North Korea
Bespoke North Korea
Day 1 – Pyongyang
Remote Lands’ bespoke journeys to North Korea originate in Beijing at a five-star hotel such as Aman at Summer Palace, Raffles Beijing or the ultra-hip Opposite House.
Fly from Beijing to Pyongyang (approximately two hours). Passing through Customs, if you have a cell phone you will have to surrender it to Customs officials, though it will be returned upon departure. After Customs, you will be met by your two official North Korean private guide and private driver, who will accompany you at all times throughout the duration of your visit, apart from while you are in your hotel. From the airport, you will be driven in a Mercedes or Lexus or similar luxury vehicle to your hotel. Travelling with Remote Lands, you will be one of the few elite visitors to DPRK who are not travelling as part of a tour group, and you will have special insider access to unusual places and people and places not normally available to outsiders.
Check into your suite at the deluxe Yanggakdo Hotel, built in 1995 and located on Yanggak Island in Tadeong River. Throughout your visit to North Korea, you will stay in the best hotels available, with rooms enhanced by Remote Lands with fine bed linens, bath towels, pillows, duvets, bathrobes, slippers, European toiletries, snacks and drinks of your choice in your mini-bar and other amenities. Forty-seven stories tall, the Yanggakdo includes a revolving restaurant, microbrewery, nightclub and casino, as well as a golf driving range, swimming pool, sauna, and massage services. Alternatively, stay at the Potonggang Hotel which is located on the weeping willow-lined Potong River where North Koreans go for their morning jog and crew teams silently row their sculls. The Potonggang has a quite good Japanese restaurant, a cocktail bar, a bookshop, a Korean gift shop and a little grocery store which carries international food and drinks. US dollars and Euros are accepted here and indeed widely throughout North Korea for your gift and momento purchases.
Have dinner in the revolving restaurant of the hotel. The Korean food in North Korea is excellent - as is North Korean beer - and the Japanese and Chinese food is also very good. Remote Lands can bring in fine wines from Europe and Australia. European breakfasts are available in the hotels with eggs and toast and cereal.
If you are visiting during August or September, after dinner, attend the Mass Games, a larger-than-life extravaganza featuring 100,000 performers in synchronized gymnastics, acrobatics, dance, folk songs, and more. With choreographed stories about the country’s educational system, military might, cooperative farms and more, it is nothing less than a comprehensive celebration of North Korean nationalism. What looks like a mechanical or electronic backdrop is actually 20,000 children holding up colored cards, which create different scenes when they’re changed flawlessly every 15 to 30 seconds during the course of the 90-minute show. The spectacle is performed four times a week for two months in May Day Stadium, the largest in the world with a capacity of 150,000.
Day 2 – Pyongyang
Begin your first full day in the North Korean capital with a visit to the vast Kim Il Sung Square, located in the center of the city and Pyongyang’s largest open plaza. Here, you will begin to get a sense of the grandness of the city’s architecture and its devotion to the Great Leader. The square’s surrounding buildings feature immense portraits of Kim Il Sung, as well as Karl Marx and V.I. Lenin, while the plaza itself is often the site of Mass Games practice, military parades, and massive, colorful rallies celebrating national anniversaries and the birthdays of the Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il.
Explore the fascinating Korean Art Gallery, located on the square, which chronicles Korean life across the centuries, from reproductions of ancient tomb paintings to 20th-century socialist-realism paintings created to further the goals of the socialist state.
Directly across the Taedong River from Kim Il Sung Square is the landmark Juche Tower. The tapering, four-sided, 560-foot tall monument is built of one stone for each day of Kim Il Sung’s life, and is topped with a giant red flame, illuminated at night. It is taller than the Washington Monument – upon which it is supposedly modeled – by merely a few feet. Take the elevator to the top for striking 360-degree views over Pyongyang.
Created by the Great Leader, Juche is the guiding ideology of North Korea, and is set forth in the country’s 1998 constitution. Translating literally as “master of one’s self,” Juche is complex philosophical system, influenced by Marxism, that espouses man’s disciplined control over his environment and his own destiny, with the aim of achieving the ultimate socialist state. There is even a Juche calendar, which marks 1912, the year of Kim Il Sung’s birth, as “year one”; 2010 is Juche 99.
Continue on to the Mansudae Grand Monument, a 65-foot tall bronze statue of Kim Il Sung with right arm outstretched, pointing the way, perhaps, to the perfect socialist future. On any given day you will see ordinary North Koreans bowing in front of the statue, while on holidays thousands of citizens will visit the monument to present flowers and pay their respects. You will be asked to place a bouquet of flowers as well. On opposite sides of the plaza are vast, elaborate sculptures commemorating the resistance to Japanese colonialism, and workers of the socialist revolution.
Take a stroll through the lovely Morabong Park, one of the city’s most attractive green spaces. If it’s a weekend or a holiday, you will see many North Koreans picnicking and enjoying their day off.
Visit another of Pyongyang’s grand monuments to the state, the imposing Party Foundation Monument, comprising three 160-foot tall sculptures of fists gripping a hammer, sickle and writing brush – symbolizing workers, farmers and intellectuals – and the tools that make up the emblem of North Korea’s ruling Workers’ Party.
Have lunch at a casual local restaurant, and dine on delicious Korean barbeque duck, chicken and fish.
After lunch, visit the Mansudae Art Studio, the foremost art production center in Pyongyang, where most of the sculptures, paintings and monuments seen around the city are made by government-employed 9-to-5 artists, who create under direct state supervision. Tour the studio and talk with an artist about his life and work.
Tour Pyongyang’s Schoolchildren’s Palace – an after-school center for arts, science, computer, and athletic activities, attended by more than 10,000 students. Witness an electrifying musical and dance performance by the highly trained young students in the Palace’s 2,000-seat auditorium.
Board the USS Pueblo, a Navy intelligence ship captured by the North Koreans in 1968. Officially, it’s never been decommissioned by the U.S. Navy, though North Korea has proudly displayed it as a trophy ever since its capture, turning it into a museum that has become one of the most popular attractions in the country. View a 30-minute propaganda video with an impressive music soundtrack and footage of some of the 82 American crew members held captive for 11 months. Then tour the ship and meet the North Korean captain who helped capture the vessel, hearing his personal account of the infamous Cold War incident.
Visit the Pyongyang Maternity Hospital, entering through its ornate lobby of marble and chandeliers and, of course, a giant painting of Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il. Have a privately guided tour with the head of the hospital, who will take you among its 13 floors of pre- and neo-natal care for a unique opportunity to meet ordinary Korean women and chat with them about their lives and families.
Have dinner at your hotel. If you wish, attend another performance of the Mass Games.
Day 3 – Pyongyang
Visit the Kumsusan Memorial Palace, more commonly known as the mausoleum of Kim Il Sung, for a surreal experience of the people’s reverence for the Great Leader. Formerly Kim’s residence and offices, the lavish palace was converted into his final resting place after his death in 1994 by his son and successor, Kim Jong Il. After a rigorous entry procedure, which involves removing your shoes, donning sanitary slippers and passing through a “clean room” to remove dust off you, an elaborate procession leads you through enormous palatial halls until finally you approach the transparent sarcophagus in which The Great Leader’s body lies embalmed. You will be directed to bow on three sides of his body, and absolutely no photographs are permitted.
Nearby is the Revolutionary Martyrs’ Cemetery, the crown of the peak of Mount Taesong. Climb the flight of 300 steps to the beginning of the cemetery, where more than 200 fighters from the resistance against the Japanese in the first half of the 20th century, as well as the Korean War, are interred and memorialized with bronze busts. Look for the bust of the Great Leader’s wife, Kim Jong Suk, near the giant red granite flag.
Visit the Changgwan Health Complex for a glimpse at one of Pyongyang’s main fitness and recreation centers. Swimming is a favorite activity, with both indoor and outdoor pools filled with old and young alike, while the barbershop, beauty parlor and gym are also busy with customers.
Have lunch at the upscale Ongryu Restaurant, famous for its delicious homemade cold noodles and green-bean pancakes. The pancakes, a traditional North Korean staple, are made from kneading green bean flour with vegetables, meat and leeks, then fried, and are considered both savory and salutary to one’s health.
After lunch, explore the Victorious Fatherland Liberation War Museum, a vast collection of artifacts dedicated to North Korea’s version of the events of the Korean War. As the museum’s name indicates, the picture painted is rather different than the Western perception of the conflict, but the exhibits can be extremely illuminating of how North Koreans think of their history.
From the museum, stroll through the nearby War Victory Monument Park, built in 1993 for the 40th anniversary of the DPRK’s “victory” in the Korean War. With a host of giant bronze sculptures portraying different battles of the War, the park is dedicated to the “Korean People's Army and Korean people who defeated the U.S. imperialists and its allies during the Fatherland Liberation War.”
Descend into the Pyongyang Metro, the deepest subway system in the world at roughly 360 feet below ground, and also one of the most beautiful, at least along the stops that Western tourists are shown. Take an extended ride on the Metro, which opened in 1973, and marvel at the pristine stations’ high vaulted ceilings, chandeliers, elaborate mosaics and paintings, and marble platforms and concourses. Looking down on you in the subway car, of course, are portraits of the two Kims.
Day 4 – Demilitarized Zone (DMZ)
Drive approximately two and a half hours from Pyongyang to Kaesong, just five miles from the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) – a 2.5-mile wide strip of land stretching approximately 155 miles, from one side of the Korean peninsula to the other, and bustling with military protocol. The drive affords you an extended look at the picturesque North Korean countryside, including flourishing farms – a huge change from the famine of the 1990s – and carts of produce being pulled by oxen along the dirt roads.
Continue to Panmunjom, the “truce village” that straddles the DMZ and the site of the armistice talks that yielded a cease-fire in the Korean War in 1953 – but no signed peace treaty. Soldiers have been facing off here for more than half a century, despite sharing a language, history and culture. Enter the room where the talks were held and see the conference table that stands half in North Korea and half in the South. You may have the opportunity to speak with some North Korean soldiers, some of whom can be quite friendly. You would usually communicate through your interpreter, although you may find that some are quite adept at speaking English as well.
The DMZ is actually an area of stunning beauty, as there is no development on or around it. The area has ironically become an “involuntary park,” a stretch of land that has returned to its natural state in the absence of human interference, and is now home to such endangered animal species as the red-crowned crane, Korean tiger and Asiatic black bear.
Visit the Kaesong Koryo Museum, situated among the Songyungwan complex of 20 buildings, a center of learning during the Koryo dynasty (918 – 1392 A.D.). The museum includes thousands of relics from the dynasty, including thousand-year-old temple pagodas, with centuries-old Ginko trees and a 900-year-old Zelkova tree on the complex grounds.
Enjoy a gourmet lunch of fine Kaesong cuisine at the Tongil Reunification Restaurant, where you will be presented with an array of a dozen or more small dishes, each a delicacy on its own. Sample a variety of tasty soups, vegetables, meat, fish and rice dishes, along with the ubiquitous kimchi. This spicy pickled cabbage side dish is on every Korean table but it is not widely appreciated by the western palate so you can skip it if you wish.
Visit the Koryo Dynasty tombs, the twin mausoleum of King Kongmin, the dynasty’s 31st king, and his Mongolian wife. Designed by Kongmin upon his wife’s death in 1365, the domed tombs sit side by side at the foot of a hill at the end of a verdant valley. Statues of military officials and civilian advisers guard the tombs, while the tiger and sheep statues represent the royalty’s Koryo and Mongolian heritage, respectively.
Drive back to Pyongyang in the afternoon (2.5 hours).
Visit the Arch of Triumph in central Pyongyang. Erected in 1982 to commemorate Kim Il Sung’s return to Korea in 1945, at just shy of 200 feet tall it is the largest such triumphal arch in the world, purposely built to be larger than Paris’s. Take the lift to the top for another stunning panoramic vista over Pyongyang, and look for the inscription of a revolutionary hymn to the Great Leader, the “Song to General Kim Il Sung.”
Stop in the Paradise Department Store for a glimpse at the state of retail in North Korea, which lacks the consumer culture and materialism of the west, so it is worth a visit. You can purchase many interesting local products such as the bizarre “Korean Snake Alcohol”, a potent libation with 40-60% alcohol content and a large dead snake in the bottle. After quaffing this lethal potion you just might end up eating the snake!
Try the boutique hilltop Moranbong Hotel for dinner, and have cocktails at the bar where many local diplomats gather for drinks and sharing “war stories”.
Day 5 – Nampo
After breakfast, drive approximately 1 hour southwest to Nampo, an industrial center near the mouth of the Taedong River and the Yellow Sea.
Along the way, stop at the Chonsamri Cooperative Farm, a community of 2,500 people living and working together, with their own shops, schools, theaters and services. Chat with the members of the farm, and hear about their life and work amid the cooperative system, which includes essentially free housing, education and healthcare.
Visit the West Sea Barrage, a nearly 5-mile long system of dams and an engineering feat of which the country is extremely proud. Completed in 1986, the multi-purpose barrage was built to control flooding and generate power, and allows 50,000-ton ships to pass through its three lock chambers and up the increased water level of the Taedong.
Nampo’s Sea Vessel Repair Shop is another worthwhile visit, an active facility for the fixing and maintaining of North Korea fishing boats and other commercial ships.
Have lunch at a casual local restaurant.
Take a tour of the Nampo orphanage, a colorful, modern facility where you can spend hours playing with the children and talking with their caretakers about their lives and work with the orphans. They children appear very clean and happy and well cared for by the loving teachers who are very affectionate and warm with the children.
Check in to the Nampo Hot Springs Resort, a small secluded compound of a dozen or so villas, each room with its own hot spring bath. Dine in the resort dining room and play some pool after dinner.
Day 6 – Mount Myohyang
Drive approximately three hours from Nampo to the gorgeous Mount Myohyang, which rises some 6,500 feet in the center of the country. In autumn, the deciduous trees here rival those of New England, and avid “leaf-peepers” could opt for North Korea in lieu of Connecticut. It is considered a sacred mountain, the legendary home of King Tangun, father of the Korean people. Its scientific importance is no less; in 2009, UNESCO designated the Mount Myohyang region a world biosphere reserve, citing it as a habitat for 30 endemic plant species, 16 globally threatened plant and 12 endangered animal species.
Visit the extremely grand International Friendship Exhibition, a vast temple complex that proudly displays gifts given by foreign dignitaries to Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il. Most gifts have been from fellow socialist or communist leaders, including a bullet-proof limousine from Stalin and opulent train cars from Mao Zedong. It is fascinating to note the differences between the lavish gifts from the Communist/Socialist countries and the decidedly less generous gifts from westerner leaders and visitors.
From the Friendship Exhibition, cross the Myohyang stream and enter the grounds of the serene Pohyon Buddhist Temple complex, originally constructed in the 11th century and an officially designated national treasure. While approximately half of its 24 original temples and halls were destroyed during the Korean War, the 13-story, octagonal Sokka Pagoda has stood since the 14th century. Housed in the Temple’s designated archive building are 80,000 wooden blocks containing the complete collection of Buddhist scripture from the 13th century, also considered a national, if not world treasure.
Check in to the deluxe, 15-story pyramid-shaped Hyangsan Hotel.
Day 7 – Mount Myohyang
Take your second day in this scenic region to hike its valleys and hills, and discover why Mount Myohyang has been called the “mountain of curiosity, beauty and sweet smell” – the latter owing to the various aromatic plant species that perfume the environment year round.
Trek through Manpok Valley, whose stunning scenery includes continuing cascades of waterfalls and the tiny Tangun Saint Grotto, which legend says is the birthplace of the father of Korea. Sangwon Valley, in addition to its own series of falls, boasts striking views over the landscape as well as the Sangwon Hermitage, whose present buildings date to 1580, but is believe to have been built as early as the 10th century. Intrepid hikers can head for the best view of all at Piro Peak, Myohyang’s highest at roughly 6,260 feet.
Day 8-9 – Wonsan
Drive approximately 5 hours from Mount Myohyang to Wonsan on North Korea’s eastern coastline, an area seldom visited by foreign tourists. Songdowon is the main attraction on the seashore, a popular stretch of pristine white-sand beaches and nearby groves of 700-year-old pine trees, which conceal both a zoo and a botanical garden, the latter containing ample kimilsungia and kimjongilia, cultivated hybrid flowers named after the Great and Dear Leaders.
If visiting in the summer months, stop by the Songdowon Schoolchildren’s Camp, which can accommodate up to 1,200 children, not only North Korean but also sometimes foreign students on summer holiday, playing and learning.
Tour a local cooperative farm often visited by both Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il, and therefore well known throughout the country, for another perspective on the DPRK’s agricultural system. Chat with the members about their daily lives, from the morning distribution of each day’s tasks, to communal lunches, news-reading meetings and radio announcements, and evenings enjoying cinema or political meetings.
Explore the Ullim waterfalls, discovered only in 2001 by North Korean soldiers doing blasting work, and opened for the public’s enjoyment in 2003. Go for a swim in the pool at the foot of the falls, which roar down from a height of nearly 250 feet.
Day 9-10 – Kumgang Mountains
Drive approximately one hour from Wonsan to the remote Kumgang Mountain region in the southeast corner of the country. Along the way, stop at Lake Sijung, whose very modest resort is famous for its hot mud bath treatments, believed to have positive effects for a wide range of ailments. After your hot mud bath, enjoy a swim in the lake or take a boat out fishing.
Spend a few hours on the local beaches of the Kumgang coast, where you are likely to be one of very few visitors at all and have wide swaths of sand and sea entirely to yourself.
Explore the scenic environs Mount Kumgang, another of North Korea’s sacred peaks, whose surrounding hills are dotted with ancient temples and hidden hermitages. Hike up to one of two dramatic peaks, Sujong or Sejon, then soak your muscles upon descent in the hot baths of Kumgangsan Spa, whose waters hover around 100 degrees.
For a reminder that Pynongyang is not the only stronghold of revolutionary pride, visit the Kumgangsan Revolutionary Musuem, which chronicles the anti-Japanese resistance in this part of North Korea in the first half of the 20th century.
Day 11-12 – Mount Paekdu
Fly by private charter one hour to Mount Paekdu on North Korea’s northern border with China. Since the area is accessible only by private plane, very few outsiders have ever been to this region.
Ascend Mount Paekdu, Korea’s highest at 9,000 feet, which affords some of the most dramatic vistas in the entire country. The mountain is considered sacred not only because of its sheer physical presence, but also because it supposedly where Kim Il Sung based his anti-Japanese guerilla forces from around 1937 to 1943, winning many decisive battles, and where Kim Jong Il was purportedly born as well. Visit the “Secret Camps” area, where the Korean People’s Army (KPA) was headquartered.
Atop the volcanic mountain sits the vast Lake Chon, with a circumference of approximately eight miles and the highest such crater lake in the world. Take either the steps or a cable car from the crater’s rim to its base and sample some of its crystal-clear water.
Visit the Grand Monument at Lake Samji, which features enormous sculpture groups on either side of a large plaza. The bronze statue of Kim Il Sung in uniform is the second largest in the country, while the immense white granite “Burgler of Advance” dominates one side of the square. In all, there are more 80 statue groups commemorating the KPA’s resistance to Japanese imperialism.