Most of us rank its propaganda high on what we identify with North Korea. We saw and heard plenty while we were there, to the exclusion of nearly all other forms of public expression. For background, see the Wikipedia page or this essay. They give more background and pictures than I could, so I’ll stick with my observations. Today I want to comment at a high level on North Korea[…] Keep reading →

Following up from yesterday’s common questions about visiting North Korea, part 1… Is it legal to go to North Korea? I wrote more here, “How to get to North Korea and if you can legally“, but basically, with proper paperwork Americans can legally tour North Korea, according to the State Department, but it warns you you’re taking serious risks, you just have no legal recourse from the U.S. government because[…] Keep reading →

People ask me a lot of the same questions about visiting North Korea. Maybe if I answer them here I can save us all time and point them here. Well, people tend to ask me at parties and social events, so I know that solution won’t work, but here are answers to common questions anyway. How hard is it to get to North Korea? Going to North Korea is easy.[…] Keep reading →

People like to talk about food in places they travel. Naturally they ask about food in North Korea. At the beginning I liked it, but by the end a couple things get to you. First, as a tourist you get a lot of similar things over again. Second, at least when we visited in August, besides some slices of apple with breakfast, we had no fresh fruits or vegetables. Most[…] Keep reading →

Continuing writing about my North Korea trip… More pictures. Click on them for larger views. The Wikipedia page on the DMZ gives some background. The picture of Neil and Ingrid pushing the limits to play Skittykitts. You can see Neil starting to sweat because a North Korean, probably an armed soldier, is telling him to get up or else. More about Skittykitts here. What is Skittykitts? As Neil put it,[…] Keep reading →

Continuing writing about my North Korea trip… More pictures. Click on them for larger views. I copied most of my blurbs from when I posted these pictures on a social network site a month ago. Sorry about any repetition between what I wrote then for these pictures and what I wrote recently for other pictures. The Wikipedia page on the DMZ gives good background. Links don’t seem to show up[…] Keep reading →

The video below shows the celebrations of Youth Day 2011, the day my group played in the first Ultimate Frisbee tournament (not in the video) and attended a Mass Dance (in the video). A Mass Dance is different than the spectacular Arirang Mass Games — a huge choreographed performance of about 100,000 people. A Mass Dance seems to be a public folk dance in a public square. Our bus brought[…] Keep reading →