Departing Pyongyang’s Sunan International Airport (FNJ) via Air Koryo, the North Korean state-owned airline. As you can see, the airport has an obligatory Kim Il-Sung portrait that greets visitors to the “People’s Paradise”.
Here is the video of our visit to the Tower of Juche Idea, which, in case you were wondering, is taller than the Washington Monument. Bonus footage of U.S. Imperialists dancing with North Koreans is also included.
Here is the video of our visit to the Mangyongdae Native House, where Kim Il-Sung spent his childhood years.
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.
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.
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.
More Kim.
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.
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?
More footage from our North Korea tour DVD. Here we are at the Mansudae Grand Monument to Kim Il-Sung, where we had to lay flowers and bow in unison. Or attempt to bow in unison, anyways. We kinda screwed it up, as you can see.
Here is the North Korean Tourism DVD clip of us wandering around Kim Il-Sung Square in Pyongyang and taking lots of photos.
It’s yet another early morning in Pyongyang and our tour group is in one of our hotel’s incredibly large banquet halls, picking at the remains of our breakfasts. It’s the same thing every day: kimchi, undercooked omelets, instant coffee, and the most incredibly dense donuts I have ever encountered. One of our guides is scurrying around from table to table, quickly looking over our attire to ensure we are dressed properly. She spies my flip-flops.
“Lindsay, do you have other shoes?”
I pick up the brown dress shoes I carried downstairs with me. I hate wearing dress shoes, so try and minimize the time I have to clumsily walk around in them.
“Oh yeah, don’t worry, got my dress shoes here.”
Our first stop on today’s itinerary is the Kumsusan Memorial Palace, the former residence and office of the “Great Leader” and Eternal President Kim Il-Sung. I guess it’s like the North Korean equivalent of the White House, with one minor difference. When an American President dies, we bury him and give him a nice headstone. The lucky ones might get a crypt or an eternal flame. When the North Korean leader dies, they embalm his corpse, put it on display inside his home, and declare it one of North Korea’s most sacred sites. Very few foreigners, and even fewer U.S. Imperialists, are allowed into Kim’s mausoleum.
Prior to our trip, we were informed that we would have to bring a set of dress clothes for our visit to Kumsusan, as it is a site of great importance to the North Korean people. So, that morning, we were all dressed in our finest, or what passes for your finest when you have to stuff nine days worth of clothes, toiletries, and Snickers bars in a backpack. I was wearing a semi-wrinkled white dress shirt, brown slacks, and brown shoes. I basically looked like I was going to work that morning and had neglected to iron my shirt.
Our bus takes us through deserted streets to the northeastern outskirts of Pyongyang where the palace is surrounded by massive gates guarded by soldiers in dress uniform. We enter a building off to the side of the palace and encounter a bizarre contraption featuring rotating spools of astroturf. After stepping onto a damp pad in front of the machine, we then proceed to walk on the rotating spools, which cleanse the bottom of our shoes. There will be no mud tracked into the Great Leader’s palace.
After depositing our cameras and bags in the coat check room, we were instructed to line up in rows of four and walk to the security checkpoint. I’m not really sure why we have to line up in rows of four, because we were quickly forced back into a single line in order to get through the metal detector and subsequent patdown by soldiers of the Korean People’s Army. But then again, this is North Korea, and if you’re told to get in a row of four, you get in a row of four.
Having been checked for explosives, weapons, and cameras, we then encounter an incredibly long moving walkway. I was a bit surprised to see a standard airport feature in a somber mausoleum. We began walking on the moving walkway, as most people, save the exceptionally lazy, usually do, until we were quickly instructed by our guide that we were supposed to stand still and let the walkway slowly take us to our destination. So we stood there, quietly, and patiently, as the walkway delivered us to…yet another walkway. It seemed like we had traveled for a mile on these things. In fact, I’m willing to bet that, as with everything in the DPRK, it’s the longest moving walkway in the world.
We reach the end of the final segment of the moving walkway and once again line up in rows of four. We’re led into a dimly lit room where we stand in a sloppy formation and wait for our row’s turn to step forward and stand before the the large white statue of Kim Il-Sung, which was bathed in a beautiful pink and blue lighting. We don’t bow here, just quietly stare at the statue looming in front of us while music plays in the background. God, this place is so weird. And we haven’t even gotten to the actual corpse yet.
Before entering the next room, we are each handed a miniature audio device similar to the ones you can rent at museums. This room contains yet another large statue of Kim Il-Sung, and the walls are decorated with bas reliefs of mourning soldiers, farmers, workers, and intellectuals. We march around the room in our rows of four, each of us clutching the audio device which contains a track of an over dramatic man with a British accent telling us how the death of Kim Il-Sung was basically the worst thing to ever happen in the history of mankind.
Finally, it was time to see the Great Leader himself. First, however, we had to be purified, and were led through a chamber with powerful jets of air that blew any specks of dirt off of us American Imperialists. Thoroughly cleansed, we entered a dimly lit room with high ceilings. In the center of the room was a glass coffin containing the body of Kim Il-Sung, which was draped with a blanket so that only the head was visible. In front of us, rows of somber North Koreans bowed before the coffin, under the vigilant gaze of ramrod straight white gloved soldiers clutching their polished Kalashnikovs. My row of four quietly stepped forward and stood at the feet of the Great Leader. We glanced at our guide, who was standing furthest to the left in our row, and followed her lead as she bowed. We then walked to the left, stood at the Great Leader’s side, and bowed again. For whatever reason, you don’t bow at his head, so we just stood there for a moment and then walked over to his other side, where we bowed for the last time. As we left the room I took one last glance over my shoulder to take in the bizarre spectacle. Lenin’s Mausoleum truly has nothing on this place.
The next rooms contain a giant map showing all the places Kim managed to visit during his tenure, as well as his personal rail car and official vehicle. The Great Leader rolled through the streets of Pyongyang in a Mercedes, by the way. Man of the people indeed.
We were then led into yet another room which was filled with all of the “awards” bestowed upon Kim Il-Sung by foreign governments and political parties. Most of them aren’t real awards, but rather trinkets with little value that have been put on display to give North Koreans the impression that their Great Leader was highly respected all over the world. I spy a few Soviet medals that were awarded to millions of citizens and can now be picked up for a few dollars at any souvenir market in Russia. I was quite amused to come across an honorary degree from Kensington University of Glendale, California. I had never heard of this university, so Googled it when I returned to the United States. Turns out it’s nothing more than a diploma mill. I wonder if some North Korean apparatchik saw a Kensington University advertisement in Reader’s Digest and sent away for it.
Having acquainted ourselves with the numerous accomplishments and accolades of Kim Il-Sung, we were then ushered into an extremely large room with several large desks, each adorned with a thick book. Our guide explained that these were guestbooks and that it was customary for visitors to sign them. Since we were such a large group, he suggested that perhaps just one person could sign for the entire group. We all hesitated, hoping someone else would be the first to volunteer. A member of our group finally stepped forward and was led to one of the desks while the rest of us plopped down on the couches lining the perimeter of the room. I wondered what I would write in the guestbook if we were all required to sign. “Dear Kim Il-Sung…love what you’ve done with the place. Your mausoleum is a million times more impressive than Lenin’s. Cheers, Lindsay.” I’m not sure if that would pass muster with the guides. Luckily I didn’t have to find out.
We leave the mausoleum the same way we’ve entered – via the extremely long and slow moving walkways. This time, though, the moving walkway opposite ours is filled with hundreds of North Koreans, most of them in military uniforms, on their way to pay homage to the Great Leader. Some of them stare at us with puzzled looks while others quickly glance away, as if they’ve just seen something utterly revolting. I suppress the urge to smile and wave. We’re not at the funfair anymore, comrades.
After collecting our cameras from the coat check, we head outside to explore the outside of the mausoleum, which is fronted by a massive, deserted square. Off to one side, members of army platoons and work units wait patiently for their turn to climb a set of bleachers and have their group photo snapped in front of the Great Leader’s final resting place. At least now they are smiling.
More photos here.
Designed by the Dear Leader himself, the Tower of Juche Idea was completed in 1982 to commemorate Kim Il-Sung’s 70th birthday. That’s quite a gift to present to your father for his birthday. By comparison, the books and t-shirts I send my dad now appear to be quite inadequate.
At a height of 557.7 feet, the Juche Tower surpasses the Washington Monument by a little over two feet. Honestly, Juche Tower doesn’t appear to be taller than the Washington Monument, but if the North Koreans say it is, it must be so. They would never lie about something as inconsequential as their monument being taller than a U.S. Imperialist monument, right? Right.
The Juche Idea, which the tower takes its name from, is the official state ideology of North Korea:
The regime emphasizes Juche [Juché, Chuch’e], a national ideology of self-reliance. The regime justifies its dictatorship with arguments derived from concepts of collective consciousness and the superiority of the collective over the individual, appeals to nationalism, and citations of “the juche idea.” The authorities emphasize that the core concept of juche is “the ability to act independently without regard to outside interference.” Originally described as “a creative application of Marxism-Leninism” in the national context, juche is a malleable philosophy reinterpreted from time to time by the regime as its ideological needs change and used by the regime as a “spiritual” underpinning for its rule.
The Juche Tower is topped with a tacky red flame sculpture that glows a bright reddish orange color at night until it is shut off.
For the sum of five euros you can take an elevator to the top of tower for an amazing 360 degree view of Pyongyang. When we got to the top of the tower, a member of our group jokingly asked the tower’s tour guide if anyone had ever fallen off. “No!” she replied, with a confused look on her face. “Why would you even ask such a question?!”
Ryugyong Hotel and Kim Il-Sung Square.
Mass dance being held below
May Day Stadium where the Arirang Festival Mass Games are held.
North Koreans paddleboating on the Taedong River
Statue of a worker, peasant, and intellectual. Quite similar to Vera Mukhina’s “Worker and Kolkhoz Woman” statue in Moscow.
Locals watching the mass dance.
Following an evening of Mass Games, drinking North Korean beer, and exploring our bizarre hotel, we were up bright and early for our first full day of touring Pyongyang. The first stop on our itinerary was the obligatory visit to the Mansudae Grand Monument, a 65 foot bronze statue of the “Great Leader” Kim Il-Sung. Of all things you will do in North Korea, visiting this monument is perhaps one of the most controversial. While planning a trip North Korea, one must keep the following things in mind:
1. A visit to the Mansudae Grand Monument to Kim Il-Sung is obligatory. This is one of the holiest sites in Pyongyang, with thousands of North Koreans paying their respects to the Great Leader each day.
2. Your group is expected to purchase bouquets of flowers, lay them at the feet of Kim Il-Sung, and then bow in accordance with local customs.
3. When taking photos of the Great Leader, do nothing “cute” like mimicking his pose. Ensure that all photos contain the entire statue of the Great Leader. Do not take any photos that would crop the Great Leader (i.e., showing only his feet).
Since we had received all of this information in our tour packets, and it was further reinforced in the pre-tour briefing in Beijing, we were all well aware of how we were expected to act at the Grand Monument. Obviously, bowing to a statue of a ruthless dictator is not something you want to do, but if you are set on visiting North Korea, this bizarre gesture is a requirement that many simply accept as the price of admission.
The monument was erected in 1972 to celebrate Kim Il-Sung’s 60th birthday. Rumor has it that the statue was originally coated in gold, but this was removed on the insistence of the Chinese government, which was heavily subsidizing the regime.
Flowers in hand, we hopped off our tour bus and walked a short distance to the monument. Spread out before us was a vast open space with a huge bronze statue of Kim Il-Sung front and center and two large socialist-realism sculptures to the left and right of the statue. Music blared from large speakers as groups of soldiers, schoolchildren, and families lined up before the statue and solemnly bowed. Our guide pointed out a man carrying a large video camera. “He is from the news channel, and here to film you.” Oh great. Our visit was being turned into propaganda for the masses. I could just imagine the evening news anchor announcing: “And here are the U.S. Imperialists bowing before the Great Leader Kim Il-Sung…” Well, there goes my future political career.
Our guide led us to the front of the statue. Members of the group who had purchased flowers stepped forward and laid them at the feet of the Great Leader. Once they had returned and taken their place in line, we followed the lead of our guide and bowed. Compared to the North Koreans, who were bowing in perfect unison, we were all quite disorganized. Some members of our group had a long bow, some had a quick bow, others bowed twice. I’m sure the Koreans watching the news that evening got quite a laugh at the clumsy U.S. Imperialists. What can I say, we just aren’t accustomed to bowing before statues (or preserved corpses, as I will detail in a later entry).
Our obligation to the cult of personality fulfilled, we were then free to wander around the area and take an excessive amount of photos.
This kid has his own military uniform.
The rest of the photos can be found here.
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