 with
the DPRK shooting down a US Navy EC-121.
After the tour of the ship we rode out of the city to visit the
Chongsan-Ri Collective Farm. Along the
way we stopped for lunch at a park on a reservoir. The lunch was served in an outdoor pavilion
where we sat on mats and the food was cooked on small charcoal fired
grills. The entrance to the pavilion was
through a decorative arch gate and across a short bridge to a very small island
with a pretty structure and then to another bridge to the pavilion. It was very picturesque but not comfortable
in the cold rainy weather. The food was
good.
At the Collective Farm the rain had stopped and we saw corn
kernels spread on the concrete to dry.
Overlooking the farm’s plaza was a statue of the “Great Leader”
surrounded by farmers. He reportedly
visited this farm many times. In some
books it is refer to the site as the Chongsan-ri Revolutionary Monument and
Museum. We were allowed to take pictures
around the sight which is interesting because Google Earth shows a Surface to
Air Missile (SAM) site not far (about 2,000 feet) from the areas we toured on
top of a hill overlooking the farm.
We toured the farm and visited one of the farmers who showed
us with his mother-in-law his twin babies and his modest house. It was very clean and neat. The yard around the house was planted with vegetables
and the roof had watermelon growing on it.
In the back his wife was harvesting lettuce.
A short walk from the farmers house we entered a tomato hot
house. It was a very neat farm. Back on the bus we rode to the Kangso Three Tombs
registered as a World Cultural Heritage site in 2004. They were charging $US 150 to enter the tomb
to see the drawing on the wall that we had seen replicated earlier in the week
during the tour in Kaesong so we passed on the fee.
The rain had completely stopped so Kim decided to have the
driver take country roads to the Ryonggang Hot Spring Hotel where we were
scheduled to spend the night. The roads
were not paved and the going was slow but we were seeing a lot of the small
villages and farmland along the way. About
forty five minutes after we left the tombs we encountered a washed-out bridge
from the Typhoon that had passed through the previous week. The river was shallow and the locals were
piling rocks across the river so people, vehicles and bicycles could ford the
river.
The bus driver turned around and we back drove back to the
last fork in the road and started up the the other road which lead to an Army
base. A lengthy discussion took place
with first the guard at the gate and then an officer. Finally the bus was turned around and we
returned to the washed-out bridge. We
got off the bus to lighten the load and it was able to get across. We had to walk across stones where in some
spots about two inches of water was flowing over the stones. About twenty five minutes later we
encountered a washout of the road in a gully.
Kim got out and directed the driver to steer the best course but the bus
rode low to the ground and at one point nosed into rocks that bent an arm on the
door making it impossible to open. The
driver crawled out the window and was able to use a tire tool to bend the arm
back so he and Kim could enter the bus.
The same thing happened twice more and then we reached a stretch of road
with deep ruts filled with water and the bus came to a stop with the wheels
spinning.
We exited the bus and with the assistance of a couple of
local farmers started to pile stones under the wheels. It was now three hours since we left the
tombs and we were not having any luck.
Kim and the driver went into the village down the hill from our bus and
returned with several shovels and a local farmer who started to dig out the mud
and fill in rocks in front of the right rear tire. The main problem appeared to me to that the
undercarriage of the bus was hung-up on the crown of the road.
The sun set and we boarded the bus and snacked on power bars
and other snacks that Carla and Cathy had and then tried to sleep. I had a pinched nerve in my leg which caused
a lot of pain and prevented me from falling asleep. Soon a group of about a dozen men arrived
wearing yellow hard hats and Jeanie told us they were engineers from a local
mine. They were able to jack the frame
up and pile enough rocks under the tire so we were able to move forward. The told the driver that there was more bad
road ahead so he turned the bus around and we retreated back the way we came
having problems at the washed-out points and washed-out bridge. The bend arm on the door was removed to stop
it from allowing the door to open. Once
past the washed-out bridge the engine emitted a warning tone. We stopped and discovered a big pool of oil
leaking from the engine. The drive got a
pail and caught a lot of it and after a while he and Kim were able to stop the
leak and on he drove until the warning tone came on again. By then it was after mid-night but there were
people on the road. The driver and Kim
got in a conversation with one of the men walking along the road and soon the three
of them disappeared. They were gone a
long time as we tried to sleep in the bus.
Around two in the morning a large truck appeared heading straight for us
blinking his lights and blowing his horn.
He stopped just a few feet in front and started yelling, I guess wanting
us to move. Ginny engaged him in a
heated discussion and finally got the point across that we had a broken
engine. Then an Army truck came up
behind us blowing his horn until the driver from the truck in front was able to
calm him down. The Army truck then was
able to squeeze past our bus. Kim and
the driver returned and proceeded to repair the leak and we were able to
continue to the hotel. We found out
later that the leak was a cracked oil pipe and they had gone into a village and
were able to get some epoxy cement which they applied to close the leak.
Sunday, September 9,
2012: We didn’t arrive at the
Ryonggang Hot Spring Hotel until after 05:00.
We were greeted by boxes of Korean food in Styrofoam containers. We were not in the mood or that hungry to
eat. Each room had a large deep tub with
in addition to the normal faucets for filling the tub or taking a shower, had a
faucet that delivered hot spring water.
They informed us the hot spring water would not be turned on until 07:00. Breakfast was scheduled for 09:00. I got a couple of hours sleep, took a hot
spring bath which was salty, and then showered and packed by bags and left the
room for breakfast on time.
Ryonggang Hot Springs is on the outskirts of Nampo, the west
coast sea port. After breakfast we drove
to The West Sea Barrage which is located 10 miles from Nampo. The barrage, or dike, stretches for 5 miles
across the Taedong River estuary separating the salt water from the fresh
water.
Completed on June 24, 1986 after five years of construction
by soldiers of the Korean People’s Army, the barrage has three locks capable of
handling 2,000 to 50,000 ton ships, 36 sluice gates, a swing bridge, a railway
and a highway. The barrage provides
water for irrigation, industrial uses and drinking. Prior to the construction of the barrage the
river was subject tidal changes all the way to Pyongyang and was salty. Now the river is fresh water and stable in
Pyongyang.
The main dam also has three fish ladders to permit the
movement of fish between the fresh and salt water. There is also a hydrologic and oceanographic
research center. An 82 mile long West
Sea Barrage-Sinchon-Kangryong-Ongjin waterway has also been completed to
provide much needed irrigation water to tens of thousands of acres of farmland
and reclaimed tideland.
We stopped at an observation center where we were able to
take photos of the barrage. On display
was a model of the complex and pictures on the walls. Kim informed us that former US President
Jimmy Carter visited the site during his June, 1994 visit to North Korea.
Leaving the complex we rode through the city of Nampo and
past a 65 foot bronze statue of Kim Il Sung with a cap and long coat. A little different than the other bronze
statues we had seen around the country.
Back on the highway to Pyongyang we stopped at the Pyongyang Golf Course
for lunch. The exit for the Golf Course
was not marked on the highway and the road leading to the club house was not
paved. It seemed like they were hiding
its existence from the general public.
The greens and fairways were lined by dense woods. The club house was at the top of a hill
overlooking very little of the course.
We noticed that the caddies were young pretty women. (I wonder of Tiger Woods has played the
course).
The lunch was roasted clams – very unusual but
delicious. I had to assist the non-New
Englanders in our group open their clams.
We noticed that the bus was still leaking oil. I wondered what the “big wigs” that were
members of the club thought when they saw a large oil stain in the club parking
area.
Back on the highway we made a mad dash to reach the
Pyongyang Circus Theater for the 15:00 performance. What a show we were treated to. After the Mass Games and the children’s performance
I thought we had seen the best talent in North Korea but I was wrong.
The show is similar to Cirque de Soleil. It started with ice skaters, skating in
precision maneuvers, performing gymnastic routines and then having a bear and
two baboons skating through tricks like jumping rope, jumping through hoops,
shooting basket balls through a hoop and performing other tricks. We were not allowed to take photos. I discovered after I returned to the US that
PETA has taped the show and has been very critical of the treatment of animals.
The ice skating act ended with doves performing tricks. Having trained dogs a good period of my life
I saw the animals performing similar to obedience dogs, rewarded with food after
every stunt. The doves were something
else. How they are trained to fly a
performance and return to the skater mystified me.
The ice was covered and roller skaters performed as did dogs
performing as I have seen in Las Vegas.
Next were performers including young kids jumping rope inside jumping
rope inside jumping rope! There also were
jugglers, acrobats and gymnasts.
After the Circus we were greeted by a different bus and
driver. Our bus was in the shop to
replace the cracked oil pipe. We rode on
the new bus to Mangyongdae, the birth place of Kim Il Sung. His birth house is located only 7 miles away
from the center of Pyongyang and Kim Il Sung's grandparents apparently lived there
until the 1950s.
This rural house shows how Kim Il Sung spent his childhood
years with family members and has photos of this period of his life thus are an
important scenic spot in North Korea. The humble, restored thatched house is now
surrounded by well-trimmed bushes, neatly mowed yards and an entrance more
similar to that of a palace. The mudded
wall house is divided into a barn and several living rooms. Several objects
used by the "Great Leader" and his family during their lives remain
there.
From Mangyongdae we rode back to the center of the city to
see the massive dance party held in Pyongyang's central square to celebrate the 64th anniversary of
the founding of the DPRK on September 9, 1948.
Hundreds of students and others danced to music blearing from the top of
the steps overlooking the square. A
number of the tourists we crossed paths with during the week were also
observing the dancing and in some instances were taking part in the
dancing. It was an impressive
sight. But I noticed that the men seemed
happy and were smiling as the dance, the women did not smile and seemed serious
about correctly executing the dance steps.
When I mentioned this observation to Jeanie she told me Korean woman are
trained to not show emotion.
From the square we rode to back to the Pyongyang Koryo Hotel and checked back into the
same room I was in two nights ago. At
19:00 we left for the same restaurant we had eaten in on Thursday night. Again we were seated in a private room. At the end of the dinner we were treated to a
surprise birthday cake for Carla and Terry who both had birthdays on the 9th.
Monday, September 10,
2012: We rode to the Kumsusan
Memorial Palace, and walked up 530 steps to the Revolutionary Martyrs Cemetery,
located on Mount Taesong overlooking the city.
Flanking the steps were large white sculptures of revolutionary
fighters. The cemetery is the final resting place of Koreans who died fighting
the Japanese during their occupation of the Korean peninsula. Each martyrs head stone was topped with a
bronze bust of the martyr. At the top of
Cemetery were the busts of Kim Jong-suk, Kim Il-sung’s first wife and Kim
Jong-il’s mother. Behind their graves
was a large reddish monument in the shape of a DPRK party flag with a large fan
shape white structure that provides the impression of a sun burst behind the
flag.
Next stop was a visit to the Tomb of King Tongmyong and the Chongrŭngsa
Buddhist Temple. We were met by the
resident monk who explained the history of the site. From there we rode back to city and a visit
to the Monument to Victory in the Fatherland Liberation War. The sculptures reflect the different battles
of the war, one for the solders (“The Battle of Taejon Liberation”), one for
the air force (“Defending the Sky of the Country), one for the families of
solders (“Home Front’s Support for the Front”), one for the woman, one for army
artillery (Defenders of Height 1211”), one for the navy (“Defending the Territorial
Waters”), one for the tanks, one for machine gunners, and the Victory Sculpture
as the centerpiece.
After our tour of the Monument to Victory in the Fatherland
Liberation War we returned to our hotel for lunch and then visited the Chollima
movie studios. Inside the gate to the
studio we passed a large broze statue of Kim Il Sung surrounded by actors and
directors in a court yard. In the back lot
we toured mock-up sets of various countries and periods. First stop was the ancient Korean village where
one of the buildings contained costumes we could try on and have our picture
taken. Next was a street with more
modern looking building, past that street was a thatched roof village on a side
street and then a Chinese street. At the
end of the street we were welcomed by one of the actors who were on a break
with a group of support personnel. We
walked on past a European house, and an English Pub.
The next tour was the Handicrafts Exhibition Hall which
featured embroidery which was a favorite activity of Kim Il Sung’s wife. There we saw young women producing fine
embroidery pictures and saw them hung on the walls throughout the building.
Next stop was Juche Tower.
Located directly across the Taedong River from Kim Il Sung Square. It is a tapering, four-sided, 560-foot tall
monument built of one stone for each day of Kim Il Sung’s life, and is topped
with a giant red flame, illuminated at night. It is taller than the Washington Monument –
upon which it is supposedly modeled – by merely a few feet. The tower serves as a chance for the North to
begin educating visitors not just on the greatness of Kim Il-sung, but also on
Kim Il-sungism, as Juche is sometimes called.
This "leading light of world philosophy" extolls
the virtues of the independent North Korean way of socialism. By stressing
strength through independence and self-reliance its thought the people of the
North can be inoculated against the evil material temptations of the outside
world. "We may be poor but at least we have our dignity. Unlike those
money grubbing sellouts in the South."
The tower offers great views of the city and surrounding
area. We had an interesting guide that
spoke excellent English trying to explain Juche to us.
We took numerous pictures of the city and then back down at
the base we took pictures of the sculptures surrounding the tower. Boarding the bus we rode on to the 164 foot
high Monument to the Founding of the North Korean Worker’s Party (WPK).
It is a three fisted monument with one fist holding a hammer, one
holding a sickle and a third fist holding a brush which symbolizes the success
of intellectuals. We walked to the
center of the monument where there is a ring with the inscription on the
outside “Long live the Workers’ Party of Korea which organizes and guides all
victories for the Korean people!” and carved in relief in the inside of the
circular band are three large sculptures showing the historical root of the
WPK, the might of the single-minded unity of the leader, party and masses and
the fighting feature of the Korean people to carry out the human cause of
independence.
Kim decided to move the mood away from the heavy propaganda
of the last two monuments and had the bus stop at the Pyongyang Gold Lane
bowling alley and pool hall where we could see the locals relaxing.
We stopped at the Rakwon Department Store. On the first floor, there was a supermarket
selling food and other daily requirements, while electronics and clothes were
found on the second floor. It was not
very well stocked and I don’t think anyone in our group purchased
anything. The hotels had similar
merchandise in their shops so the souvenirs had already been purchased.
The next stop was for our last dinner in North Korea. We were scheduled to eat at the Diplomatic
Club, a swank restaurant but found that it was closed in observance of the DPRK
Founding Day which had fallen on a Sunday so Monday was a holiday. Instead we went to a pizza and spaghetti restaurant. That was an interesting experience. We sat at one long table and ordered from a
menu with pictures of the various pizzas and other dishes and loosely
translated into English. Bill wanted a
Pepperoni Pizza and what he got was a pizza with sliced green peppers. He turned it down and I had a piece and they
said my face turned bright red when I ate the hot spice seeds of the
pepper. The place also had karaoke and
we were able to hear Ginny play the piano.
She played several tunes including “You are the sunshine of my life” and
finished with a very good version of “Danny Boy”. It was a fitting end to our adventure.
In summary: Our English speaking guide estimated only
about 100 Americans visit the country per year.
I did not see any starving people but we only traveled in the area
between Pyongyang and the DMZ. We were
supposed to visit the mountains to the northeast but due to the Typhoon there
was too much damage and many roads were washed out. The vehicle traffic was light. I didn’t see very many trucks moving goods to
or from the villages. We did not see any
farmers markets so I am not sure where the people obtain their food. Even in Pyongyang we did not see a lot of
people, even on the Metro. The people we
did see did not show curiosity and didn’t look at us or attempt to talk to
us. The guides had a good command of the
English language and had a good knowledge of the sites we were being
shown. We saw a lot of men and women in
Army uniforms but they often were doing work like construction and clean-up. Our guides did not preach or spout a “Party
line” – they just gave us facts (lots of technical facts like size, the number
of times one of the leaders visited a site and the time it took to construct a
site). There was no attempt to convince
us that they lived in a superior system.
All explanations and maps (except at the DMZ) referred to one country
with South Korea having a different type of government. The books I read that were published in North
Korea referred to the southern provinces as puppets of the “Imperialist US”,
but that wasn’t emphasized by the guides.
At no time did I see any hostility toward Americans or any Westerners.
Tuesday, September 11,
2012: We got up early and checked
out of the hotel for the ride to the airport.
My cell phone was returned and we departed at 09:15 on the same plane
that we had flown in from Beijing. The
group broke up in Beijing with Edna and Carla returning to the states. Lynn, Mary, Terry, Linda and I spent the
night in Beijing and flew to Mongolia the next morning.
