North Korea

North Korea is a tough place to sum up in only 10 photos. There are just so many interesting and crazy aspects to this place. I travelled here twice, once in 2008 (Kim Jong Il), and then in 2014 (Kim Jong Un). There were a lot of differences between the two trips in terms of how we were treated, how much of the country we were allowed to see, the freedom to explore on our own and even to mix with the locals. So here is my best shot at capturing the uniqueness of North Korea in just 10 photos:

Pyongyang, North Korea. It used to be mandatory to stop at this statue of Kim Il Sung (left) to pay your respects before your North Korean minders even took you to your hotel. They seem to have relaxed this requirement since they added the second statue of Kim Jong Il (right) after he died in 2011. This photo captures the difference between the locals' genuine reverence for the Kims (group on right, bowing), and our tourist group (left, standing around confused). This country is all about these two dead men, plus the latest in the Kim lineup, Kim Jong Un, currently in power. There is absolute obedience and respect for the Kims and anything they stand for; as a citizen of this country any dissent will get you (and probably your entire family) in deadly trouble. On both trips I sensed that this respect for the Kims and their policies was genuine though - they really do believe 110% in their country and in the Kim dynasty. There is no tolerance for joking around or disrespect of any of the Kims while inside of North Korea - or else. It's easy to see why loyalty runs so deep, as visits to local schools show the curriculum is just saturated with pro-NK and anti-everyone-else propaganda from a very early age. And opposing points of view do not even exist.

Pyongyang, North Korea. Propaganda rules the daily lives of North Koreans. There is just no escape from images of 1, 2, or all 3 Kims on monuments, billboards, and portraits in and on every building across the country. Right down to Kim pins on everybody's chest. I've seen similar blasts of propaganda in China, Russia, and Cuba, but never anything like this.

Pyongyang, North Korea. There is one other obsession here besides the Kim-worship: war. Everything about this country is about war, particularly the (now 60+ year old) Korean War. That war, which split the Korean peninsula in two, is still fought every day here - school kids study it (only from the NK viewpoint of course!), politicians use it to keep fear levels high for assuring patriotism, and the military seems to always be planning for the imminent invasion that never comes. It's good for job security I suppose..

Pyongyang, North Korea. One of the more interesting aspects of Pyongyang, and North Korea in general, is how empty the streets are everywhere. Where is everybody ?? And it's quiet too - no chatter, no traffic noise, no loud radios, etc. In fact the only sounds are usually the military music that plays from PA systems all around the central part of town and the occasional passing car. Its so eerily calm and quiet I wondered what would happen if a typical North Korean came to a "normal" big city like New York or Beijing - they'd probably freak right out. This photo was taken in the middle of one of the largest roads that leads right into the main square (in the background). That's the square that's shown on tv all the time with the huge military parades etc. It's the 'Times Square' of North Korea and maybe only a couple of cars go past every minute or so. Weird, but kind of nice; I sorta liked it. So here you have an 8-lane road through the middle of town where there is no traffic at all. Why? Military of course! These wide/empty roads exist all over the country, but mainly in and around the capital of Pyongyang and south to the DMZ - the border with South Korea. It allows rapid troop movements to the border in case it all hits the fan. And also allows for the huge military parades that go through this place - check out the spray-painted white dots all over the street that show the soldiers where to line up in formation. Here, even the road system is all about war.

Pyongyang, North Korea. With all that traffic you need traffic lights, right? Wrong! North Koreans have a different way of doing almost everything; finally here is one I approve of. This is a "traffic signal". Almost as impressive as the look are the actions: these ladies (always ladies, never men) rule each intersection with an air of complete authority. You get the feeling they could probably get away with writing a traffic ticket to the Dear Leader himself. They have all been trained to direct traffic (what traffic?) with precise military movements, which makes them look like some kind of strange but sexy animatronic robots. Very entertaining to watch, and I wish I could've shot a video, but we whizzed by way too fast. It's probably the easiest job in North Korea though cuz there isn't any traffic!

Pyongyang, North Korea. Finally, a bit of normalcy. Sometimes it's good to get away from all the war-preps and propaganda and just row your boat. Here we see North Koreans on a rare state holiday, just acting like normal humans. A reminder that people seem to be about the same everywhere, if their governments will let them!

Pyongyang, North Korea. Here's a uniquely North Korean event: the Arirang Games. Not really 'games' at all, it's more of a 2-hour extravaganza with acrobatics, singing, dancing, precision marching (shown), and of course lots of Kim-worship, military support, and enemy-bashing. In typical NK fashion this facility is billed as one of the "largest stadiums in the world". I don't know about that, most NFL stadiums seem much larger, but it was full to capacity. One very interesting part of the show was the big graphic seen across the field, in this case a karate-kicker. That image (and hundreds of others during the 2 hour show, see the 2 inset photos) were produced by people sitting across the stadium holding up one color-card each. Human pixels, in other words. So for each image there are something like 20,000 people changing cards, quickly and with absolute precision. I never saw a single card come up at the wrong time, or out of place. We couldn't imagine how much practice it must have taken to put this show on, what with all the tightly choreographed activities on the field and off. Only in North Korea.

Pyongyang, North Korea. They're recruiting kinda young these days. This was a cute little kid at a public fair; his parents were immensely proud of him and his uniform. The next "Dear Leader" perhaps? Only if he's in the Kim family.

Pyongyang, North Korea. More cute kids at a school performance given for the benefit of us "invaders". Even at this age many of the song and dance routines were blatantly military and/or propaganda-oriented. One number even featured a 6-year old toting a (fake, we presumed) machine gun. Pointing it in our direction, he sang out a defiant song involving protection of the Motherland until death, according to our Korean-speakers.

Near Wonsan, North Korea. We were lucky enough to be able to see large areas of rural North Korea on the second trip, something that would have been unthinkable on the first trip here. We basically took a chartered train east from Pyongyang to Wonsan, then up the coast nearly to the Russian border. This was the most extensive touring of rural North Korea by western foreigners that had been allowed by the government up until this time. It's actually a very pretty countryside; most of the valleys have been turned into farm area but the mountains are mostly untouched by human development. Of course the rural North Koreans are very poor by most standards but they do get some basic food rations for all the backbreaking work they do. Still, there's not much of a problem with obesity in North Korea...