North Korea — Living a lie

@RichPleeth

North Korea is the 48th country I have been fortunate enough to visit, however nothing could have prepared me for the relentless propaganda, brainwashing and therefore delusional people I was to meet on my recent trip. Our two ‘guides’, I use the word guides extremely loosely, they come from the elite ruling class, extremely well educated and knowledgeable however they were there to be minders and of course to spy on each other, the guides never work with the same person twice to ensure they do not become too friendly.

Our first few hours in Pyongyang were relatively tame, customs was extremely easy, I’ve had harder times getting into Heathrow, yes they wanted to see our phones but just to write down the make and model. The journey to the hotel was seamless; the roads are empty, no private ownership of cars exists apart from the senior members in the regime in their Range Rovers of course.

During our first evening we had our very strict itinerary explained, taking in all the major sights, I decided to remain quiet on my thoughts on the country. We were certain our room was bugged and therefore discussed very little if anything that was really on our minds unless we were out in the open.

Our first morning took us to the mausoleum where the two elder Kim’s lie in state, the area is the size of an airport and lines of soldiers are queuing to pay their respects, visibly emotional, some were in tears and all were sniffing. The opulence is something that I have never experienced before, the marble polished, not a spec of dust to be spotted, the Dorchester could learn a thing or two.

Following this on our drive to the gigantic statues of the two former Kim’s, I broached the subject of politics, complimenting them on what a fascinating morning it had been and that I was interested in what reforms Kim Jong Un would bring about and how they felt about him. My first mistake, always refer to him as Marshal Kim Jong Un, his grandfather and father as President and Leader. I have to admit I ensured I never did this to wind them up. I discussed how if I wanted to go into politics, was willing to work incredibly hard, was intelligent and managed to get the support of the party I could one day potentially lead a political party and as long as I could represent the majority of the population, potentially, maybe one day I could be elected into the position of prime minister. I explained this as unlikely but as a possibility, pointing out that they would never enjoy this opportunity, ‘does this bother you?’ I asked. The answer no, the Marshal is a genius, a wonderful man, we don’t need a change. I kept pushing saying that they had very limited information and information is power. If they are being fed information in certain books and the intranet how can they make any clear choices. I got told that socialism works, my response, socialism works for Kim Jong Un, the elite that surround him and as no one knows any better, you know no difference. I have seen capitalists, I have seen socialists, and communists and I know where I would rather live and the freedoms that I enjoy. Still nothing. I kept pushing and got to potentially the most fascinating part, we managed to split the ‘guides’ up so I spoke to one, she must have been around my age. She asked if I could explain September 11th, I asked what she knew and the reply was truly shocking, that there was an attack on the American imperialists but no detail, it was a sentence in a book that she read. I explained in great detail on the events of that day and the foreign policy implications that have since ruled my adult life and changed our daily life’s forever. She was fascinated and asked more about what else was happening in the world, I explained the Arab Spring and how I was extremely lucky to have spoken to Wael Ghonm on a number of occasions about the facts on the ground, we discussed Syria and Libya and she soaked up all the information. I explained how there is no example of where opening up a country to the Internet has had a worse affect on the population, yes it allows certain negative messages but it allows you to access any information in the world at the click of a button and I explained that freedom is power, and it is right to give this to the people. I explained the freedom of protest that if a democratic government does something that people really disagree with they can voice their anger on the street, in the news, online and that this is democracy in action as the government serves us, ‘the people’. Whilst on our own she was far more friendly, open and willing to listen. However we soon re-joined our other guide and I switched the conversation away from what we had been discussing.

The following day we went to the DMZ which I have to say I was extremely excited by, the actual experience was not as I expected but fascinating all the same, the propaganda here is verging on ludicrous, I won’t point out all the ludicrous elements but most obviously was the United Nations flag, the original, used during the peace signing ceremony over 60 years ago, it is kept in a perspex container, the blue colour entirely faded, the material worn, however the original North Korean flag from exactly the same time is in perfect shape, still on the flag pole, brightly coloured with a neat gold trim. I asked, do you genuinely believe that this is the same flag, the answer, an astounding yes. There are many other examples and to be honest they are verging on farcical. The information you are shown in the museum is pure fiction from the numbers of deaths, to the recollection of events to some of the photographs.

During our drive back to Pyongyang I let our younger guide look at my smartphone, I explained the news apps, how I keep up to date with world wide events, domestic politics, the games, taxi apps and even tinder she was blown away and even listened to a bit of Calvin Harris. (which if Calvin ends up reading this, Pyongyang isn’t ready for you yet) I asked her about the museum and about the flag, she finally admitted that maybe it had been coloured before deciding that actually no it was certainly the original. I spoke about Nazi Germany and explained if I had grown up there I’m sure I would have believed that Hitler was a great man, the Jews were third class citizens and we needed to dominate the world. As a child I’d have had this indoctrinated into me from my first days and what else could I think as there was no other information available. I explained that there might be similarities between this and North Korea, I was quickly shut down but I pursued it some more, I explained, I knew she was intelligent, certainly not an idiot and knew that I had some interesting points. I explained that I knew she couldn’t agree with me as we were never alone and you never know who is listening, she obviously did not acknowledge this but there was a slight glimmer in her eye.

During dinner I asked if it would be possible to speak to some normal Koreans, and was informed of course, anyone you want, I then asked if they would translate for me, of course not. Every museum we went in, every restaurant we ate at were cleared for westerners only, we entered and the doors were locked, they had their own generators as there is no power supply in the rest of Pyongyang. So I decided I’d go to the bathroom and escape to a little coffee shop I had seen next door. I popped out of a side door and got a lot of smiles from the Koreans sitting around, before I could do anything else security were there to escort me back to the restaurant. As we left the restaurant to our vehicle I asked again if I could go to the coffee shop and chat to some people, of course talk to whoever you want, the shadow of the guide loomed over me and as we found someone who spoke English the guides suddenly got very worried we needed to leave, it wasn’t safe to say, I explained that this lady and her child spoke English and I just wanted to say hello. Things got out of hand and they wanted us to leave, reluctantly I followed, purely for the safety of the English speaking lady.

Back at our the Yanggakdo hotel, one only a few locations in Pyongyang, I asked if I would be allowed to visit the notorious fifth floor, in western blogs it is referred to as a spy floor, the North Koreans refer to it as a maintenance floor, it doesn’t appear on the elevator and I later discovered that the stairwell entrances are boarded up. It was explained to me that I definitely couldn’t visit the fifth floor as it was for laundry.

I made my way back to my room, then rather predictably to the 7th floor to make my way down the pitch black stairs to the fifth floor, boarded up so I made my way back up to find another set of stairs, again fifth floor boarded up with an infrared camera covering it. I went down to the fourth floor, which is also not accessible by the elevator and found a huge amount of propaganda on the walls, pictures and slogans all calling out to stand behind the great leader and how bad the Western imperialists are. A little more exploring, we discovered a secret elevator, so pushing down I waited to see what would happen. To my disappointment a man got out and looked at me rather shocked I asked where the normal elevators were, he kindly directed me and disappeared, back I went to get this secret elevator again the same man appeared who then escorted me to the correct elevators. After a ten minute break in the excitement I found my way to the 7th floor, managed to avoid detection and get in the secret elevator, heading to the fifth floor, to my disappointment we stopped at six and three officials got in with a young woman who looked shocked and noticeably uncomfortable to see us there. At five I walked straight out and got a shouting at, I turned to a lot of worried faces saying no no no. And was pulled back in the elevator where I then ‘realised my mistake’ ‘oh this is five not two? ‘. We were escorted to reception where an official security man came and would not allow us back to our room. I explained we had just got lost and that it was no big deal. He didn’t like it and it took a bit of charming to get him to allow us to go to our room around 10minutes later. He wanted our names, nationality, room number and guide names. Reluctantly we returned to our room, thinking we would try again, however 20 minutes later we had a number of mysterious phone calls where no one spoke. And decided we would not try again. In the middle of the night a knock at the door which spelled trouble. Turned out to be our guides who needed to have a chat with us. We were called into the corridor not really knowing what to expect, I explained we had got lost however they looked extremely worried, I mentioned I stay in hotels more than 150 nights a year and I have never got in trouble for going to a floor by mistake. After a 20 minute debrief we were ‘allowed’ to return to our room.

Let’s be clear the fifth floor may house some maintenance but that’s certainly not all by the horrified looks on people’s faces I suspect there is either a listening station or bunker for the party elite.

The sad truth in North Korea, you never know who is listening, you never know who to trust and purely by association you can be thrown into a concentration camp. There is a huge amount of fear on the streets of Pyongyang and it is upsetting the grip on power that this rather obese megalomaniac has. He lives a life of luxury, sucking the life out of the normal incredibly unfortunate people of North Korea. I just hope that an extremely brave group revolutionists manage to set them free.