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I took a trip to North Korea. (Pic heavy)

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BronsonLee

Member
And yeah it's very obvious that every single aspect of this tour is controlled as hell

Right down to that terrifying little performance they have them do for like 20 people
 
M

MrKaepora

Member
One was a young, excitable man who enjoyed just being around travelers. He had a boyish smile and glee about him and reminded everyone of William Hung. The second is the man everyone joked was the government spy. He was the government suck up, member of the People's Party, and thought North Korea was just the best thing in the universe. Even the other guides though he was a dork and people mostly made fun of him.
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The young one was the spy.

Making you feel comfortable around him so that you think you can tell him anything.
 
K

Kinyou

Member
A Fish Aficionado said:
I'ts the same tour everyone goes through. Drew Scanlon of Giant Bomb also had basically the same pictures.
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A photographer from London recently managed to take some prohibited pictures

http://nextshark.com/michal-huniewicz-north-korea-trip

The one of the almost empty supermarket is probably the most noteworthy.

D2LZ1Er.jpg
 
D

dave is ok

aztek is ok
On the trip to Pyongyang we see farm land, farm land, and more farm land. It's actually really well kept and beautiful.

If you're wondering if our hotel rooms were bugged, yes, they were. However, we were told they really only bug them for diplomats and important people and probably don't even have them turned on for us.

They don't care what we do or say in our rooms. We can wander around the entire hotel and even walk outside but we can't leave the premise. They also collect our passports here and don't give them back until we leave.

The food we had was actually pretty nice. They give you a pretty wide range and it's all tasty.

They get free housing, free education, and everyone has a job, but in return they have to work 6-7 days a week and get paid very little. Enough to buy some supplies and food but the government gives them food and rations as well. They also get tokens for 5 liters of free beer each month at certain pubs and bars.

What was a nice surprise is not everything on the trip was on rails.

We were allowed to ride the subway with locals and even go to a department store. It looked like one you'd see in any other country except there was a lack of fresh meat, vegetable, and fruit. It was all freeze fried and canned.

We visited a microbrewery one evening. All I have to say is North Korea making some AMAZING beer. All of it is really good and probably the best beer I've ever tasted except for Belgium. It's incredibly cheap too
I hope one day they export it because I'd buy it in an instant.

Overall, it's a weird country. It's poor but not as poor as I thought. There aren't people eating tree roots or fully emancipated.
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It really does sound like OP believed a good chunk of propaganda he was fed.

This thread is valuable, but not for the reasons he thinks.
 
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mollipen

Member
I'd go in a hot second if I had the chance. Easily the country I most want to visit, because it really does have to be such a surreal experience.
 
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SuperBanana

Banned
forms said:
OP, you know your guide is fucked due to you writing about her here, right?
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No she's not. She was a perfect guide and never said anything bad about NK or the Leaders and was very informative. If anything they should give her a raise for making foreigners feel welcome. I just personally felt she was more intelligent and understanding of the outside world compared to the others.

OverBlood 3 said:
I rewatched Drew Scanlon's NK trip recently seems like a fascinating place to visit, if not slightly scary.
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A very similar trip but he used the other big travel agency.

reckless said:
Trip not on rails -> pretty much describes trip that everyone that goes to North Korea does because it's all scripted.
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Like I said, the fake parts are very fake. You can tell what's real and what isn't. Not everything goes to plan either.

SDCowboy said:
Wait, if Americans aren't allowed to take the train, how did they take the tour? Or did they not?
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Fly in.
 
F

FelixOrion

Poet Centuriate
Fun-not-fun fact OP: that "fully intact boat" is actually still a commissioned US Navy warship (the USS Pueblo) and the oldest commissioned warship in the US Navy (ignoring the USS Constitution).

On one final note I did find out one more thing while I was over there. Kim Jong Un is a Sonic the Headgehog fan.
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whats his deviantart account?
 
S

SuperBanana

Banned
EvilKatarn said:
Amazing how both the NK travelogues here manage to sound like "EH IT AINT SO BAD"
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The government is very fucked up like I said. Did I ever say that wasn't the case? You pity the people there and it's a very different, bizarre, and disturbing place. However, it's also a beautiful country with friendly, respectful citizens and you hope in their life times things will get better, not worse, and not a war. People are like "Why don't we just blow it up and stop the camps?!" but a lot of those people would fight and die against an invading force simply because their entire life is their country. It's nationalism cranked to 100. There's no easy solution.
 
S

SuperBanana

Banned
reckless said:
He should be discouraged he seems to have happily bought into their propoganda.
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How so? Everyone who went is fully aware of what NK is. No one left being like "Aaaah these guys are pretty cool!". And we're told from the start a lot of what we see is the 5 star treatment. It's the bits around that that's the more interesting parts though. Riding the subway, going into the department store, taking the train and seeing the little towns you can't visit go by. Ect.
 
J

John Rabbit

Banned
SuperBanana said:
On the trip to Pyongyang we see farm land, farm land, and more farm land. It's actually really well kept and beautiful.
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You seem to maintain a pretty healthy dose of skepticism and awareness of your situation, but surely your surprise at it being "really well kept and beautiful" is equal to your suspicion that only the farm land visible from the train is in such a state right?
 
D

Daedardus

Member
Whenever I see something about NK pop up, I always get the 'what to even believe' feeling. I mean, yeah, North Korea is probably full of shit, but why shouldn't our media be? Sometime I feel like we're getting riled up similar to how they do it to their people, with the main difference that I have a reasonable good life and they don't.
 
C

cirrhosis

Member
OP drank some of the kool-aid

Eerily reminiscent of the Chittagong thread but oh well.

I look forward to the exact same thread two years from now.
 
S

Spyder_Monkey

Banned
I'm pretty sure that everything you saw was just a front and NK is actually much worse than it what you saw. Or maybe it's cause I saw The Interview.

However, if Kim Jong Un really is a Sonic fan, it make everything make sense now.
 
C

Clydefrog

Member
It's nice to see/hear some North Koreans living a somewhat decent life but it's impossible to not remember the stories of those who escaped and what they had to endure. It's inexcusable that a place like that exists in 2016.

Also, I would not expect a microbrewery. Did they have an IPA?
 
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kess

Member
SuperBanana said:
The 3 Americans were treated completely fine there. No one hates the visitors or said anything negative. Only negative comments are against the American government. The Americans were from Alabama and Texas so they were as 'Merican as you can get.
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Ah, yes, the evil American government. But tell us more about the riff raff from Alabama and Texas and how their punishment is justified. I trust there are suitable punishments for disturbing what must be an ideal society.
 
Head of Vengarl

Head of Vengarl

Banned
SuperBanana said:
We visited a microbrewery one evening. All I have to say is North Korea making some AMAZING beer. All of it is really good and probably the best beer I've ever tasted except for Belgium. It's incredibly cheap too. As cheap as 25 cents for a pint. They don't name the beer either so it's just Beer 1 to 7. 1 being the lightest and 7 being the darkest. I tried 4 different kinds and they were all fantastic. I hope one day they export it because I'd buy it in an instant.
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Well I certainly didn't expect this.

Great post OP. Thanks for sharing your experience with us.
 
J

Jack The Nipper

Banned
no doubt what you see is like a painting, same thing in china, airport is kept taxis are fed through for it etc but once your out off that realm it starts to go way down the further your outside of that clean zone
 
G

GAMEPROFF

Banned
kess said:
Ah, yes, the evil American government. But tell us more about the riff raff from Alabama and Texas and how their punishment is justified. I trust there are suitable punishments for disturbing what must be an ideal society.
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Why are you acting like he said that the american government is evil? He said the people in north korea say that. Cut that stupid crap.
 
F

F!ReW!Re

Member
Thanks for the pics and the write up OP.
I was supposed to go 1,5 year ago (my tour got cancelled because the NK government closed their borders due to Ebola).

I still would like to go and visit.
And ignore all the "you are funding the regime" comments, it's standard fare when these kind of topics come up.
 
V

VendettaRed07

Member
One thing I was unaware of that I found out when I was there is that the American who was arrested and jailed earlier in the year for trying to steal a poster happened in our hotel and he was with the tour company we were with.
. The guide was fully open about it and told us the story. What you don't realize is just how stupid it was what he did. You're clearly told "Do not go to level 5". In fact, there isn't even a 5 on the elevator. You can also buy posters at almost every gift shop for pretty cheap including the two in the hotel so there's literally no reason to try and steal one. The idea someone would do what he is is almost unimaginable. The sad part is other people have screwed up pretty big but the tour guides have fixed it. Normally the person and guide both write an apology letter and the visitor is sent home. It's embarrassing but you leave safely. This guy didn't tell anyone and the guides only found out at customs when he was arrested. The company got a ton of death threats and hate mail though when you're with them you realize they will do everything in their power to keep you safe and have fun.
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This is probably the most concerning part. Like, come the fuck on OP. If you travel to North Korea, be prepared to be thrown in a death camp at any time for any reason. They aren't fair or rational about this. It has nothing to do with following the rules. Sure, you can make yourself less likely to be murdered.. But they imprison people at the drop of the hat and kidnap foreigners in China all the damn time and people never hear or see from them again

I even got some North Korean money which isn't technically allowed out of the country
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This is all the reason they would need to imprison you.
 
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