Tea-leaf picking: Summer fun in North Korea

by Tom Johansmeyer on

If you can get into North Korea … and if you can manage to set your own itinerary … visit the Kangryong Unjong Tea Plantation of the DPRK (i.e., Democratic People’s Republic of Korea). It’s tea-leaf picking season, and now’s the time to get in on the action, in theory, at least. In fact, notes the Korea Central News Agency, “The tea leaves picking is at its height in the plantation.” Great news!

I’m not sure how this activity works, but I’m guessing it bears at least some resemblance to apple-picking in New England, though with a hell of a lot more repression oversight.

Act now, because you won’t be the only person picking tea leaves. The KCNA reports: “The workers there are harvesting tea leaves every day much more than their daily plan while drying them in good time by operating the drying facilities in full capacity.” Hurry up, before all the leaves are gone!

[photo by giladr via Flickr]

Explore the Tuman Triangle

by Tom Johansmeyer on

If you’re going to travel all the way across the Pacific, you want to make your trip to Asia worth it. The latest package from Koryo Tours is designed to do this, exposing you to three countries, three cultures and three time zones in one shot. From June 30 to July 10, 2010, a small group (only 20 spots are available) will be able to explore the “Tuman” Triangle.”

From Beijing, you’ll head out for Yanji in northeastern China, your gateway to North Korea. Across the river, you’ll visit the Rajin-Sonbong free trade zone before crossing into the North Korean city of Chongin and the nearby Chilbo mountains. Your next stop is Russia, to which you’ll travel by train, followed by a boat trip to Vladivostok. Finally, the trip ends with a flight back to Beijing, which you’ll tour your for a while (details are available at Koryo Tours).

Need to experience a new side of Asia? This is the way to do it: three unique cultures in one amazing trip.

Aijalon Mahli Gomes phones home

by Tom Johansmeyer on

Every now and then, an overzealous traveler crosses the border into North Korea without doing the requisite prep work and having various forms rubber stamped. When this happens, bad things follow. For Aijalon Mahli Gomez, a U.S. citizen, the crossing turned into an eight-year sentence in the company’s prison system on April 6, 2010. Yet, he was able to call home.

According to the Korea Central News Agency, North Korea’s official , um, news service:

U.S. citizen Aijalon Mahli Gomes now in prison after being tried on April 6 asked for a phone contact with his family for his health and other reasons. The relevant organ of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, taking his request into consideration, permitted him to do so on Friday.

Before he was allowed to make the phone call, Gomes’ contact with the outside world was limited to the Swedish embassy, which handles all diplomatic issues for westerners in North Korea.

Gomes, who is 30 years old and from Boston, has to pay a fine of approximately $700,000 on top of his hard labor sentence. He was in North Korea doing missionary work and was the fourth U.S. citizen in less than a year to get pinched for illegal entry.

North Korea Threatens “Historical Punishment” for Vacation Blocking

by Tom Johansmeyer on

Korea Central News Agency, the official mouthpiece of North Korea, is mad – damned mad – that South Koreans aren’t heading across the border any more.

Mt. Kumgang tours were made possible at one point, but the South Korean government has suspended them, according to the North, because the Ministry of Unification and other governmental bodies have expressed doubts about the personal safety of visitors. This has been interpreted as “nothing but an intention to completely suspend tourism.”

The absence of vacationers has had profound consequences, it seems: “Mt. Kumgang has been driven into a catastrophic crisis owing to the desperate obstruction of the present regime.” Ouch! The KCNA also reports that the South is “depreciating the achievements made in the past economic cooperation work under the unreasonable pretexts.”

Though Kumgang may be exposed to a “catastrophic crisis,” the Seoul regime will not emerge unscathed. According to the KCNA, the authorities down south “will be bound to face punishment by history if they persist in the hostile policy toward the DPRK and hinder the south-north cooperation, the organizations urged them to immediately opt for resumption of the tour of Mt. Kumgang.

North Korean film festival has begun!

by Tom Johansmeyer on

If you just happen to be in Pyongyang for the next week, check out the city’s film festival. It opened yesterday at the People’s Palace of Culture, with the opening ceremony followed by a screening of “The Great Devotion (2009, the year of dramatic changes).” The festival’s fare is predictable in subject matter, but it will give you a leg up on the film junkies who brag about
Sundance and Cannes.

The festival, which begins on February 16, 2010, is set to last 10 days. According to a report by the Korea Central News Agency, North Korea’s official news outlet, those attending the film festival “will watch documentaries showing the undying feats of General Secretary Kim Jong Il making an endless forced march for field guidance, regarding President Kim Il Sung’s idea of believing in people as in Heaven as a maxim at cinemas and halls of culture in Pyongyang and various local areas.”

Some of the films being screened are “A White Gem,” “The Country I Saw” and “White Birch of Paektu,” as well as “other feature films dealing with mental power of the servicepersons and people of the DPRK creating a history of new great surge under the uplifted banner of devotedly defending the leader.”

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