CHINA: Air China Starts Flights To North Korea Again

Air China has resumed its flights between Beijing and Pyongyang.

The Beijing-based carrier has announced the restarting of all its flights to the North Korean capital city following a lengthy suspension that began in November following a United Nations mandate.

North Korea has been relying on China for most of its imports and exports.

The service has now resumed due to subsequent meetings between the leaders of both countries, Xi Jinping and Kim Jong-un.

Data suggests that the route will operate three times per week, on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays.

Air China will deploy a Boeing 737-700 on the route, with a seat configuration of eight reclining First Class seats and 120 seats in Economy.

An Air China official said that these flights are continuing due to market reasons but did not provide any further comments.

However, the fact that Kim Jong-un traveled to Singapore on June 12 for the summit with other leaders suggests that the political tensions in the region might be tuning down, re-opening the door for direct connectivity with other international destinations.

Air China’s service to Pyongyang launched had frequently been canceled or disrupted due to what had been unspecified problems, according to Chinese media.

Noth Korea’s national airline, Air Koryo, is also planning to open a new route between Pyongyang and Chengdu. However, there are no official confirmations in this regard.

This is a significant move for both China and North Korea, as this route opening could enable a relief on sanctions.

It is something that will have to be observed over the next few weeks as Kim Jong-un steps further onto the world stage and starts to provide the positive dialogue that the other world leaders are seeking to achieve.


Tourism Observer

SINGAPORE: Avoid All Non-essential Travel To North Korea Singapore Government Orders Citizens

Last Wednesday, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) issued an advisory for Singaporeans to "avoid all non-essential travel to North Korea", "given recent developments and the unpredictable situation".

Isn't the advisory kind of redundant?

It's like issuing an advisory to avoid all non-essential travel to Florida, given Hurricane Irma.

Or an advisory for coulrophobia sufferers to avoid all non-essential viewing of the movie It, given killer clown.

I mean, even before the "recent developments" - which is just MFA's calmer way of saying "Kim Jong Un has the hydrogen bomb and we're all going to die!" - did many Singaporeans travel to North Korea in the first place?

I believe many, many more Singaporeans visit South Korea.

So MFA should really be advising against all non-essential travel to the land of Gangnam Style because if Supreme Leader Kim starts nuking people, the first to go would likely be his southern neighbour.

But even without the threat of a nuclear apocalypse, there are other reasons North Korea is no longer the irresistible tourist destination it used to be.

The Wonsan Air Show was supposed to be held this month but was grounded.

The month-long Taedong River beer festival, which was supposed to held last month, was also cancelled.

It would have been North Korea's answer to Oktoberfest - but in August and with fewer lederhosen.

North Korea tourism has also been hampered by the lack of a promotional campaign with the slogan "Passion made possible".

Pyongyang could probably use a Formula One night race more than we do.

But judging by its missile tests, North Korea seems less interested in inviting the people of the world to visit than bombing it to Kim-dom come.

So with North Korea being an unlikely holiday getaway for Singaporeans, who exactly is the MFA advisory for?

It could be for someone like Mr Aram Pan.

The Singaporean photographer was in the news recently after he posted a 6½-minute video called Flight Over Pyongyang on YouTube on Sept 2.

Showing aerial footage of Pyongyang shot last year, the video was featured on several foreign news sites last week.

Metro.co.uk said the footage reveals "a city full of skyscrapers but streets largely empty of cars and people".

In the video description, Mr Pan wrote: "It's a rare treat that a foreigner is allowed photography and filming over the skies of North Korea and even rarer to be doing so in a Piper Matrix PA-46 light plane."

He has been uploading videos shot in North Korea to his YouTube channel since 2013 and has a website called DPRK 360, dedicated to the country.

Mr Pan sounds like someone who does a lot of "non-essential travel" to North Korea.

I e-mailed him yesterday and asked whether he is affected by MFA's advisory.

He replied: "The advisory is expected in light of the current global political trends. I think it will primarily just affect travel insurance coverage...

"As of this conversation, I haven't been to the DPRK since September 2016 and haven't made any plans to travel to the DPRK, so I still won't be directly affected by it."

Of course, the advisory could also be meant for me.

The last place I had a haircut was in North Korea last year, and I swore never to have my hair cut again because I want to be able to say forever that the last place I had a haircut was in North Korea.

In the intervening 17 months, my hair has grown long and unsightly. My family and co-workers are begging me to cut it.

And frankly, I, too, am getting annoyed by my own hair.

I figured the only way I could cut my hair and still be able to say that the last place I had a haircut was in North Korea was to actually return to North Korea to get another haircut.

Then came the travel advisory.

I think going to Pyongyang for a trim counts as "non-essential travel".

Looks like I'll be cosplaying as Kylo Ren for the release of Star Wars: The Last Jedi in December after all.




Tourism Observer

USA: Prohibit Tourist Travel By U.S. Citizens To North Korea.

U.S. government should ban tourist travel to North Korea, House Foreign Affairs Committee chairman Rep. Ed Royce (R-Calif.) said Monday following news that Otto Warmbier, the American student released from a North Korean prison last week and returned home in a coma, has died.

The 22-year-old from Cincinnati reportedly fell into a coma soon after being sentenced in March 20016 to 15 years’ hard labor after a North Korean court convicted him of hostile “acts against the state.”

His alleged crime: the removal of a propaganda poster from his Pyongyang hotel.

Warmbier’s family only recently became aware of this condition, and the Trump administration secured his release and return home six days ago.

The Kim Jong-un regime asserted that his condition was the result of taking a sleeping table after suffering botulism, but his family and specialists in Cincinnati cast doubts on the claim.

Warmbier traveled to North Korea with Young Pioneer Tours, a China-based tour company specializing in budget trips to the reclusive Stalinist country, aimed at the younger end of the market.

President Trump expressed his and First Lady Melania Trump’s “deepest condolences” to his family.

There is nothing more tragic for a parent than to lose a child in the prime of life, he said. Our thoughts and prayers are with Otto’s family and friends, and all who loved him.

Otto’s fate deepens my administration’s determination to prevent such tragedies from befalling innocent people at the hands of regimes that do not respect the rule of law or basic human decency, the president said. The United States once again condemns the brutality of the North Korean regime as we mourn its latest victim.

Royce also expressed his condolences to the family.

Otto’s father,Fred Warmbier is right, he said. Travel propaganda lures far too many people to North Korea. This is a regime that regularly kidnaps foreign citizens and keeps 120,000 North Koreans in barbaric gulags. The United States should ban tourist travel to North Korea.

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, who together with special representative on North Korea Joseph Yun played a key role in securing Warmbier’s release, appeared last Wednesday before the committee Royce chairs and said the administration was mulling whether to restrict travel to North Korea.

We have been evaluating whether we should put some type of travel visa restriction to North Korea, he told the panel, adding that the administration has yet to reach a final conclusion.

At least three other American citizens – a businessman and two academics – are currently incarcerated in North Korea. In a statement in response to Warmbier’s passing, Tillerson said the administration holds the regime accountable for his unjust imprisonment and demands the release of three other Americans who have been illegally detained.

At a press conference last Thursday, Fred Warmbier was highly critical of Young Pioneer Tours, which he said promotes North Korea as a safe destination.

On its website, the company does just that:

How safe is it? Extremely safe! Despite what you may hear, North Korea is probably one of the safest places on Earth to visit,it says.

Tourism is very welcomed in North Korea, thus tourists are cherished and well taken care of. We have never felt suspicious or threatened at any time. In fact, North Korean’s are super friendly and accommodating, if you let them into your world. Even during tense political moments tourism to the DPRK,Democratic People’s Republic of Korea is never affected.

The State Department advises “strongly” against visits by U.S. citizens to North Korea: “U.S. citizens in the DPRK are at serious risk of arrest and long-term detention under North Korea’s system of law enforcement, says the latest travel warning, updated last month.

But Young Pioneer Tours’ website Q&A says: I’m American. Is this a problem? Not at all! Restrictions on Americans joining tours throughout the year have been lifted. U.S. citizens are allowed to travel at any time!

Postings on the website play down of tensions arising from current events.

On April 17, for instance, it referred to verified news reports on ballistic missile tests, a major military parade marking the anniversary of the birthday of the state’s founder, Kim Il-sung, and the deployment of a U.S. aircraft carrier to the area – along with other, fabricated reports about supposed incidents like the evacuation of Pyongyang.

Travel to the DPRK remains unaffected by wild stories in the papers,the company said. Inside the country it is calm and people are carrying on as usual. The British Embassy in Pyongyang, whom we stay in frequent contact with agree with our assessment of the situation – travel to the DPRK is still safe, provided you follow the law, which we inform all our tourists about at great lengths.

Following Warmbier’s sentencing last year, Young Pioneer Tours pointed out it has taken more than 8,000 tourists to North Korea over a period of almost a decade, with only one arrest.

Queries sent to the company about calls to restrict Americans’ travel to North Korea brought no response.

Last month U.S. Reps. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) and Joe Wilson (R-S.C.) introduced a bill that would prohibit tourist travel by U.S. citizens to North Korea.

Wilson linked the need to restrict travel not only to the risk of imprisonment but also to the fact it provides revenue to a hostile regime.

Tourist travel to North Korea does nothing but provide funds to a tyrannical regime – that will in turn be used to develop weapons to threaten the United States and our allies, as I saw firsthand on a rare visit to Pyongyang, he said.

The legislation, drafted before Warmbier’s release, states, In the last ten years, at least 17 United States citizens have been detained in North Korea, and at least four citizens remain imprisoned in North Korea as of May 2017.

These Americans traveled to North Korea for a variety of reasons, including tourism travel, lured in part by its secrecy and decades of closure to the West, it says.

The bill accuses the regime of detaining Americans as bargaining chips in negotiations over a variety of issues, including North Korea’s illegal nuclear weapons program and ballistic missile development, and as a way to extract diplomatic concessions.

CHINA: Air China Cancells Flights To North Korean Capital, Pyongyan,

China's national airline, Air China, has cancelled some flights to the North Korean capital, Pyongyang, due to poor demand but it has not suspended all flights there, it said on Friday, denying a report by Chinese state broadcaster CCTV.

CCTV had reported that all flights run by the airline between the two cities were to be suspended indefinitely.

"Air China did not stop operation of the Beijing to Pyongyang route, but temporarily cancelled some flights based on the situation of ticket sales," said a person in Air China's communications team.

Subsequent flights would be scheduled according to ticket sales, the official said.

Air China's flights, which operate on Monday, Wednesday and Friday, began in 2008 but have frequently been cancelled due to unspecified problems.

China is North Korea's sole major ally but it disapproves of the North's weapons programmes, and its confrontations with the United States and its Asian allies, and it has supported U.N. sanctions against it.

Following repeated missile tests that drew international criticism, China banned all imports of North Korean coal on Feb 26, cutting off the country's most important export product.

MALAYSIA: Kim Jong-Nam Suspected Killers Arrainged In Court

Two women accused of assassinating the half-brother of North Korea's leader appeared in a Malaysian court on Thursday ahead of a murder trial that could see them hanged.

Indonesian Siti Aisyah, 25, and Doan Thi Huong, 28, from Vietnam, were taken in bulletproof vests to a heavily guarded magistrate's court close to the airport where Kim Jong-Nam was fatally poisoned two months ago.

Police accuse the pair of having wiped the banned nerve agent VX on Kim's face at Kuala Lumpur International Airport on February 13 as he was about to board a flight to Macau, where he was living in exile.

Rival South Korea accuses the North of masterminding the killing of Kim, the estranged half-brother of North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un. Pyongyang denies the accusation, insisting he died of a heart attack.

In a brief hearing, the women were ordered to appear before the court on May 30 as state prosecutors sought more time to prepare their case. The pair did not enter a plea.

Doan's lawyer asked the court to alter the murder charge since prosecutors have not identified four people mentioned in charge documents as accomplices to the women, but the judge did not entertain the request.

About 100 police officers, include commandos in balaclavas and carrying assault rifles, guarded the court compound during the women's appearance.

Dressed in a red top and blue jeans, Siti kept her head down throughout the hearing. Doang, also casually dressed, quietly observed the court proceedings.

The case is due to be transferred to an upper court where the women will be tried for murder. If convicted, they could face the death penalty, which is carried out by hanging in Malaysia.

The killing sparked a diplomatic crisis between Malaysia and North Korea which saw both countries banning each other's citizens from leaving and withdrawing their ambassadors.

The travel ban was lifted in late March after a deal was struck involving the return of Kim's body to North Korea.

Police are still looking for four North Korean men who are suspected to have taken part in the murder plot, but are believed to have returned to Pyongyang.

Three other North Koreans earlier described as "persons of interest", including a diplomat based in Malaysia, have been allowed to return home under the deal.

Indonesian officials have maintained that Siti was duped into believing she was taking part in pranks for a TV show, while Doan's family said she was invited to Malaysia to be an actress.

Tran Huy Hoang, a young Vietnamese man who attended the hearing and described himself as a cousin of Doan, said She loves to travel and party but she never do anything violent.

NORTH KOREA: Charter Flight Opened Between Pyongyang And Dandong

A charter flight opened between Pyongyang and Dandong, a Chinese city near the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) on Tuesday, shortening the trip to 40 minutes.

About 50 passengers, mostly Chinese tourists and businessmen, attended the launch ceremony at the Pyongyang Sunan International Airport.

Air Koryo, a DPRK airline, will operate the twice weekly flights, taking off from Pyongyang at 9:00am local time and returning to the DRPK capital city at 11:40am.

Air Koryo has regular flights to Beijing and Shenyang, which is also in Northeast China.

The charter flight to Dandong is its third route to China.

Facing Sinuiju of DPRK across the Yalu River, Dandong in Liaoning province of Northeast China has become a transport hub connecting the two countries.

NORTH KOREA: Pyongyang Taedonggang Beer Festival

North Korea hosted its first ever beer festival in Pyongyang.

The Pyongyang Taedonggang Beer Festival was held on the banks of the Taedon River and saw lines of waitresses dressed in white and blue uniforms serving guests large pitchers of beer. Pictures taken at the event offer a rare glimpse into the otherwise private country.

The event attracted over 800 residents, tourists and foreign guests who were served snacks, fried chicken and free beer. The event is reportedly due to run for 20 days to promote Taedonggang beer, a home brewed larger from the region. North Korea first started brewing beer in 2002 after purchasing equipment from the United Kingdom and shipping it over.

Guests were also treated to musical performances and speeches on the night as North Korea celebrated the occasion of its very first beer festival.

NORTH KOREA: Chinese Tourists "Love" North Korea

So close geographically, but so different and far apart. While Chinese are fascinated by life across the Yalu River, many know precious little about their controversial neighbour – despite the much-touted ties between the two countries, supposedly sealed in blood during the 1950–1953 Korean War.

A day trip to Sinuiju, and the second to Sinuiju and Dongrim, which has been open to tourists since 2014. Both cities are in Pyongan province.

A Chinese travel brochure encourages the venture: “Let us visit the world’s most insurmountable frontier! Let’s head to the world’s happiest and safest country, North Korea, to discover a China we were once familiar with,” it urges, with an enthusiasm that is being embraced by a growing number of inquisitive Chinese.

Despite a chill in relations between China and North Korea over Pyongyang’s nuclear ambitions, tourism has boomed since Beijing approved North Korea as a destination for its citizens in June 2008.

Dozens of companies in China now specialise in tours to North Korea, including the Dandong Dongyun Travel Agency run by Song Jun. According to Song, about 300 Chinese tourists enter North Korea daily via Dandong – the biggest Chinese city along the 1,400km border. The number is capped at 500 a day.

South Korean sources estimate 100,000 tourists visited the North in 2015, 90 per cent of whom were Chinese, while North Korea puts the figure at almost half a million and hopes to double that by 2017.

Either way, the number is still far lower than the amount of Chinese visiting South Korea (more than 3.5 million in the first six months of 2015), but the popularity of the Hermit Kingdom is startling nevertheless – and is growing as more cities open up.

Apart from Sinuiju and Dongrim, other cities open to Chinese tourists include Pyongyang, Nampo, Kaesong and Rason.

A four to five-day trip costs between 3,000 yuan and 5,000 yuan (HK$3,375 and HK$5,625) per person, depending on whether visitors travel by plane or rail. Day trips cost 700 to 800 yuan.

Since July, Chinese tourists have been allowed to enter without a passport if they are on a half-day tour – a move some see as motivated by Pyongyang’s need for foreign currency after a wave of international sanctions.

Tourists stay at the best foreigner-only hotels and shepherded by tour guides fluent in Mandarin and handpicked for their good looks.

In Pyongyang, they are taken to sites such as Mangyongdae, the birthplace of former and eternal president Kim Il-sung; Mansudae, home to the giant statues of deceased leaders Kim and his son Kim Jong-il; and the Juche Tower, which was built to mark the 70th birthday of Kim Il-sung. Juche means “national self-reliance”, North Korea’s official political ideology.

In Sinuiju, tourists visit art and history museums, and a factory that produces soap, toothpaste and cosmetic products – one Chinese traveller quipped the latter was on the itinerary because there were “simply not enough places of interest to justify a day-tour in Sinuiju”.

A dearth of obvious attractions is not the only hurdle potential visitors face – there are a plethora of rules of conduct to follow, with tourists receiving photocopied notes on dos and don’ts prior to arrival and guides giving last-minute briefings on the day of departure.

Items that must not be brought into the country include mobile phones, iPads, laptop computers, binoculars, MP3 players, video game consoles, thumb drives and North or South Korean currency. Likewise forbidden are printed materials, publications and newspapers, especially those related to or published by the two Koreas and the United States.

The only exception to the no mobile phone rule is for visits to Pyongyang, presumably because Chinese cellular signals cannot be picked up there anyway.

Only small digital and SLR cameras whose lenses do not exceed 200mm are allowed. Cameras with GPS functions are prohibited.

Photography of anything “backward, unpleasant or any personnel in military uniform” is strictly off limits and while photographs of statues of leaders are allowed, all their features from head to toe must clearly be visible.

Cameras that are allowed must be surrendered to bureaucrats who will delete objectionable images – in the worst cases cards are completely wiped, according to Chinese tour guide Wang Shitao.

Visitors must not walk anywhere unaccompanied by their guides, converse with or enter the homes of locals, or throw sweets at children.

The latter in particular has drawn howls of protest from North Koreans who say doing so is little different from throwing food at animals. As Wang put it: “In North Korea, if you know someone, you can give them food, cash or even throw yourselves at them. But to a complete stranger, please do not offer even a sweet or a cookie. And please do not throw!”

Tourists must not comment negatively on North Korean politics or the economy and especially not on “Kim Il-sung and Kim Jong-il, both of whom are greatly beloved by the North Korean people”, said Wang.

When offering flowers at the statues of the leaders they should do so “in a dignified and respectful manner”. At no time should they mimic the gestures of leaders or take “selfies” at the statue sites.

Wang cautions tourists not to leave books or publications behind in North Korea. One visitor who left a book on Chinese culture was fined 2,000 yuan for “attempting to propagate Chinese culture” before he was allowed to leave.

Wang also reminds his countrymen not to be “forty-niners” – North Korean lingo for idiots – by bargaining in North Korean shops, as prices are fixed by the state.

So given all the rules and restrictions, why visit?

For Zhang Chunlan, 66, a retiree from Jiangxi province, it is nostalgia. “The country is very similar to China in the 1950s and 60s...I still remember those days with a tinge of fondness,” Zhang says.

Yan Ling, 27, a final year law student in Kyoto, Japan, found the last bastion of Stalinism “mysterious” and hard to fathom, while Yang Yanqi, 61, a retiree from Beijing, was “curious to learn more” about a country that was “one of China’s closest neighbours”.

There are also more wayward visitors, some of whom try to venture off from the tour group. One told Wang he wanted to “find a job in North Korea”, while another wanted to go to Pyongyang and deliver a letter to the top leader, saying the “content of the letter is top secret, but will ensure I will be treated like royalty in North Korea for the rest of my life”.

Questions frequently asked by Chinese include: Who owns land in North Korea? Are there private farms? Is there private property? If housing, education and health are provided free, who decides who gets what? What is your monthly salary? (North Korean tour guide Yang Su-ryoen said hers was the equivalent of 200 yuan.)

The list goes on: At what ages do men and women get married? Are men chauvinistic? Do soldiers carry arms? Why are there different lapel-pins bearing the likeness of your leaders? Can I buy them? No? Then can you sell yours to me? No? Why not? Can I migrate to North Korea or get citizenship if I invest 100,000 yuan? No? Why not?

You get the drift. And while the answers to these questions are not always truthful, consistent or even forthcoming, Chinese tour guide Liu Yang said tourists’ curiosity and any lack of understanding both stemmed from the tremendous strides taken by China in the past few decades.

“We may have a shared history and culture, and some of us are old enough to remember the personality cult of Mao Zedong, which is similar to current day North Korea. However, those days for us are long gone. It is jarring to many of us that there is still severe hunger and deprivation right next to our doorstep,” Liu said.

Liu said waitresses at the Dongrim hotel frequented by Chinese came from rural areas and were severely undernourished when they started work. Most were said to be at least 16 years old but looked much younger and had “never worn a bra or used a sanitary napkin before”.

She said some of the girls immersed their bodies in cold rivers and streams “to stop their menstruation” and that after working in the hotel where daily meals were provided many began to “develop feminine curves”. Liu said mobile phones were given only to people who required them for work, such as tour guides and drivers.

In fairness, if some Chinese are less than fully versed in North Korean matters, they can hardly be blamed, given this is the world’s most secretive state.

Ho said interactions with Chinese tourists might lead to North Koreans “questioning certain aspects of their own society, way of life, and what they can possibly do to shape their own individual future”. However, he said the state still had “a very dominant presence in North Korean society” and therefore major changes were likely to result “only from a top-down approach by the state rather than a bottom-up approach from the people”.

Nevertheless, to watch Chinese tourists toasting everlasting zhongchao youyi (Sino-North Korean friendship), as they down their Taedonggang beers, is to hope that one day greater interaction can indeed be the key to bringing these two peoples – so close, yet so far apart – a little nearer together.

NORTH KOREA: Visiting North Korea At Your Own Risk

Visiting north Korea is indeed at your own risk.

Government lies to the people,people lie to each other,Tour guides lie to tourists.

Otto Warmbier of Cincinnati was in North Korea with a tour group when officials there detained him on Jan. 2.

When Otto Warmbier signed up for an "adventure tour” in North Korea, he probably wasn’t expecting a relaxing vacation.

Such a trip carries unsettling risks, such as arbitrary arrest and indefinite detention. The sights include anti-American propaganda and surreal displays of military might, in a country beset by poverty and starvation.

And then there's the long list of no-nos.

Warmbier, of Cincinnati, was detained Jan. 2 at the Pyongyang airport just as his tour group was leaving the country. The North Korean government accused him of committing a "hostile act" against the country.

Since then, there's been no new information about his or well-being. The tour company that took him to North Korea, Young Pioneer Tours, did not respond to emailed questions about their operations. The State Department declined to comment on Warmbier’s case. Ohio elected officials said they're monitoring the situation and advocating for Warmbier's release as best they can.

Warmbier, a University of Virginia student, is hardly alone in seeking a glimpse of the reclusive dictatorship. Exact numbers are hard to come by, but Uri Tours, the largest provider of North Korea travel in the U.S., estimates that at least 1,200 Americans venture to North Korea every year, despite ominous warnings from the State Department.

“Sheer curiosity” prompted Earl Baron, a seasoned traveler from Massachusetts, to sign up for a tour of North Korea in 2013. Now working as a travel guide in India, the 38-year-old Baron was looking for an off-the-beaten-path destination. North Korea, one of the least visited countries in the world, fit the bill.

Other Americans want to go because it’s isolated, it’s bizarre, and it’s off the grid — a Cold War relic frozen in time.

North Korea is “one of the most magical places still untouched by the outside world,” reads an enticement from Rebel Tribe, a travel agency that organizes trips to the communist dictatorship and other destinations.

Jordan Harbinger, a Rebel Tribe tour guide based in California, said the firm’s clientele aren't typical tourists.

“They think outside the box and live outside the box,” he said

Like other tours, those organized through Rebel Tribe begin in China, where participants are given specific instructions on what they can and can't do inside North Korea.

Harbinger said he keeps it simple: “Always ask before you take pictures. Don’t try to be sneaky. And last but not least, don't talk politics,” he said. “There’s no politics to talk about.”

Andrea Lee, CEO of Uri Tours, is a little more specific. For starters, tourists are told not to wander off without their guide, she said in an email from Shanghai. They are also told “not to take photos of the military, not to bring in publications that could be deemed anti-state, and (to) generally show respect for local culture and norms,” Lee said.

Visitors fly from China into Pyongyang, the North Korean capital, where they are met at the airport by their North Korean tour guides. Those guides “stay with you the entire time,” Harbinger said, making sure you don’t run afoul of the country’s draconian laws restricting where you can go and what you can say.

What do visitors get to see? Not what you might think. An amusement park, a bowling alley and a microbrewery seem to be on every tour group’s itinerary, according to interviews with tour guides and a review of their company websites. Other highlights include the embalmed bodies of Kim Il-sung, North Korea's founding president, and his son, Kim Jong-Il, who led the country until his death in 2011. Both men are on permanent display in glass mausoleums at a monument called the Kumsusan Palace of the Sun.

“On a visit with many tense moments, the time I spent in here was the tensest,” one American tourist, Tim Urban, wrote in a 2013 account of his trip. “We had to walk single file in and out and bow three times to each of the two bros.”

He could not have called the two revered leaders "bros" while he was in the country.

“It is a criminal act in North Korea to show disrespect to the country's former leaders, Kim Jong Il and Kim Il Sung, or to the current leader, Kim Jong Un,” the State Department notes.

Baron, the tourist-turned-tour guide, said his six-day trip to North Korea was fun, fascinating and creepy.

Pyongyang looks like a modern city, he said, but it’s actually a throwback, with no Internet, no Facebook, no Hollywood movies and no cable news.

He had casual conversations with local North Koreans, but constantly wondered if they were staged by the government. When his tour group arrived at the bowling alley, it was filled with young North Koreans. But Baron couldn’t figure out if they were enjoying a typical night out — or were part of the scenery set up to project an image of normalcy to Western tourists.

“When I left I was probably more confused about the country than before I went,” Baron said by phone from Bundi, India. “You really have no idea what’s real and what’s not.”

A few venues that are not on any itinerary for foreigners visiting North Korea: forced labor camps, impoverished rural villages where residents have limited access to food, and anything remotely authentic about average people’s lives.

“You will see what the government wants you to see,” Baron wrote in a blog about his trip. “What I saw of North Korea was a tiny, tiny slice of that country and what I learned was also only a tiny, tiny piece of the truth.”

He and others wrestled with the ethics of traveling there, since a portion of their vacation tab goes to North Korea’s repressive government. But even as they conceded the downside of such trips, he and other travelers said it wasn't as dangerous as the U.S. government leads people to believe.

“Do not assume that joining a group tour or using a tour guide will prevent North Korean authorities from detaining you or arresting you,” the State Department warns in its travel advisory urging Americans not to visit the country. “U.S. citizens have been subject to arrest and long-term detention for actions that would not be cause for arrest in the United States or other countries.”

The U.S. has no diplomatic relations with North Korea, so American tourists who are arrested there, or become ill or injured, must rely on the Swedish embassy for help, the State Department notes.

But Harbinger and Baron said they never felt scared or threatened while in North Korea.

Harbinger said he tried to go jogging once — with permission from his guide -- only to be repeatedly turned back by various guards who seemingly appeared out of nowhere. He said being in North Korea was “surreal” and a bit of a “freak show.” But, he said, “I’ve never felt in danger, never felt nervous.”

Baron said he was able to wander off on his own once or twice, within confined settings such as the amusement park. And he said he was able to “loosely” challenge the propaganda dished out by the guides, although he knew there were limits and he knew not to test them.

The State Department warnings suggest Americans can’t anticipate what might trigger an arrest or detention in North Korea, due to willy-nilly enforcement of the country's harsh laws. If nothing else, happy tourists and scolding officials seem to agree that trips to North Korea are unpredictable.

“The government lies to the outside world. The government lies to the people,” Urban wrote. “The people lie to each other. The tour guides lie to tourists. It's intense.”

NORTH KOREA: North Korea Woos International Tourists

Passengers prepare to board a flight at Pyongyang Airport.

North Korea is embarking on a push to attract more tourists – but will strictly enforce rules governing visitors.

Currently a few thousand tourists visit from Western countries and more from neighbouring China.

Now North Korea is stepping up its enforcement of a broad set of strict but sometimes ambiguously implemented regulations about what foreign visitors can bring with them or what they can do while in the country.

The country’s push for tourists began in 2013 and visitors can now enjoy a surprisingly broad array of options, from helicopter rides over the capital to surfing on the country’s scenic eastern coast. With winter now setting in, the North is hoping its newly opened luxury ski resort near the city of Wonsan, which was largely empty of tourists last season while Pyongyang closed its borders over Ebola fears, will be a big draw.

Even so, the pro-tourism policy, like many other business opportunities that involve dealing with and possibly making concessions to the outside world, poses an obvious conundrum for Pyongyang – the potential of economic gains that require change, versus concerns about how that might undermine regime security.

“Despite the policy of getting more tourists, they still see security, or at least perceptions of security, as a bigger concern, and tourism is pretty far down the list of priorities,” said Simon Cockerell of Beijing-based Koryo Tours, which has specialised in North Korea travel since 1993. “It’s clear that the restrictions, rules and so on often act against increasing tourist ­numbers.”

For those visitors who do break the rules, the risks of detention, arrest and possibly even jail sentences are real enough, especially if the offender is from the United States. The US state department recently updated and expanded its already blunt warning against North Korean travel. In a nutshell, its advice is simple – just don’t do it.

“While tourism and the flexibility of travel in the DPRK has expanded, there has been a measurable increase in security at the borders,” said Andrea Lee, chief executive of New Jersey-based Uri Tours, which has been organising tours to the North – officially the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea – for 15 years.

NORTH KOREA: New Tourism Drive, With Marathons, Helicopter Drives And International Cuisine

The isolated state is investing in a string of new tourism initiatives to attract visitors from around the worldNORTH KOREA:
North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un former NBA basketball player Dennis Rodman at a basketball game


Communist dictator Kim Jon Un is determined to change his reputation as an autocratic overlord with a new plan to woo western tourists.

Ahead of the anniversary of the "Great Leader Kim Jong Il" in 2016, the isolated state of North Korea is investing in a string of new tourism initiatives to attract visitors from around the world.

But there's a catch - you need not apply if you're American, Japanese or from South Korea - because special exclusions apply to countries not on the invite list.

This footage shows an English speaking tour guide sampling an array of cuisine at 12 restaurants that swap traditional Korean food like Kimchi and Bibimbap for pizza, pasta and burgers.

She candidly reveals: "It's the first time I've tried this kind of spaghetti" as she enthusiastically tucks into the food in an empty restaurant.

The video reveals the republic has begun to invest in resorts and expanded its airport in the capital Pyongyang .

And it also reveals they are planning to open their doors for the first time to 1500 tourists when it hosts a marathon next year.

The Government has also launched new helicopter sight-seeing tours for tourists keen to get a bird's eye view of the capital.

For £127 a go, tourists can board an ageing Mil Mi-17 Soviet-era military transport helicopter to inspect the sky line through its porthole-like windows.

In 2012 Kim Jong Un and his wife Ri Sol-ju opened the Rungna People's Pleasure Ground , an amusement park, complete with dolphinarium, swimming pool, and a mini golf course.

There's also the state run Munsu Water Park located in the east of Pyongyang , which opened to the public in November 2013.

The park covers an area of 15 hectares with indoor and outdoor activities available all year round.

There's also a ski resort, on top of Taehwa Peak , which boasts a hotel with wood cabin style rooms, complimentary toiletries, and spa facilities and 70 miles of multi-level slopes.

According to its tourism website The Korean Friendship Association (KFA) is also organizing a trip from 13th February to 20th February next year for what they're calling "the special occasion of the Anniversary of the Great Leader Kim Jong Il."

While they have yet to disclose which anniversary they're celebrating, the event is set to offer tourists and business people the "chance to know about the country, its people, society and culture in a respectful environment and small group. "

But there's some conditions attached to the trip.

Its website says: "All passports are invited to apply except for: U.S.A., Republic of Korea (South Korea) and Japan due to special protocol in bilateral relations.

"Participants in the delegation will be accepted according to their order of arrival (pre-subscription) and after clearing all details and conditions.

"This isn't a regular tourist trip , but a cultural one where visitors are expected to interact and behave accordingly.

"A visitor joining the KFA Delegation is not treated as a tourist but as a friend of the DPRK , having access to places, information, insights and state events not allowed for regular visitors."

But for visitors keen to find luxury accommodation in the country could be disappointed.

Its five star Koryo Hotel, which had a 30 ft-wide jade dragon's mouth leading into its expansive lobby, mysteriously went on fire in June.

The hotel, which at 469ft was one of the tallest buildings in Pyongyang , was badly damaged in the blaze but the extent has never been disclosed.

It was made famous when Basketball player Dennis Rodman stayed while visiting North Korea in 2013.

An estimated 6,000 Westerners visit the country each year, according to tour companies, spending £26m anually.

The vast majority of tourists are from neighbouring China.

NORTH KOREA: Hopes To Make Big Cash From Tourism

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un looks around the Masik Pass Ski Resort with his aides in this photo. North Korea has been stepping up efforts to draw international tourists since Kim took power in December 2011.


Tourism is emerging as a new cash cow for North Korea amid growing U.N. pressure on its economy amid its state-perpetrated human rights violations, according to analysts last week.

They speculated that the cash-strapped Kim Jong-un regime could step up efforts to boost tourism in the long term.

The experts said travelling to North Korea is not currently seen as a violation of U.N. Security Council (UNSC) resolutions that restrict trading activities between the internationally-isolated regime and the rest of the world because of Pyongyang’s development of weapons of mass destruction.

They also said touring the authoritarian state is not considered defiance against growing U.N. calls to improve Pyongyang’s dire human rights records, including the severe working conditions of North Korean laborers overseas.

“North Korea could capitalize on tourism as a growth engine to escape poverty,” said Yoon In-joo, a researcher at the Korea Maritime Institute.

Citing her 31-page research paper released this year, Yoon said North Korea’s income from foreign tourists was estimated to be in the range of $30.6 million to $43.6 million last year.

She pointed out that such income comes from money paid by some 95,000 tourists from China and 5,000 from Western countries on various attractions in North Korea, including beaches, mountains and ski resorts.

Yoon added earnings from tourism are “noteworthy” considering North Korea’s annual income from the Gaeseong Industrial Complex (GIC) was $86 million in 2014.

The GIC is an inter-Korean industrial park in the North Korean border town of Gaeseong.

A total of 124 small- and medium-sized enterprises from South Korea have employed over 50,000 North Korean workers at the GIC. It has been seen as another major cash cow for the impoverished regime since it opened in December 2004.

North Korea has launched a drive to draw international tourists since Kim Jong-un took power in December 2011 by introducing a variety of tour packages that give participants sports, military and work experiences.

A researcher at the Korea Institute for International Economic Policy (KIEP) said the tour sites in the reclusive state has “special merits” to attract Chinese and citizens of former Communist states.

Foreign runners join a ceremony to mark the annual Pyongyang Marathon in this photo taken in August 2014. North Korea plans to invite up to 1,500 marathoners from abroad in April next year.

“Our studies show a considerable number of elderly Chinese and those from former Stalinist states often want to recollect memories of the early Cold War era,” the researcher said on condition of anonymity.

“Those people want to visit the place where everything around them looks communist, such as square with a red flag of the yellow hammer and sickle hanging on a tall flag pole, as well as people wearing Mao suits and Soviet-style military uniforms.

“North Korea is where such communist things are perfectly preserved,” he added.

He cited that several foreign travel agencies recently have introduced tour programs to the secretive state in relation to the annual Pyongyang Marathon in April.

North Korea first allowed foreigners to join the competition last year

And it plans to invite up to 1,500 foreign marathoners in next year’s event, according to Young Pioneer Tours, a China-based company.

It said it has “high expectations” for its five-day tour package to North Korea, which will cost $1,060.

It said its customers will have a chance to “get a glimpse” of North Korea on the occasion of the 104th anniversary of the birth of country’s founder Kim Il-sung on April 15.

The agency added that participants will be able to visit “must see sites” in the North Korean capital and also the Demilitarized Zone, which has dissected the Korean Peninsula since the end of the 1950-53 Korean War.

Koryo Tours, also a China-based company, said it plans to offer five different types of tour programs to North Korea to mark the Pyongyang Marathon.

Meanwhile, the KIEP researcher said North Korea should focus on improving its public infrastructure, such as transportation and lodgings, if it plans to attract international visitors consistently.

“Our findings show that tourists can only visit specific places in North Korea during certain seasons, such as spring and fall,” the researcher said. “This is because the roads are not fully paved and are not connected nationwide. Such conditions make North Korean authorities difficult to introduce the country’s tour spots when the roads are too wet and snowy.”

Yang Moo-jin, a professor at the University of North Korean Studies, speculated the U.N. could ban the travel to the internationally-isolated regime if it becomes evident that earnings from tourism are used to develop weapons.

North Korean spectators watch from the stands of Kim Il-sung Stadium as runners line up at the start of the Mangyongdae Prize International Marathon in Pyongyang, North Korea.

“For instance, the U.N. is keeping an eye on Pyongyang’s denial of paying salaries to its manual laborers in overseas because it is seen as violations against human rights,” he said. “It’s possible that the U.N. could impose a travel ban on the military regime if it is found out that the tourism is being exploited to carry out Pyongyang’s nuclear and weapons program.”

Marzuki Darusman, U.N. special rapporteur on North Korea, recently told a U.N. General Assembly panel that North Korean workers abroad are “under overall conditions that reportedly amount to forced labor.”

North Korea has mobilized those workers on a governmental level and has sent them to eastern Siberia, Qatar and a dozen of other nations where there have been demand for cheap laborers.

Pyongyang often has been refused to pay those workers and also asked them to send their earnings paid by their employers.

According to a latest report by Lee Chang-ho, a professor at Hanyang University, the annual income of North Koreans working in the Maritime Province of Siberia, close to the Russia-North Korea border, is in the range of $200 to $3,000, excluding taxes.

In contrast, North Korean managers there make up to $100,000 per year by taking bribes or running private businesses, the report showed.

NORTH KOREA: World’s Worst Airline, Air Koryo

For the fourth year in a row, North Korean airline Air Koryo has been ranked as the world’s worst airline, achieving a one star rating out of a possible five.

Of the 600 carriers assessed by aviation consultancy Skytrax, none achieved as low a score the secret state’s national airline.

But just how bad is it to fly with the airline?

Reports of luggage being weighed by hand, in-flight entertainment dedicated solely to Kim Jong-un and aircraft dating back to the 1960s suggest it can’t be much fun.

However, generally, reviews of the carrier on the internet aren’t quite as bad as you’d imagine.

The airline’s average customer rating on Skytrax's website is an adequate, if not spectacular, 6.0 out of 10 and of the 41 users to have left reviews, 24 said they would recommend flying Air Koryo.

There are a few worrying comments, but even so, many seem to have been enjoyed their experience.

On Instagram, users have been posting with the #airkoryo hashtag, and even the worst airline in the world has its customers taking photos of their food.

All in all, it's quite a mixed bag. While some customers understand why Air Koryo has such a low rating, others touch down feeling pleasantly surprised.

That's the thing about being 'the world's worst' - you only have to beat low expectations.

NORTH KOREA: North Korean Airport's Internet Room Has No Internet Access

North Korea has a nifty new airport terminal, which comes with a nice little Internet room that for some reason seems to be without actual Internet.

A classic situation from the crazy half of the Korean peninsula.

“On two recent trips through the airport, the room's three terminals were either occupied by North Korean airport employees, making it impossible for others to use them, or were completely empty, with their keyboards removed. Attempts to open any browser with a mouse resulted in a failure to connect.”

Back in June, various outlets, showed North Korean leader Kim Jong Un taking a tour around the new terminal at Pyongyang International Airport.

And judging by the photos, it certainly resembles an airport. However, we now know that just because you slap a name on something doesn’t mean it functions as advertised.

Talmadge was forced to do some impromptu sleuthing on whether the computer terminals have ever received an interweb connection, because the reporter states airport officials were silent on the matter.

“But a quick check of the history on two of the terminals showed one was either empty or had been cleared, and the other had a record only of a visit to Naenara, the North's official website.”

As the report reminds, this is a country that stifles its population from roaming freely on the Internet anyway.

The peculiar part is that state officials actually hope to garner an influx of visitors into the hermit country with a facade of openness and communication availability.

As we previously noted, the country has aims of bringing in two million tourists by 2020 — the country currently claims to welcome 100,000 tourists per year, although that number could really be as low as 6,000.

If you do ever enter the country, fill up on all of your Internet needs now. It seems getting information over the net in North Korea is pretty much like taking a shower via a drip in the faucet.