At Home In The Wasteland Travel Blog

This portrait of “Great Leader” Kim Il-sung and “Dear Leader” Kim Jong-il was hanging in a Pyongyang souvenir shop when I visited North Korea in September 2009. The pervasive cult of personality that surrounded the Kims ensured that every building you set foot in prominently displayed portraits of the two leaders. Now that Kim Jong-il [...]

You are always under the watchful eyes of the “Dear Leader” and “Great Leader” wherever you go in North Korea, including the metro. These portraits of Kim Il-Sung and Kim Jong-Il were spotted in a Pyongyang Metro car in September 2009. While we were only allowed in one metro car (seperate, of course, from the [...]

Kim Il-Sung and Kim Jong-il (The “Great Leader” and “Dear Leader”, respectively) watch over the departure lounge at Pyongyang’s Sunan International Airport.

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 [...]

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, [...]

More North Korea posts coming up when I can find the time to sit down and write them, but in the meantime here is the latest from the Korean Central News Agency. This might be the best one yet. Extraordinary Observation Pyongyang, October 12 (KCNA) — President Kim Il Sung gave field guidance to the [...]

Is Kim Jong Il dead? In a hospital? Enjoying an extended vacation in the Bahamas? Well, who knows. The BBC reports that the latest photo of Kim released by the North Korean government is a fake. Photo released by the North Korean government Stylin’, as always In an apparent bid to stop the rumours, Pyongyang [...]

It’s true, Kim Jong Il and I enjoy the same TV shows. I read it in the LA Times today: North Korea’s leader apparently saw no hypocrisy in exiling people to prison camps for watching foreign media, while he personally amassed a collection of 20,000 foreign film titles. From the time that President Carter visited [...]