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cen@jkt
1918

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Red Confucianism

Disclaimer: this post is about the trip to a hermit kingdom and I try to describe it as accurate as possible. To do so, I must gingerly touch on a delicate subject of politics and ideology. Although I promise to touch it as gently as I would touch my watches. If the esteemed moderators feel that at any point the discussion veer to the extreme, kindly nudge us back to neutrality.

I just went to Democratic People’s Republic of Korea aka North Korea and came back alive . Actually it's not as scary as what people/media describe. Although there are basic rules that you must follow when travelling to North Korea:
1. Thou shall not walk on your own and must travel within your group and must follow the itinerary to the minute.
2. Thou shall not take pictures of the local people, the army, and other sensitive places (such as empty highways) and others pictures that might diminish the pride of the nation.
3. Thou shall respect the Great Leaders: Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il. No gossiping about their lives.
4. Thou shall not bring strong binoculars, gps, or hand phones. You must surrender these items at the custom and will get it back when flying out of the country. You may make phone calls at the hotels but prepared to be eavesdropped. No internet.
5. Thou shall not mingle with local people and get too close with the tour guides.
6. Thou shall be prohibited from exchanging foreign currencies to domestic one.
7. Thou shall not leave the hotel compound.
8. Japan and USA are the sworn enemies of North Korea and you must enjoy their propagandas . But they accept US dollars nonetheless. Chinese RMB and Euro are the main currencies for foreigners.
9. As in this hallow hall of this great website: no discussion about religions and politics .
And we broke all the rules (except rule #4, #7, and #8) and made it out alive .

North Korea is a country stuck in the 60/70’s. All the buildings, the mindset, the ideology are a representative of the cold war era. Whereas China was able to wriggle out of the communist ideology, North Korea still believes in empty ideology, propagandas and slogans. Rather than communism, red juche Confucianism is more accurate to describe North Korea; red: communism; Confucianism: deep fanatical respect for elders and leaders; Juche: independence and self reliance. Fortunately (with a sense of irony), Mao Ze Dong managed to burn the elites and scholars, eradicate Confucianism, and instilled radicalism during The Cultural Revolution. And fortunately, out of this chaos, the great little leader, comrade Deng, managed to steer back the country to common sense and openness. The absence of those radicalism and pragmatism leaderships, plus the strong fanatical respect for the leaders, makes North Korea what is today.

There are only roughly less than 20.000 tourists going to North Korea annually, with Chinese tourist consisting 90% of the total. So many of the tourist places are not crowded, in fact in certain places, our group was the only tourist there. Air Koryo, North Korea’s airlines flying Soviet’s planes, travel 3 times a week to Beijing and 2 times a week to Shenyang. Air China flies several times a week to Pyongyang from Beijing. The airport is mostly empty as it receives less than 20 flights per week. In fact when we were departing from Pyongyang, we were there before the staff came!

Our group consist of 12 people, and for this amount they assigned 3 (three) tour guides! And we were never alone for more than 30 minutes before any of our handlers magically appeared by our sides . Some of questions the tour guides asked us: what do you think of our country; a lot of people said we have nuclear weapons, what do you think of it; what do think about the ideology of our leaders. And they will spit propaganda as fast as Hublot spits its limited editions: America is a liar and evil nation; it splits Korea into 2. We suffered greatly under the occupation of Japan, and they killed many Koreans. Kim Il Sung liberated us from the Japanese and managed to push back American imperialism. Dear leader Kim Jong Il likes fishing but he is too busy to do it.
 
The salary of the tour guides is only RMB 200 (roughly US$30!), but they get free basic clothing and food, free medical, and free education. Housing is rationed, with army and famous people more equal than others.

So how does the itinerary look like?
Day 1: arrive North Korea and surrendered your phones at the airport; watch Arirang Mass Games (a celebration of nation show with more than 100.000 performers).
Day 2: Pyongyang city tour. Kumsusan Memorial Palace (Mausoleum of Kim Il Sung, the largest of such place in the world, where you must bow down to the remain of Kim Il Sung); Revolutionary Martyrs’ Cemetery (where you must buy a flower and bow down in front of the statue of Kim Jong Il’s mother); metro stations (100 meters deep); USS Pueblo (captured American spy ship); a visit to a foreign bookstore where you may buy the ideology books of Comrade Kim (both the father and son), marvel at their great thinking and educate (brainwash) yourself; Kim Il Sung Square;  a walk in Moran Hill; Juche Tower.
Day 3: Drive to Panmunjom (DMZ area);  a visit to Koryo museum in Kaesong, buy ginseng and bear’s bile. Back to Pyongyang, watch the famous acrobatic show and visit Mansudae park (a place where Kim Il Sung was born and learned).
Day 4: Arc of Triumph (taller than the one in Paris; Fountain Park; Mansudae Grand Monument (Giant statue of Kim Il Sung, where you have to bow down to it and must take full picture of the statue when photographing); drive to Myohyang mountain area: Visit International Friendship Exhibition (halls of gifts to comrade Kims); go to local Buddhist temple (complete with monks and devoid of local people or any other tourists); walking in the mountains (and secretly mingle with locals).
Day 5: fly to Shenyang and back to (greater) freedom of speech, internet, and Blackberry.

And what do I think about the trip? Go now for it may change (more tourists, reunification with the South, or other factors), the people (including the tour guides and the driver) are nice and friendly, the services are much better than China in the early 80’s, must experience the last authentic cold war era in the world and enjoy their propagandas, the sceneries are beautiful, temporary abstinence from wireless communication is good.

Some of the pictures are taken secretly and in haste. Pardon the quality. For good quality pictures of The Mass Games, just google it.

Part 1 of 5. Be patient for the next installment (I have to swim with the kids )

cen@jkt