I'm an expat Californian who is obsessed with traveling to strange and exotic destinations in the former Communist Bloc. I also like tacos, beer, surfing, trapshooting, and the geopolitics of oil. I currently live in Arlington, Virginia and work in Washington, DC. Read more about me here, check out my photo album, or send me an e-mail.
Ryugyong Hotel, September 2009. Older photos (pre-glass paneling) can be found here.
In the center of Pyongyang stands the Ryugyong Hotel, a bizarre, incomplete pyramidal structure that has often been deemed the “hotel of doom” and “ugliest building on earth.”
Construction on the 105 story hotel first began in 1987. Because everything is bigger in the DPRK, it was to be the tallest hotel in the world. The Ryugyong was scheduled to open in time for the World Festival of Youth and Students that was being held in Pyyongyang in the summer of 1989, but the opening was delayed due to various construction-related problems. Construction was finally halted in 1992 due to a lack of funds, and the 3,000 hotel rooms and five revolving restaurants remain devoid of guests. The shell of the Ryugyong is the persistent eyesore of the Pyongyang skyline, and for several years the North Koreans denied its existence and airbrushed it out of official photographs.
However, construction on the Ryugyong restarted in April 2008 after a deal was struck with Orascom Telecom, an Egyptian company that won the rights to develop a cell phone network in North Korea. Completion of the hotel is now set for 2012, when North Korea will be celebrating the 100 year anniversary of Kim Il-Sung’s birth. I am still puzzled, however, as to why they need an additional 3,000 hotel rooms when they can’t even fill the 1,000 room Yanggakdo Hotel.
Since abandoned buildings and ruins are an endless source of fascination for me, I took quite a few photos of the Ryugyong Hotel while I was in Pyongyang. I really wish I knew how to shoot decent night shots, because the best view of the Ryugyong was during our final night in North Korea. After a long night of karaoke and gambling in the basement casino, I stumbled back to my room at 3am. Off in the distance, a powerful storm was heading towards Pyongyang. I opened my window and just started out into the darkness for 20 minutes as the storm came closer. It was one of the most intense storms I’ve ever experienced – the thunder was deafening, the rain was coming down hard, and every few seconds flashes of lightning would illuminate the pitch black city, bathing the Ryugyong Hotel in a soft, purple glow. It literally looked like a scene from a horror film.
A lovely view of the Ryugyong from my hotel window.
Our next stop on the “the Eternal Sun of Mankind” tour was the Mangyongdae Native House, where Kim Il-Sung was supposedly born and raised. While this small, simple cottage was of little interest to the majority of our tour group, the North Koreans who flock to it consider it a holy site. It is, after all, the cradle of the revolution:
This traditional scenic wonder leapt to potentially foremost significance in the national consciousness on April 15, 1912 when President Kim Il Sung was born at a plain thatched-roof cottage here, against a backdrop of Korea’s national disaster in the colonial thrall of Japan.
He came of a generations-old patriotic and revolutionary family and spent his childhood under the revolutionary influence of his parents, witnessing the society riddled with contradictions. He nurtured his ambition to liberate the country and establish a society geared to the well-being of the people.
He left his old home at 13 and waged a heroic anti-Japanese war that culminated in national liberation and a people-oriented country. He rendered feats unparalleled in history, as the leader of the Korean people and a veteran statesman of the world.
“Then they entered the yard of President Kim Il Sung’s old home in Mangyongdae where they were briefed on the fact that born in a patriotic and revolutionary family for several generations, he grew up to be a great revolutionary, nurturing ardent patriotism and the noble idea of believing in people as in Heaven. They looked round with deep emotion the relics preserved with good care at the historical house.” – KCNA
Kimchi pots
“They looked round with deep attention historic relics impregnated with the personal odor of members of the revolutionary family in Mangyongdae and posed for souvenir photographs in front of the old home before inspecting revolutionary relics on Mangyong Hill.” – KCNA
Our tour guide led us to the well from which the Kim family drew their water. We were told that drinking water from the well would make us “a great person, like President Kim Il-Sung.” There were a couple of dirty plastic cups sitting by the well for visitors to use, but I instead opted to use my hands.
Here it is, the moment when I turned great (or started down the path of becoming a dictator).
The location where young Kim would think and read
Pavilion at the top of the hill
Views of Pyongyang
This is where Kim would wrestle with his friends. Our cameraman and American guide demonstrate.
In case my explanation was insufficient, below is the footage of our trip to the Revolutionary Martyrs’ Cemetery from the North Korean tourism DVD. It includes the usual laying of flowers, bowing, etc.
Imagine you’re a high-ranking North Korean bureaucrat living in Pyongyang, have a few thousand euros burning a hole in your pocket, and need to purchase a 36” flat screen TV, leather couch, cigarettes, and tortilla chips. Where do you go? The Paradise Department Store, obviously. Stocked full of electronics, clothing, and groceries, it’s the closest thing to Super Walmart you’ll encounter in Pyongyang.
Store entrance
When we arrived at the Paradise Department Store it was devoid of customers, save for two North Korean men wandering the various floors scoping out the available merchandise. This department store is in no way representative of stores throughout North Korea, as the shelves are stocked full of foreign goods that are rarely found outside Pyongyang. It’s a hard currency (i.e., euro) store, so the customers tend to be foreign diplomats, aid-workers, the North Korean nomenklatura, and tourists such as ourselves. You will not encounter a typical North Korean citizen here. We, of course, weren’t in the market for TVs or washing machines, but had been dropped off at the department store so we could stock up on snacks for the long drive south to the demilitarized zone (DMZ).
Since I had arrived in Pyongyang loaded down with bags of trail mix and Snickers bars, I didn’t need any snacks, so headed straight towards the liquor aisle to pick up a few bottles of soju to take back to the US. As soon as I grabbed a bottle off the shelf, a clerk took a shopping cart, rushed over to me, placed the bottle in the cart, and then proceeded to follow me around the store. My next stop was the cigarette counter. I’m not a smoker, but our guide mentioned that it was a good idea to bring packs of cigarettes to hand out to the North Korean soldiers serving at the DMZ, so I picked up a few cartons for that purpose. In the display case, there was a cheap looking pack of cigarettes emblazoned with Korean writing and a red flag. I thought it would make a good souvenir, so asked one of the clerks for a pack. She shook her head. “These are no good.”
“Oh, that’s fine. I just want one pack.”
Faced with a dumb U.S. Imperialist who obviously wasn’t comprehending the inferiority of this particular cigarette brand, the clerk called over another clerk with a stronger command of the English language.
“Yes?”
“Hi.” I pointed at the pack of cigarettes. “I just want one pack of these.”
The new clerk shook her head. “These are not good cigarettes.”
“That’s OK, I’m not going to smoke them. I just want them as a souvenir.”
“These are not good.” She motioned to another pack of cigarettes. “These are much better quality.”
“Well, uh, I don’t intend to smoke them, I was just going to…”
“You do not want to buy these cigarettes,” she replied sternly. “They are expired.”
I wanted to say, “Look, dudes, you’re going about this the wrong way. I’m supposed to pick an inferior product, and you are supposed to gladly accept my money.” But I was defeated. No matter how long I argued with them, they would not let me buy this pack of cigarettes. This was my crash course in North Korean style capitalism, where the customer was always wrong.
(I did eventually find and purchase a pack of those cigarettes at one of our hotel’s gift shops. The clerk didn’t even try and sell me on a different brand.)
The payment system at the Paradise Department Store is very similar to what existed in many Soviet-era stores (and, to some extent, still exists in stores throughout the former Soviet republics). With my personal shopping assistant in tow, I approached the register (or what I assumed to be the register, anyways). They calculated the total cost of my purchases and handed me a piece of paper with the amount due. I handed over a euro bill (American Express is definitely not accepted here) but they just shook their heads and pointed to a cashier booth in the opposite corner of the store. I paid the cashier, collected my receipt, and returned to the non-register, where the clerks bagged my items and then handed them over to me after ensuring I had paid for my purchases. A very efficient system, indeed.
Below are some of the goods for sale at the Paradise Department Store:
After visiting the Tower of Juche Idea, we headed over to another monument commemorating the foundation of the Workers’ Party of Korea (WPK). The WPK is the ruling party of North Korea and is headed by its General Secretary, Kim Jong-il. This particular monument was erected in 1995 to commemorate the WPK’s iron-fisted rule over North Korea for 50 long years. More on the monument from KCNA:
The grand monument consummates the great feats of the WPK which has created a world-famous model for the accomplishment of the socialist cause and paved a new path for the founding of the revolutionary party in the Juche era over last 60-odd years.
The monument consists of the 50m-towers which depict a hammer, sickle and writing-brush held by the worker, peasant and intellectual symbolic of the components of the WPK, a circular band on which the slogan “Long live the Workers’ Party of Korea which organizes and guides all victories for the Korean people!” is embossed and the foundation which means the long history of the Party. It is an edifice of the times which combines well the originality of the structure with the architectural art.
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.
The monument will shine long as a symbol of the glorious Workers’ Party of Korea.
Right.
When we arrived at the monument, a mass dance had just ended and groups of North Koreans were sitting in groups waiting to be dismissed by their supervisors.
When I returned home from my first trip abroad to Russia in 2002 I arrived at LAX loaded down with a duffel bag full of souvenirs. With my subsequent travels to Russia and other European countries, I began accumulating massive amounts of stuff. Much to the dismay of my mother, my room back home in California began to resemble a Russian souvenir market. My shelves were lined with stacking dolls, chess sets, and bottles of vodka, and my closet was overflowing with enough Soviet military surplus items to outfit a battalion. I’ve since learned that accumulating so much stuff is rather, well, ridiculous, and usually refrain from purchasing any souvenirs unless they are small. With this trip to North Korea, however, I brought along plenty of euros in case I happened across something unique.
Unfortunately, however, the variety of souvenirs available in North Korea is lacking, unless you are really, really into political books written by Kim Il-Sung and Kim Jong-il. During our five day tour, our guides took us to several souvenir stores which basically stocked the exact same products – endless rows of tracts written by Kim Il-Sung and Kim Jong-il. They are probably the most prolific authors in the world, writing on anything from party building to opera. Sadly, there are no Kim Jong-il bobblehead dolls, “I love Pyongyang” t-shirts or mugs, Mt. Paekdu snowglobes, military headgear or gas masks, or Kim Il-Sung mausoleum shot glasses. Not even a lousy miniature Tower of Juche with a thermometer on the side. Just books. Lots and lots of books.
One of the largest souvenir stores we visited, with plenty of books to choose from. It’s like the Barnes & Noble of North Korea.
I’m sure this is on the New York Times bestseller list.
“Land of Morning Calm” is exactly how I would describe North Korea
Surely these are page turners
Ironic
The official English language propaganda newspaper
Unfortunately, this painting was not for sale. I have some space on my wall and I think it would have fit perfectly.
Our guides took us to Korea Stamp, a store that sells, yes, you guessed it, stamps. I am not a stamp collector, but the variety of stamps was incredible.
This is the most popular stamp among American tourists. It depicts Richard Nixon being stabbed by pens. Unfortunately, it was sold out when we were there, but I did purchase a small poster of this image.
Kim Jong-il and Putin
Golf and baseball in the DPRK
Atoms and doves
So what did I end up bringing back to the U.S.? Not too much. A few sheets of stamps, a copy of “The Benevolent Sun”, a hilariously dry biography of Kim Il-Sung (as it turns out, it’s multi-volume and I only purchased one, oops), a few pins, a small flag, and a propaganda poster. The poster is definitely my favorite purchase. It’s hand painted and depicts a soldier carrying an AK-47. When it comes to communist propaganda posters, what more could you ask for?
“Let’s boldly push forward the revolutionary march for the establishment of the powerful and great nation!” (Thanks to Jae for the translation)
