North Korean officials are thinking about opening the country to American visitors all year long. Though we’d still have to use the existing tour operators and have our options constrained once in the country, we’d at least be able to visit the most isolated country on Earth at virtually any time. Since 2005, Americans have only been able to visit during Arirang — and for only up to five days at a time.
Asia Pacific Travel Ltd has been in touch with Korea International Travel Company, North Korea‘s state-run travel business, which said that a decision on the policy regarding U.S. visitors will be made “around January 25. Asia Pacific Travel is also looking into whether Americans will be able to enter the country by train this year. In the past, only air travel has been open to Americans.
According to Walter Keats, President of Asia Pacific Travel, “If the North Koreans let Americans stay longer, we will be able to offer a different and more extensive mix of long and short-stay study tours.”
The effect of monetary policy on the travel industry can be profound in any economy, but in North Korea, it’s usually more complicated. In a developed market, for example, a monetary policy that leads to inflation can make travel more expensive (duh, right). Well, in North Korea, you have to look past the implications of monetary policy to the underlying political drivers … because the root cause can result in more than financial constraints. The end result will blow your mind.
Take Kim Jong Il‘s latest move to revalue the North Korean currency. On its face, it isn’t terribly exciting. Then, you add to it a wealth cap — the people swapping old currency for new could only receive a certain amount back, rendering the unexchanged cash worthless. Though the regime loosened the restrictions from the $40 limit, the policy has still been unpopular. There was some rioting, even some fatalities, but Kim Jong Il and his machine appear to be committed to the measure.
At the same time, the government has announced it would shut down some of the larger private markets, which is how many people survive — the UN estimates that half the calories consumed in North Korea come from these markets. This foray into capitalism has been a pain in the regime’s ass for years, and as the current ruler explores ways to facilitate a handoff to his son, Kim Jong Eun, it’s a good idea to sort all this out. It’s unlikely that the latest Kim will receive a clean Communist state from which to rule, but that won’t stop the current boss from trying.
It’s in these markets that you’ll find the implications of monetary policy for the travel market.The markets are fueled with goods from across the border in China, smuggled in by enterprising and daring North Koreans who are looking for anything from profit to the alleviation of hunger. To make these operations a bit harder, the government has increased border controls, not to mention restrictions on lodging. But, in a manner likely to draw praise from the TSA cause some head-scratching in the rest of the world, the regime has banned big suitcases. Ostensibly, this is to make it harder to smuggle goods into the country for sale in the markets.
You know … if you apply this measure to air travel in the United States, the outcomes would be pretty interesting. Let’s take a look.
The decision of whether to check your luggage or carry it onto the plane disappears. This is one of the most difficult challenges a passenger faces, and thanks to a decision rooted in North Korean monetary policy, it disappears. And, as an added bonus, it also renders any discussion about extra bag fees moot, since the carry-on/check-in decision isn’t relevant.
Have you ever watched with anger as a small person struggles with several big bags, holding up the line at check-in kiosks, security or even the damned Sbarro? With this policy, that wouldn’t happen any more. People would only be able to carry … well … what they can actually carry.
Look, I’m not a fan of the regime in North Korea, and the currency revaluation has had severe consequences — it’s no laughing matter. But, as with any serious situation north of the DMZ, some of the unintended consequences are absurd. A ban on big bags? How the hell do you get from a money swap to luggage? However twisted the road and unfortunate the consequences, it’s hard to hate an idea that would make air travel easier.
The Korea Central News Agency reports, “A U.S. citizen illegally entered the country across the North Korea-China border and has been detained. The person is currently undergoing questioning by a related agency.” No other details have been released, and nothing has been said about Park’s traveling companions.
The U.S. State Department says, “We’ve seen the reports but have no positive confirmation that he’s been detained.”
It’s not certain what will happen next. The North Korean authorities typically imprison those who enter the country illegally, though this is obviously a touchy political situation. Critics of the regime say that human rights abuses, public executions and a network of prison camps are common within its borders. Corroborating anything out of North Korea – as the State Department implies in its statement – is extremely difficult, at best.
It’s easy to be attracted to news about North Korea- for travel writers and every other type of journalist. So little comes out that even the appearance of information makes it noteworthy. This is why those of us interested in covering the most unusual place on Earth will run with press releases or other announcements that would make us groan if they came from anywhere else (I hope this answers an earlier commenter’s question). But, we have to be careful. So much of what is reported on North Korea comes with a clear bias that it’s impossible to get at the truth – even if you go there.
The issue of blogger and journalistic ethics regarding North Korea has been on my mind for a while, but a recent story I wrote for Gadling – which included a U.S State Department-supplied laundry list of human rights abuses – made me stop and think: can any of this be verified? I then thought back to a remark made in Bradley K. Martin’s Under the Loving Care of the Fatherly Leader – the author explained that he was unable to publish some of the fruits of his labor because he couldn’t get corroboration.Now, State Department reports are probably tops for reliability, but an interview that U.S. defector Charles Robert Jenkins gave after he escaped from North Korea indicates that he supplied the feds with “immeasurable” intelligence. Yet, Jenkins doesn’t have unassailable credibility. A defector from the U.S. Army, he’d been a deserter for close to 40 years and was facing prison time (ultimately serving 25 days of a 30-day sentence). Was it clemency for an old and sick man who had been punished enough already? Or, did the sentence reflect a reward for the information he provided?
In the documentary Crossing the Line, James Joseph Dresnock, the last known U.S. defector still living in North Korea, notes Jenkins’ tendency to abuse alcohol, which existed prior to his defection. And, he admits to having hit Jenkins (though not to the extent that Jenkins claimed). Yet, Dresnock doesn’t come across as a genius either, and he’s still in North Korea. Yet again, there’s a credibility problem.
Finally, we have the claims of defectors. Chol-hwan Kang wrote The Aquariums of Pyongyang, Soon Ok Lee wrote Eyes of the Tailless Animals, and Hyun Hee Kim, a former spy involved in the 1987 bombing of Korean Air Flight 858, wrote Tears of My Soul. All three adopted forms of extreme religious worship upon defecting (or, in Hyun Hee Kim’s case, being apprehended). The wild swing can leave room for questions of credibility without assuming a bigoted stance on more intensive faiths.
Other defectors have voiced their views in a variety of settings, the most famous of which, perhaps, is Ahn Myong Chol (not his real name). He used to be a prison guard at Hoeryong Prison No. 22 and defected after he had become a truck driver for the prison and had better access to the means of escape. Now a freelance journalist, he dashes secretly across the border and shoots footage that would be impossible to secure otherwise. His most prominent clip is of an open market in North Korea in which human flesh was alleged to have been sold.
Yet, do you believe a guy who has been a part of the system? Maybe he’s legitimate … or he’s trying to justify any of his actions in the camp. It’s impossible to say without the sort of close look that simply will not happen. I have no reason to doubt Ahn Chol and the other guards who have defected, but there are too many ways their views may have been influenced, whether they realize it or not.
I can only speak for myself, but I suspect I’m not alone: we do what we can. North Korea provides interesting subject matter for bloggers and journalists, but there are limits to what he can do. I, for one, encourage a bit more skepticism – in general – regardless of the sources used. It’s the historians, not the journalists, who will sort out the details of live and struggle above the 38 Parallel.
We travel for many reasons. Maybe it’s to relax, learn something new or see friends and family. And then there are the so-called “adventure travelers” – sorry guys, you just don’t know the meaning of the expression. Keep your kayaks and your climbing gear in the garage, and trade them for a pencil so you can take some notes. Robert Park is redefining “adventure.”
Park, 28 years old, announced that he was leaving South Korea with other human rights activists (who asked Reuters not to reveal their names) to bring “God’s love” to the citizens on the northern side of the border. North Korea has the unfortunate habit of arresting foreigners who do not enter the country legally, which can be difficult to do because of visa constraints and limitations on how travelers from some countries are permitted to cross into the most reclusive nation in the world.
Park, who is an American citizen, and his crew were reported to have crossed from China into North Korea on Saturday. The entry point was Hoeryong, in the northeast part of the country. The border up there isn’t heavily patrolled.
The motivation for Park’s excursion is religious – as a Christian, he believes, it is his duty to make the trip. And, he’s made it clear that he isn’t looking for a rescue effort from the feds if something goes wrong. Park said, “I don’t want President Obama to come and pay to get me out. But I want the North Korean people to be free.” He continued, “Until the concentration camps are liberated, I do not want to come out. If I have to die with them, I will.”
Last spring, former U.S. President Bill Clinton was dispatched to North Korea to arrange the release of two reporters from Current TV: Laura Ling and Euna Lee. They were detained on charges of having crossed the China/North Korea border illegally. They claimed that they had crossed into North Korea by accident and were seized in China by North Korean border guards who chased after them.
Why has there been all this interest in North Korea? Obviously, it’s among the most difficult places for outsiders to enter, a problem which is compounded for human rights activists and the media. Also, there is a human rights record which has attracted considerable attention everywhere else in the world (except maybe Somalia). A U.S. State Department report published earlier this year lists the following abuses:
• The prohibition of freedom of speech and association
• The use of arbitrary killings to cause fear in the population
• An absence of due process
• “Severe torture and abuse,” which can include forced abortions and sexual abuse
• Political imprisonment (up to 200,000 inmates)
• Monitored correspondence
• Imprisonment of entire families based on the deeds of one member
The State Department also claims that North Korea maintains “control over all artistic and academic products,” though the notion that the government keeps an iron grip on the arts doesn’t fit completely with a North Korean art show I saw in New York a year ago or what is on display in Australia.