Interviews with Recent North Korea Visitors by BBC
"North Korea Feels Worse... Control Beyond Imagination"
As North Korea has recently accepted group tourists from some Western countries including Europe, there have been ongoing accounts from tourists who have actually experienced North Korean society.
On the 1st (local time), the British BBC reported on the local scenes conveyed by tourists and travel agency officials who recently visited the Rason Special Economic Zone in North Korea.
According to the article, most of the tourists who visited North Korea this time were YouTubers or travel enthusiasts, known to have a special interest in North Korea. Their nationalities varied, including British, French, German, and Australian.
One of the interviewees was 28-year-old British YouTuber Mike O’Kennedy. Reflecting on the North Korean residents he observed firsthand, he described it as “a bleak sight,” saying, “Everyone was working, and I felt that no one was resting.”
He also revealed, “Having actually experienced the notorious North Korean authorities’ control over tourists, I was shocked by the unimaginable level of restriction.”
All tourists were only allowed to travel according to a strictly set itinerary guided by their guides, visiting places such as a beer factory, a school, and a pharmacy, and they even had to report to the guide when going to the restroom. O’Kennedy added, “I have never had such an experience anywhere else in the world.”
When visiting a school, 8-year-old children performed a dance depicting the scene of a ballistic missile hitting its target. The performance video showed children wearing red neckties singing while an explosion scene played on a screen behind them.
Dance performance shown to foreign tourists at a school in the North Korean Rason Economic Special Zone [Image source=Photo by Mike O'Kennedy, Instagram capture]
O’Kennedy said that at the time, a girl told him, “I want to go to the UK someday.” He said, “I cannot forget her words,” and lamented, “I could not bring myself to tell her that the possibility of that dream coming true is very, very low.”
Oren Joe Smith, a former journalist for the US North Korea-focused media ‘NK News’ who visited North Korea for the third time this trip, said, “I felt the situation was more difficult than before.”
He added, “Even roads that look clean in photos were actually shabby upon closer inspection,” and said, “If this is the best North Korea can do given how sensitive they are to appearances, I am afraid to even imagine the reality outside.”
© The Asia Business Daily(www.asiae.co.kr). All rights reserved.
