Apr 10th, 2009 at 12:00PM: It is confirmed: the Arirang Mass Games will be held in Pyongyang, North Korea this summer. The event will run from August 10, 2009 through the end of September, highlighting the precision for which the DPRK performers have become famous. According to Koryo Tours, Americans are welcome to attend the festival this year. If you are considering a visit to the Hermit Kingdom late this summer, do be ...Click on a label to read posts from that part of the world.
northkorea posts
Arirang gets green light in DPRK!
Apr 10th, 2009 at 12:00PM: It is confirmed: the Arirang Mass Games will be held in Pyongyang, North Korea this summer. The event will run from August 10, 2009 through the end of September, highlighting the precision for which the DPRK performers have become famous. According to Koryo Tours, Americans are welcome to attend the festival this year. If you are considering a visit to the Hermit Kingdom late this summer, do be ...Foal Eagle protests divert air traffic around North Korea
Mar 8th, 2009 at 12:00PM: Korean Air and Asiana Airlines are followed by Air Canada and Singapore Airlines in routing flights around North Korean airspace. The change comes as a result of North Korean warnings that it "cannot guarantee the safety of South Korean passenger jets" if the United States and South Korea move forward with annual joint military maneuvers. This annual event yields an annual complaint.
The ...More details on American access to North Korea in 2009
Feb 11th, 2009 at 8:30AM: It may not be time to celebrate, but you can certainly be optimistic (with a dose of caution). Koryo Tours has received an update from its partners in North Korea about the upcoming Arirang (i.e., "Mass Games" event). The Mass Games are expected to be held in August and September – and could run into October (based on past experience). Koryo Tours is currently scheduling tours for westerners ...Destination on the edge: golf on the DMZ
Jan 13th, 2009 at 9:00AM: The small golf course in Panmunjom is often called the most dangerous in the world. Nestled between North and South Korea – which are technically still at war – sending a ball off the fairway means that it probably won't be retrieved. Welcome to the strangest place on earth. Panmunjom is the heavily militarized "truce" village straddling the Military Demarcation Line that cuts down the ...Forbidden travel: you're not the first
Jan 3rd, 2009 at 12:00PM: The world's hot spots have become hotter, according to MSNBC's Christopher Elliott. He lists Cuba, Iran and North Korea among the countries that are attracting American tourist interest and offers some smart advice for anyone interested in taking the plunge. These and other countries on the U.S. State Department's list of travel warnings dangerous destinations are fun, though, specifically because ...Korean shopping deal just what you need in a recession
Jan 1st, 2009 at 5:00PM: Here's proof that the left hand doesn't know what the right is doing. Imagine a left hand holding nail polish while the right is rotting. The Shilla Seoul hotel is offering a "Shopping at the Shilla" package for around $205 a night through October 31, 2009. The duty free shopping trip includes plenty of stuff, such as a deluxe room, breakfast for two and a VIP Gold Card for the Duty Free Shop, ...North Korea border disorder and other trivia
Dec 20th, 2008 at 9:00AM: It's surprising; I know. There are competing accounts of how open North Korea is to outside tourists right now. Koryo Tours, as usual, is cutting through the rumor and gossip to give travelers as real a sense of possible of how, where and when you can go to North Korea. Border Closings? Stories have circulated that at least parts of the borders that North Korea shares with China and South Korea ...North Korea Mass Games may happen in 2009
Dec 18th, 2008 at 12:00PM: Rumors earlier this year suggested that the North Korean Mass Games ("Arirang") were being pushed back to 2012. The magic in that number is that it's the 100th anniversary of the birth of the deceased but still-serving president, Kim Il Sung. Koryo Tours' recent newsletter, though, suggests that Arirang my run in 2009 after all. Likely months are August and October-though the specialists in taking ...Spy games: A look at North Korea's covert operations (part 1)
Nov 19th, 2008 at 8:30AM: In celebration of the latest James Bond flick (granted, it was Die Another Day that featured blatant stereotypes about North Korean goons) and a longish piece in this week's Harper's on North Korea's propaganda machine, I thought I'd give a history lesson into a period of time when North Korea was even crazier than it may seem today (for instance, did you know some 30 North Korean spies managed ...I stand corrected: Air Koryo planes are not made of bamboo
Oct 19th, 2008 at 11:00AM: So last month, fresh out of detention in North Korea and noticeably high from the experience, I went on NPR and claimed, among some other rather dumb stuff, that "Air Koryo [the official North Korean airline] was literally made out of bamboo." Yes bold claim, especially with that underscored "literally." And now an angry NPR listener has called me out on it. I just returned from a trip to North ...Pyongyang Journal: Misadventures in the Democratic People's Republic of Disneyland (part 2)
Oct 7th, 2008 at 9:30AM: Part 1 here. On Day 2, he focused on the "three frees" of Korean society: education, healthcare, and housing. Because we had a two-hour bus ride to Mt. Myohyang, home to a 400-room fortress where gifts to the DPRK are proudly displayed, he invited questions. "How much grain is allotted to each worker a month?" asked Wang Zhelu, a teacher from Dalian. "Twenty-seven kilograms," Mr. Ju replied, ...Pyongyang Journal: Misadventures in the Democratic People's Republic of Disneyland
Oct 6th, 2008 at 9:30AM: Ox-drawn carts squeak by towering marble monuments – with slogans like "Live forever our father" [Kim Il Sung]. Remnants of four-lane highways snake parallel to a single train track that handles all traffic through the northwestern corridor. Schoolchildren in tattered shorts play near stiff-faced sentries (the kids wield sticks; the soldiers, automatic rifles). Such dichotomies reflect the ...Where did the commies go?
Sep 23rd, 2008 at 10:00AM: With September came the near fall of another Communitst leader, as Kim Jong Il, dictator over North Korea vanished from the limelight, joining his Cuban counterpart Fidel Castro in the murky depths of unknown, fiercely hidden ailments. The realist in me knows that both leaders are gravely ill. Kim Jong Il is said to have suffered a stroke early this month and hasn't since been seen in public -- ...Gadling's Jerry Guo writes in the Washington Post about his "Excellent North Korean Adventure"
Sep 16th, 2008 at 12:00PM: We here at Gadling don't like to brag, but between Neil Woodburn's Infiltrating North Korea series and Jerry Guo's new article in the Washington Post, we've got North Korea covered.
This past Sunday, Jerry wrote a dispatch from the kingdom of North Korea, and concluded that, hey, maybe things aren't quite as depressing and bizarre as everyone says. Here are a couple excerpts from the ...Big in Japan: North Korea invents super high-calorie noodle
Sep 3rd, 2008 at 9:00AM: This may just be the coolest bit of news you read all day... While any news story involving North Korean scientists tends to be about nuclear proliferation, today's Big in Japan post is in fact a salute to these hard-working men and women. In a failed state that does not produce enough food to feed its population, and is largely reliant on food aid provided by foreign donors, the invention of a ...Hilarious headlines from the North Korean Central News Agency
Mar 15th, 2008 at 8:20AM: Every once in a while, I like to head over to the website of North Korea's state-run news agency to see what propaganda they're currently feeding their unsuspecting populace. Here are a couple headlines and stories I've found:
"Kim Jong Il Praised As Most Famous Person of World"
The U.S. magazine "Time" praised him as the most outstanding statesman among the world's famous politicians in 2004 and ...Infiltrating North Korea Part 17: Video Tour of Pyongyang Highlights
Dec 22nd, 2007 at 10:00AM: I was a bit concerned bringing my camcorder into North Korea because I had read that zoom lenses 10X and higher were prohibited in the country. No one checked my camera on the way in, however, and I was therefore able to use my zoom throughout North Korea. I had specifically purchased the camcorder to film the Mass Games, but ended up spending much of the trip filming simple panorama shots of ...
Infiltrating North Korea Part 15: More song and dance, and a conundrum about chocolate
Dec 20th, 2007 at 10:00AM: Since posting last week about the North Korean talent show I attended at the Mangyongdae Children's Palace in Pyongyang, I've received a number of requests asking for more video of these outstanding child performers. And so today, we present a short compilation of some of the best performances from the show. The above video was shot in the palace's main theater after we toured classroom after ...
Infiltrating North Korea Part 9: Worshiping at the Altar of Kim
Dec 14th, 2007 at 10:00AM:
It's impossible to visit North Korea as a tourist without being forced to personally pay respects to the Great Leader oneself.
This is always done at the capital's Mansudae Grand Monument where an enormous bronze statue of the Great Leader towers above the city. According to my copy of Pyongyang Review, the statue was built in 1972 due to the "unanimous desire and aspiration to have the immortal ...Infiltrating North Korea Part 8: The Cult of Kim
Dec 13th, 2007 at 10:00AM:
"Comrad Kim Il Sung is worshipped by the Korean people, not only as the liberator of the Korean nation, but also as the genuine father and teacher who provided them with all rights and benefits which are indistinguishable to independent beings" --Pyongyang Review
The cult of Kim permeates North Korea.
From the moment we arrived at the Pyongyang airport and were greeted with a large smiling ...
