"The Place I Least Want to Live in the World"... A Traveler's Account of Visiting North Korea

World Record-Holding Traveler Faces Detention Crisis in North Korea
"Unpredictable Dangers...Lucky to Have Made It Out Alive"

A traveler who has visited all 193 countries in the world has shared his experiences in North Korea. He emphasized, "I have traveled to many dangerous places, but nowhere was as tense as North Korea."

On December 4 (local time), the UK’s Daily Mail reported that Henrik Jepsen, a 37-year-old traveler from Denmark, recently wrote in detail about his stay in North Korea on his blog. He holds the record as the youngest person to have traveled to every United Nations member state.

Jepsen pointed out North Korea’s travel restrictions, internet censorship, and severe air pollution, describing it as "the country I would least want to live in in the world." He also stated, "There is almost no freedom, and even the air is bad."

Henrik Jepsen, a Danish traveler who shared his experience visiting North Korea. Screenshot from Daily Mail

Jepsen also wrote, "I genuinely felt anxious that even the smallest action could lead to detention." The issue arose from the behavior of one of his companions. While their guide briefly stepped away, a member of the travel group secretly scattered another traveler’s ashes on North Korean soil. This act was strictly prohibited by North Korean authorities, yet his companion even filmed the scene.

The video was eventually discovered, and Jepsen said, "The Otto Warmbier incident immediately came to mind." Otto Warmbier, an American college student, was arrested in 2016 for allegedly attempting to take propaganda materials from a hotel in Pyongyang. He was sentenced to 15 years of hard labor and was returned to the United States in a coma after 17 months, where he later died.

In fact, North Korean authorities strongly interrogated the group over the companion’s actions. The companion ultimately submitted a letter of apology addressed to the North Korean leader, and only then were they permitted to leave the country. However, the tense situation continued even at the airport. According to Jepsen, staff surrounded the two and accused them of "polluting the country."

Jepsen speculated that the reason they were not detained was because "North Korea may have felt burdened by the international attention that would come from detaining foreigners." He added, "It would not have been surprising if we had been sent to a labor camp, and simply making it out alive was a stroke of luck."