Tours Of North Korea
"What is being inside of an American nightclub like?" I was startled by the question that the young North Korean lady asked me.
For a very long time, it was not only taboo for North Koreans to be curious about the outside world, it was dangerous as well. Interactions between foreigners and North Koreans is strictly regulated by North Korea. Traveling overseas is limited to official business, and unmonitored, spontaneous visits between visitors and locals are forbidden. For North Korea, the "imperialist Yankees" are still the No. 1 enemy, and traveling to the United States isn't an option for most North Koreans. Trying to slip away to visit a forbidden den such as an American nightclub without getting approval would place any North Korean in great danger of being suspected of attempting to court outside influence.
I replied, "I would love taking you to see an American nightclub." Both of us laughed at this far fetched idea. The woman was wearing a black tailored pantsuit, along with the obligatory Kim red badge pinned at her heart. I was having a hard time picturing her inside a sweaty Brooklyn nightclub with hip-hop music thumping in the background.
However, it wasn't necessary for me to take her to see an American nightclub in Brooklyn. A foreign tour agency later that year organized what they called "the first rave in Pyongyang." This was a DJ night that took place at the Koryo Hotel in a karaoke bar situated in the capital city of North Korea. It was the best and most promising opportunity for me to be able to show her what it was like to be inside an American nightclub.
Tensions With Tourism
Although a majority of Koreans cannot travel freely to the United States, Americans can take North Korea Tours with guides like Tongil tours. However, it is a very tricky issue traveling to North Korea- financially, politically and morally. Now that the harsh Ebola quarantine has been lifted by North Korea that had been blocking tourism for almost five months to the country, foreign tour agencies are doing everything they can to attract visitors once again with ads promising parades, dances and big celebrations, along with empty golf greens that make it feel like you are playing on your very own private course.
North Korea Tours
However, the North Korea tourism environment in 2015 isn't anything like it was ten years ago. After a period of North Korean foreign policy that was fairly conciliatory, the last six years have been full of tensions: missile launches, nuclear tests, cyber attacks, fatal maritime clashes, thermonuclear war threats, tourist arrests, executions of former officials and an increased scrutiny of the country's human rights situation which features widespread prison camps. Keep in mind that the country of North Korea has recently been experiencing a change in leadership. After being ruled by Kim Jong II for 17 years, a new era has been ushered in with Kim Jong Un taking his place. He came to power in December 2011 after his father's death. The purges have reportedly continued to take place as the young Kim attempts to further solidify his leadership, resulting in a very uncertain climate for the country of North Korea.
Should You Visit North Korea?
I am an American journalist. Since 2008, I have visited North Korea a few dozen times, while working and living in the country. People frequently ask me whether I think it's a good idea having a North Korean tour company.
The person asking the question may be asking whether as a Westerner if it's a good idea to make a potentially risky and also expensive trip as a tourist to North Korea. However, I also consider whether it is a good idea for North Koreans, who live in one of the most isolated nations in the world, to have their country visited by foreign tourists.
There are two major events that the tour agencies are gearing up to promote this year. August 15 is the 70th anniversary of the ending of Japan occupying Korea, and October 10 is the 70th anniversary of the forming of the Korean Workers' Party. So it is definitely worthwhile to take a step back and really look at the issues that frame the question of whether or not it is a good idea to have tourism for North Korea.
Some critics claim that foreigners visiting impoverished North Korea at a similar price that it would cost to visit Switzerland, are merely funneling money directly to the regime that diverts this money to propaganda, the military and the elite. Meanwhile, every day millions of North Korean citizens are going hungry and don't benefit from this tourism.
Advocates claim that cross-cultural learning is facilitated by tourism, which is much-needed. It allows foreigners to see that North Koreans are real people just like everyone else is. Also, North Koreans are able to receive information on how life is like outside of their country from foreign visitors. The Obama administration's stance is very clear in regards to North Korea tourism: don't go there.
The U.S. State Department in April issued the toughest travel advisory it has given to date on North Korea. It warned that tourists were at risk for being detained, arrested or expelled due to activities that would only be considered to be criminal inside the country of North Korea. In April, Great Britain, which does have an embassy located in the city of Pyongyang, issued a warning to its traveling citizens that the level of tension inside the country of North Korea can change at any time with very little warning. The warning noted that although most visits did not involve any trouble, that there had been arrests of Americans recently.
Shopping locally, taking candid photos, exchanging currency, speaking with locals, there are all normal tourist activities for any place other than in North Korea. These basic behaviors are illegal for the most part for North Koreans. These aren't casual tourist activities in North Korea, and it is easy for the state to declare these actions as forms of espionage. The State Department advisory states that sentences for these crimes can result in death or years of detention at a hard labor camp.
The advisory also warns that people shouldn't be naive when it comes to surveillance. It goes on to say that in North Korea you don't have any rights to privacy and you should act on the assumption that your communications are being monitored. Travelers are also reminded by the advisory that if you are detained that Washington and Pyongyang do not have any diplomatic relations and that consular services cannot be provided directly. You also can't rely on being protected by the tour agencies. The warning states that efforts that have been made by private tour operators attempting to resolve or prevent past detentions involved U.S. citizens have not been successful in gaining release of individuals.
When Americans are arrested it does complicate the difficult and sensitive diplomatic interplay between Pyongyang and Washington. There was a situation that took place in March 2009 where two American journalists, who worked for the media company owned by Al Gore, slipped into North Korea from China. They were arrested immediately, and then convicted on anti-state charges and sentenced to perform 12 years of hard labor. A high-profile campaign was needed, along with a private visit from Bill Clinton in order to get them released later in 2009. A group photo with Clinton sitting with Kim Jon II was released by the state news agency of North Korea, which made it clear that they were treating the visit by the former U.S. president as a diplomatic victory for North Korea.
It set a very dangerous precedent. Since that time there have been 10 Americans at least that have been detained by North Korea. Although some entered the country illegally similar to what the two journalists did, most of those detained had entered into North Korea with a legitimate visa. In fact, two of the people detained had visited North Korea on a regular basis, and most of the detainees did have a tourist visa. Eventually all of the Americans were released by North Korea. However, they were used as diplomatic bait before they were released.
The Role Played By Tour Operators
Over the last two years the two leading tour operators from the West, Uri Tours (an American-owned company) and Koryo Tours (a British-operated and Beijing-based company) have both had American tourists detained as well as held by the North Korean government. In addition, an American who was traveling with the British Juche Travel company was detained as well. Koryo Tours, which had been very proud of its prior 20 years of not having any of its tourists arrested, has not commented on the incident. On the other hand, Uri Tours went public about the efforts it has made to get its detained American traveler released. However, in the process of doing this, it was revealed how helpless the agency and its tourism partners in North Korea are in terms of preventing tourists to the country breaking North Korean laws and being able to protect them from the state's ever-tightening security mechanism. In addition, the circumstances surround the arrest of Merrill Newman, an 85-year-old veteran of the Korean War, highlighted the dangers of traveling with a contingent without a lot of experience trying to deal with North Korea.
In addition to the high-profile arrests that have been made, the travel agencies have also had to contend with threats coming from North Korea in terms of waging a thermo-nuclear with South Korea, in addition to an Ebola quarantine which last fall shut tourism down to North Korea by requiring anyone who arrived from abroad to the country to be sequestered for a period of 21 days.
Although the agencies have been visibly frustrated, they have kept up their cheeriness about North Korean tourism. They refunded deposits and then waited patiently for yet another apparently arbitrary rule by North Korea to be lifted.
The entry ban, threats of war and arrests didn't stop a trade fair held in Great Britain from including a booth that was promoting traveling to North Korea. These actions also didn't slow down the North Korean state media from continuing to discuss the regime's very own campaign for promoting tourism even though tourists were not officially being allowed into the country.
One of the regime's highest priorities is to improve the country's economic situation, and tourism is viewed as one of the best ways of bringing foreign investment and hard currency into the country.
North Korea last year opened a five-star ski resort. It rises up over the underdeveloped and vast countryside like Oz. Construction has also begun on transforming Wonsan, a nearby port city, into a "world-famous tourist city," or at least that is what North Korea is envisioning it will be. Pyongyang Tourism College, which is a new university focused on tourist, has its first students attending now. Tour operators from Europe and China were brought in for discussions on investing in the infrastructure of North Korea.
For a very long time, it was not only taboo for North Koreans to be curious about the outside world, it was dangerous as well. Interactions between foreigners and North Koreans is strictly regulated by North Korea. Traveling overseas is limited to official business, and unmonitored, spontaneous visits between visitors and locals are forbidden. For North Korea, the "imperialist Yankees" are still the No. 1 enemy, and traveling to the United States isn't an option for most North Koreans. Trying to slip away to visit a forbidden den such as an American nightclub without getting approval would place any North Korean in great danger of being suspected of attempting to court outside influence.
I replied, "I would love taking you to see an American nightclub." Both of us laughed at this far fetched idea. The woman was wearing a black tailored pantsuit, along with the obligatory Kim red badge pinned at her heart. I was having a hard time picturing her inside a sweaty Brooklyn nightclub with hip-hop music thumping in the background.
However, it wasn't necessary for me to take her to see an American nightclub in Brooklyn. A foreign tour agency later that year organized what they called "the first rave in Pyongyang." This was a DJ night that took place at the Koryo Hotel in a karaoke bar situated in the capital city of North Korea. It was the best and most promising opportunity for me to be able to show her what it was like to be inside an American nightclub.
Tensions With Tourism
Although a majority of Koreans cannot travel freely to the United States, Americans can take North Korea Tours with guides like Tongil tours. However, it is a very tricky issue traveling to North Korea- financially, politically and morally. Now that the harsh Ebola quarantine has been lifted by North Korea that had been blocking tourism for almost five months to the country, foreign tour agencies are doing everything they can to attract visitors once again with ads promising parades, dances and big celebrations, along with empty golf greens that make it feel like you are playing on your very own private course.
North Korea Tours
However, the North Korea tourism environment in 2015 isn't anything like it was ten years ago. After a period of North Korean foreign policy that was fairly conciliatory, the last six years have been full of tensions: missile launches, nuclear tests, cyber attacks, fatal maritime clashes, thermonuclear war threats, tourist arrests, executions of former officials and an increased scrutiny of the country's human rights situation which features widespread prison camps. Keep in mind that the country of North Korea has recently been experiencing a change in leadership. After being ruled by Kim Jong II for 17 years, a new era has been ushered in with Kim Jong Un taking his place. He came to power in December 2011 after his father's death. The purges have reportedly continued to take place as the young Kim attempts to further solidify his leadership, resulting in a very uncertain climate for the country of North Korea.
Should You Visit North Korea?
I am an American journalist. Since 2008, I have visited North Korea a few dozen times, while working and living in the country. People frequently ask me whether I think it's a good idea having a North Korean tour company.
The person asking the question may be asking whether as a Westerner if it's a good idea to make a potentially risky and also expensive trip as a tourist to North Korea. However, I also consider whether it is a good idea for North Koreans, who live in one of the most isolated nations in the world, to have their country visited by foreign tourists.
There are two major events that the tour agencies are gearing up to promote this year. August 15 is the 70th anniversary of the ending of Japan occupying Korea, and October 10 is the 70th anniversary of the forming of the Korean Workers' Party. So it is definitely worthwhile to take a step back and really look at the issues that frame the question of whether or not it is a good idea to have tourism for North Korea.
Some critics claim that foreigners visiting impoverished North Korea at a similar price that it would cost to visit Switzerland, are merely funneling money directly to the regime that diverts this money to propaganda, the military and the elite. Meanwhile, every day millions of North Korean citizens are going hungry and don't benefit from this tourism.
Advocates claim that cross-cultural learning is facilitated by tourism, which is much-needed. It allows foreigners to see that North Koreans are real people just like everyone else is. Also, North Koreans are able to receive information on how life is like outside of their country from foreign visitors. The Obama administration's stance is very clear in regards to North Korea tourism: don't go there.
The U.S. State Department in April issued the toughest travel advisory it has given to date on North Korea. It warned that tourists were at risk for being detained, arrested or expelled due to activities that would only be considered to be criminal inside the country of North Korea. In April, Great Britain, which does have an embassy located in the city of Pyongyang, issued a warning to its traveling citizens that the level of tension inside the country of North Korea can change at any time with very little warning. The warning noted that although most visits did not involve any trouble, that there had been arrests of Americans recently.
Shopping locally, taking candid photos, exchanging currency, speaking with locals, there are all normal tourist activities for any place other than in North Korea. These basic behaviors are illegal for the most part for North Koreans. These aren't casual tourist activities in North Korea, and it is easy for the state to declare these actions as forms of espionage. The State Department advisory states that sentences for these crimes can result in death or years of detention at a hard labor camp.
The advisory also warns that people shouldn't be naive when it comes to surveillance. It goes on to say that in North Korea you don't have any rights to privacy and you should act on the assumption that your communications are being monitored. Travelers are also reminded by the advisory that if you are detained that Washington and Pyongyang do not have any diplomatic relations and that consular services cannot be provided directly. You also can't rely on being protected by the tour agencies. The warning states that efforts that have been made by private tour operators attempting to resolve or prevent past detentions involved U.S. citizens have not been successful in gaining release of individuals.
When Americans are arrested it does complicate the difficult and sensitive diplomatic interplay between Pyongyang and Washington. There was a situation that took place in March 2009 where two American journalists, who worked for the media company owned by Al Gore, slipped into North Korea from China. They were arrested immediately, and then convicted on anti-state charges and sentenced to perform 12 years of hard labor. A high-profile campaign was needed, along with a private visit from Bill Clinton in order to get them released later in 2009. A group photo with Clinton sitting with Kim Jon II was released by the state news agency of North Korea, which made it clear that they were treating the visit by the former U.S. president as a diplomatic victory for North Korea.
It set a very dangerous precedent. Since that time there have been 10 Americans at least that have been detained by North Korea. Although some entered the country illegally similar to what the two journalists did, most of those detained had entered into North Korea with a legitimate visa. In fact, two of the people detained had visited North Korea on a regular basis, and most of the detainees did have a tourist visa. Eventually all of the Americans were released by North Korea. However, they were used as diplomatic bait before they were released.
The Role Played By Tour Operators
Over the last two years the two leading tour operators from the West, Uri Tours (an American-owned company) and Koryo Tours (a British-operated and Beijing-based company) have both had American tourists detained as well as held by the North Korean government. In addition, an American who was traveling with the British Juche Travel company was detained as well. Koryo Tours, which had been very proud of its prior 20 years of not having any of its tourists arrested, has not commented on the incident. On the other hand, Uri Tours went public about the efforts it has made to get its detained American traveler released. However, in the process of doing this, it was revealed how helpless the agency and its tourism partners in North Korea are in terms of preventing tourists to the country breaking North Korean laws and being able to protect them from the state's ever-tightening security mechanism. In addition, the circumstances surround the arrest of Merrill Newman, an 85-year-old veteran of the Korean War, highlighted the dangers of traveling with a contingent without a lot of experience trying to deal with North Korea.
In addition to the high-profile arrests that have been made, the travel agencies have also had to contend with threats coming from North Korea in terms of waging a thermo-nuclear with South Korea, in addition to an Ebola quarantine which last fall shut tourism down to North Korea by requiring anyone who arrived from abroad to the country to be sequestered for a period of 21 days.
Although the agencies have been visibly frustrated, they have kept up their cheeriness about North Korean tourism. They refunded deposits and then waited patiently for yet another apparently arbitrary rule by North Korea to be lifted.
The entry ban, threats of war and arrests didn't stop a trade fair held in Great Britain from including a booth that was promoting traveling to North Korea. These actions also didn't slow down the North Korean state media from continuing to discuss the regime's very own campaign for promoting tourism even though tourists were not officially being allowed into the country.
One of the regime's highest priorities is to improve the country's economic situation, and tourism is viewed as one of the best ways of bringing foreign investment and hard currency into the country.
North Korea last year opened a five-star ski resort. It rises up over the underdeveloped and vast countryside like Oz. Construction has also begun on transforming Wonsan, a nearby port city, into a "world-famous tourist city," or at least that is what North Korea is envisioning it will be. Pyongyang Tourism College, which is a new university focused on tourist, has its first students attending now. Tour operators from Europe and China were brought in for discussions on investing in the infrastructure of North Korea.
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