I have a crazier idea: visiting North Korea!
Going to one of the very last bastions of communism.
Crossing the border that so many North Koreans have died trying to escape through.
Pyongyang, the capital of a cold country full of unsolved mysteries.
The tiny Kim Jong-Il – as ugly as a hamster and yet most likely the mastermind of general paranoia as well as brainwashing.
Why not?
US citizens are not allowed there. Neither are Israelis. But I’m Canadian.
It would be in April, during the mass game and the big festivities (can “fun” and North Korea be in the same sentence?) for Kim Il Sung’s birthday celebration.
Damn Youtube ain't working on my blog but check out this video, it's impressive http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VBWOEdy_-qM . There's the actual mass games video divided in over 10 parts too... unbelievable!
We’d visit the DMZ (demilitarized zone) from within North Korea. We’d bow at Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il statues.
We’d stay in a huge hotel where there are maybe 10 guests. Go through empty streets, riding far away from the local population.
I'd see some starving and pennyless people from afar who think they were lucky to have been born in NK. They wouldn't dare waving at me because, well of course i'm white, and they'd be shot or sent to prison right away.
We’d be followed by at least one guide everywhere we’d go. Our phones would probably tap.
Apparently the kimchi over there tastes incredibly good. And the anti-american propaganda is delirious.
The flight is from Beijing so I need to pay extra money to get there from Seoul. We’d fly in on a Saturday morning, and then take the train back.
Can you imagine? One day and a night on the train from Pyongyang to Beijing, looking through my window and catching a tiny glimpse of this secluded world.
Sounds interesting, right? Plus I’m a sociology/polisci major so of course this stuff interests me a lot.
Should I do it?
Oh, one more thing. It would cost 3000$ for 5 days.
Yes. Really.
Here are a few facts about North Korea:
1. Ironically called Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK)
2. Military expenses account for almost a quarter of the gross domestic product.
3. Population: 22.9 million
4. Language: Korean (slightly different from South Korea)
5. Life expectancy: 60 (men) and 66 (women)
6. Literacy rate: 99%
7. Eternal president: Kim Il Sung
8. Communism introduced in: 1945 (after WWII and independence from Japan)
9. Main ally for trade: China
10. Annual growth rate: 0.98%
11. Infant mortality: 24.84 deaths per 1000 live births
12. Exports: $1.044 billion
13. Imports: $2.042 billion
14. Natural resources: coal, lead, tungsten, zinc, graphite, magnesite, iron ore, copper, gold, pyrites, salt, fluorspar, hydropower
15. Agriculture: rice; corn; potatoes; soybeans; pulses; cattle; pigs; pork; eggs
16. Industry: military products; machine building, electric power, chemicals; mining (coal, iron ore, magnesite, graphite, copper, zinc, lead, and precious metals), metallurgy; textiles; food processing; tourism
17. Deaths attributed to famine between 1995-98: South Korean and U.S. estimates of deaths range from 270,000 to 2 million
18. Percentage of the population with access to safe drinking water: fell from 86 percent in 1994 to just 53 percent two years later (The current economic situation is so bad that there are areas of North Korea where there is neither electricity nor sufficient chlorine to run water treatment plants)
19. Vaccination coverage for diseases such as polio and measles: fell from 90 percent of children in 1990 to just 50 percent in 1997
