It is still quite hard to get to North Korea, let alone to travel
through the anti-Oz of Kim Jong Il. But Steve
Knipp of the Christian Science Monitor “snuck in” with a group from South Korea and, despite the “lean as whippets”
soldiers who monitored their every step and even took the reporter’s camera (it was returned), he was able to briefly
experience a slice of life in a country that most people will never ever see.
Currently, most tourists in North Korea are from the South, who are welcomed for their cash. In the past six years
760,000 tourists have entered the country, 99 percent of them South Korean. They are allowed only into the DMZ, where
they can spend several days trekking in the rugged mountains, visiting a spa, and more or less wondering what the hell
else one should do in the heartland of the “axis of Evil.”