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Join Date: Sep 2015
Location: Houston, TX USA
Posts: 12,924
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BB2023: Jordan CBB22: Gabby Allen
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Maru | 1.5x speed
Join Date: Sep 2015
Location: Houston, TX USA
Posts: 12,924
Favourites (more):
BB2023: Jordan CBB22: Gabby Allen
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I looked up to see if a typical citizen here could visit NK on a trip. It turns you actually can. It wouldn't be up there in my top places to visit, but it would be an interesting experience to see what living in a totalitarian nation feels like.
http://wikitravel.org/en/North_Korea
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Get in.
Visiting North Korea can be challenging, and you will not have the freedom to explore the country without a North Korean escort, either as part of a group or individual tour.
Citizens of South Korea are normally not permitted to visit North Korea. In addition, there have been reports of difficulties regarding Israeli, American and Japanese nationals. In January 2010, North Korea lifted the restrictions on American citizens who are now free to visit at any time of the year - but they are not allowed to travel by train (especially the train to Beijing) or to participate in homestay-programs (Choson Exchange and The Pyongyang Project are able to bring Americans into the country by train). Contrary to rumour, Israelis and Jewish citizens of other countries do not face any additional restrictions. Citizens of all countries (except Malaysian passport holders entering for 30 days or less for official, business or tour purposes who have already acquired documentation at the DPRK Embassy in Kuala Lumpur showing, North Korean business counterparts or tour and travel agency arrangements) will need a visa, which will only be issued after your tour has been booked, approved by the North Korean authorities and paid for. Journalists (or those suspected of being journalists) require special permission, which is quite difficult to obtain. The North Koreans do not allow journalists to visit the country on tourist visas. A specialist North Korean travel agency can help you sort out the complex and ever-changing regulations. North Korea will rarely in practice refuse a visa to a tourist who meets the various requirements.
Tourists often arranged a tourist visa through booking a tour with the travel agencies that organise such tours. The travel agencies will usually deal with the visa on their behalf, although in some cases tourists are required to have a short telephone interview with the North Korean embassy in order to verify their identity and their job. In most cases the interviews are conducted in a friendly matter so it is nothing to be worried about. Visas are often only confirmed on the day before the tour, but rarely will a tourist ever get rejected (unless you show that you are of political status or being a journalist).
North Korean tourists visas are often issued on a tourist card. If joining a tour group, group visas are often issued on separate sheets of papers containing all the members of the group, attached with a tourist card that bear the name of the tour leader. This visa is never held by the tourists, although tourists can ask to take a photo of the visa themselves. In both case, no stamp will be put onto the passport. The only way where a visa and entrance stamp will be put on the passport is when the visa is issued in European embassies, which is very rare for tourists to visit North Korea as most travel agencies operate tours out of China (and hence only arranged the visa in China.)[/B] With prior notice via your tour operator, tourist visas can be obtained on the same day (around a 20 minute wait) for GBP20 at the DPRK Embassy in London.
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Do. As mentioned above, there is very little to do beyond the watchful eye of your designated minder(s), with most recreational activity taking place within the confines of the tourist resorts. Bowling and karaoke are among the latest additions to its surprising abundance of recreational activities. The karaoke videos are often accompanied by dramatic historical footage of the Korean War, or goose-stepping People's Army soldiers.
Interestingly enough, North Korea has three amusement parks, two of which are abandoned due to mutual lack of interest and electricity. Sadly, the Kaeson Youth Fair has now closed, taking the infamous "Roller Coaster of Death" along with it. Still visible are the shooting-galleries with backdrops of snarling American and Japanese soldiers; however, it is unlikely that your guide will let you venture into any abandoned areas. The one remaining amusement park contains some rides which are actually quite modern and non-lethal, at least by North Korean standards, and is about as worthy of a visit as everything else you'll see whilst in North Korea.
Each year the government, along with various tourist agencies, operates a marathon in Pyongyang and, in 2015, a on the sacred Mount Paekdu in the remote north of the country. The latter is a sacred place to both North and South Koreans.
The night life in Pyongyang is remarkably safe and non-violent, compared to the capitals of other nations (except maybe Reykjavik in Iceland). In general, the civilians are not a threat. The plain-clothes secret police, however, may or may not be a threat, depending on what you say or do. The North Korean definition of popular music is at least two decades behind the rest of the world; expect an onslaught of 80s hits from the West (some obviously are copies unauthorised by the original artists, to judge by the quality), punctuated by the eerie caterwauling of Korean folk songs, and at least try to look enthusiastic about the whole scene. Fortunately, alcohol is cheap and plentiful, although it is not advisable to become intoxicated and make a scene of oneself. Furthermore, both the trafficking and consumption of narcotics are punished VERY severely by authorities; traffickers can expect to face the death penalty if caught, although Marijuana isn't treated as a narcotic in North Korea and is considered legal. Note that Marijuana is considered as a narcotic in China, and transporting any of them back to China may get you into a jail or even death penalty as transporting narcotics is one of the non-negotiable crimes in China.
Finally, please note that power cuts may hit without warning in the middle of any activity. Whilst you might welcome this if the jukebox is starting to get to you, this is not a desirable outcome if you are in the middle of an amusement-park ride, particularly as these blackouts can last for hours at a time.
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Eat.
Despite severe food shortages in North Korea which have left millions dead, you will not have any problems getting food. Although your food will be better than most of the population eats, it's still not necessarily great. Shortages, combined with the typical use of Korean cooking styles, mean that there is a relatively limited variety of food, which can get wearying on tours of more than a few days.
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Drink.
The legal drinking/purchasing age of alcoholic beverages is 18 and is heavily enforced.
The local speciality is insam-ju, Korean vodka infused with ginseng roots. Locally made Taedonggang beer is very good--the brewery was purchased from Ushers in the UK and moved to Pyongyang--and some of the sojus are not bad either. Local alcohol is inexpensive; a 650mL bottle of beer is €0.50. Imported beers, such as Heineken, are also available at similar prices. However do not get drunk and cause trouble. Toe the line and show respect, or you and your guide will face serious penalties.
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Stay Safe.
They will probably sit down and explain the rules ahead of time. Keep your mouth shut and you will be fine. You don't have to talk about how great the Kim family is, or praise songun or Juche; just be polite, nod, and bow when others do and there will be no problems.
The authorities are very touchy, and you need to watch what you say and how you say it. Some topics such as South Korean's living standard and the capitalist reform in China will definitely make officials very angry. Just do what the guides do, praise every stop on your tour, and remember the golden rule, "If you have nothing good to say, don't say it at all."
Digital cameras are commonly inspected when leaving the country by train. A simple solution is to leave a memory card with innocuous snaps in the camera and file away any cards with ideologically dubious content.
If you are a person of Korean descent, don't ever, ever tell anyone in the country that you are Korean, as you may be easily suspected as a person from South Korea, and as a result you are most likely to experience severely harsh punishments as well as being mistaken for entering illegally. In July 2008, a South Korean woman was shot in Kumgangsan region by a North Korean soldier after wandering into a restricted area alone.
Drug trafficking can be punishable by death in North Korea, and even any consumption of narcotics can be fatal. Cannabis, however, is not banned and is mostly used for producing fibre. It can be often found growing freely alongside the road in North Korea.
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Well at least the beer and cannabis is cheap  Though if China closes the door diplomatically, as is possible since their diplomatic relationships are now strained, looks like they will may lose the tourist business as well.
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08-09-2016, 09:17 PM
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