Five facts about the North Korean Arirang festival

by Tom Johansmeyer on

North Korea’s Arirang festival is in motion, and people from all over the world are traveling to the isolated communist country to watch what truly is an impressive undertaking. But, what do we really know about it? So much about North Korea is shrouded in mystery, making it hard to really learn much about what goes on there.

Instead of relying on the accounts of tourists, the western media or other “unreliable” sources, let’s go straight to the horse’s mouth. The Korea Central News Agency is the country’s official news organization regime’s mouthpiece, and has plenty of carefully selected stories to share with people outside North Korea … since nobody in the country has a whole lot of access to the website, which is based in Japan.

So, let’s learn a little about Arirang – from the folks who know it best!

1. Truly performed by masses: 100,000 performers participate in the Arirang festival, which is “admired by the spectators for its kaleidoscopic background and wonderful scenes”

2. New this decade: Arirang was introduced in 2002 to celebrate the ninetieth anniversary of the birth of Kim Il Sung

3. Countless of performances: Over its eight-year life, Arirang has been performed “several hundred times”

4. World record-setting: The Guinness Book of World Records picked up Arirang in August 2007, but that’s not nearly as impressive the fact that it was “the first to receive Peace Order and its diploma in April of the same year since it was instituted by “Protectors of Arts for the Century”, a Russian international charity fund, to appreciate epoch-making masterpieces, inventions and works”

5. Millions and millions served: Apparently, 12,127,000 people have viewed all the Arirang performances held, 118,000 of them foreigners … but who’s counting?

Of course, according to the KCNA: “‘Arirang’ is recognized as cultural asset of humankind.”

[photo by yeowatzup via Flickr]

Everybody loves Arirang according to North Korean news agency

by Tom Johansmeyer on

It’s Arirang time! The North Korean group gymnastics festival is under way, and the crowds are predictably adoring. According to the Korea Central News Agency, the twenty-fifth batch of campers of the Songdowon International Children’s Camp “appreciated the grand gymnastic and artistic performance.” But, that shouldn’t come as a surprise because it was in KCNA.

Shockingly, the KCNA continued:

Zhaoli, head of the group of Chinese campers, said that the performance is the acme and the Korean people are demonstrating before the whole world their dignity under the wise leadership of General Secretary Kim Jong Il.

Russian campers were happy, too. Nataliya Andreyevskaya, who headed up the sixth group, “keenly felt through the performance that each country and nation can become glorious and powerful only when they have a great leader.”

And since no KCNA report is complete without this … “[Nataliya Tatarina of the first group of Russians] stressed that no force on earth can match the strength of the Korean people closely united around Kim Jong Il, the sun of the 21st century.”


[photo by yeowatzup via Flickr]

Five Unique Ways to Visit North Korea in 2011

by Tom Johansmeyer on

You’ve listened to enough friends and co-workers drone on and on about the boring, conventional vacations they take. In the pre-social media days, these people would have bored you to death with slide show and photo albums. Now, they just clutter your Facebook news feed. Want revenge? Take the most unusual vacation imaginable, and they’ll forever be embarrassed to waste your time with worn out tales of roller coasters and walking tours.

The answer to your problem is easy: North Korea.

I just heard from Koryo Tours that there are three great tours in the works for this year, each a cure for the common vacation. Even if you’ve been to this reclusive country in the past, there are some new opportunities that are bound to blow your mind.

1. Hang out in Hamhung: this is North Korea’s answer to Boston. Once you’ve been to the big city (Pyongyang), explore its smaller cousin. The east coast city hasn’t seen a whole lot of westerners. Most of the non-locals who have passed through were East Germans (I know, that’s not even a thing any more) who were involved in rebuilding the region after the country’s 1945 “Liberation from Japan.” Last May, Simon Cockerell of Koryo Tours became the first tourist to put leather on the ground in Hamhung since North Korea became a country. Now, the way is paved for you! Local attractions include the Hamhung Grand Theatre and the Hamhung fertilizer factory (where Kim Il Sung once imparted some wisdom!).

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2. Make merry at Outer Mount Kumgang: Also an east coast destination in North Korea, Outer Kumgang is home to a Hyundai-run resort and is now open to access via North Korea for the first time since the 2008 incident when a soldier shot a tourist there (ouch!). It’s a great place for hiking, and Samil Lagoon is apparently not to be missed.

3. Rock Rason: Koryo Tours is now offering independent tours of the Rason area of North Korea, making it the only western travel company ever to do so. This is a rare treat and a chance to see something beyond Pyongyang if you’re an old pro at North Korean travel.

4. Take on the Tuman Triangle: visit China, Russia and North Korea in one trip, as you explore the area around the river that creates the borders for these three countries. According to Koryo Tours:

The route that our pioneering group of 18 took was a flight to Yanji in NE China’s Jilin province, then to the North Korean free trade zone of Rason (previously known as Rajin-Sonbong, a place where western tourists are almost unheard of but which Koryo tours have been visiting since 1996). We spent 4 days in the area doing a diverse range of activities such as seeing ports and seafood factories, playing beach football against Russian railway engineers, shopping in a public market – the only place this can be done in North Korea – going to the obligatory revolutionary sites, visiting the doctors (!) and local kindergartens, going to a deserted casino, doing a boat trip around the nearby islands, and more!

The last group was the first ever to cross into Russia by train at the town of Khasan, blazing a trail for you to experience what few can only imagine.

5. Sheer stupidity: you could always try to cross the border sans guide, visas and common sense, but that usually doesn’t work out all that well. Your best bet when visiting North Korea is to find a travel company that really specializes in the destination.

Shanghai: New route from China to North Korea

by Tom Johansmeyer on

It isn’t exactly a wide-open commercial route, but at least the door is slightly ajar. Korean Air charter flights will start flying from Shanghai to Pyongyang on August 6, 2010, when the first group of tourists will take advantage of this (rather slight) liberalization of North Korean travel rules.

The goal, of course, is to “help to further promote cooperation and exchanges between China and North Korea in trade, tourism and culture,” according to People’s Daily Online.

It doesn’t look like the move is coincidental, as this is the 60th anniversary of the start of what we call the “Korean War,” though on the other side of the border, it’s given the moniker, “the War to Resist U.S. Aggression and Aid Korea.”

August is a great time to go to Pyongyang, given the Arirang Festival, which usually runs until October. And since North Korea is now a new destination for the Chinese tourist travel market (since April 12, 2010), the locals can take full advantage of this unique opportunity.

[photo by yeowatzup via Flickr]

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.