Foreigners cautiously venture on North Korea tours
Phil Porter, a 29-year-old American living in Oregon, prepared a special trip this April to celebrate his second wedding anniversary with his 32-year-old wife Luba. But they didn't pick a romantic tropical resort. Instead, they chose North Korea, a country once listed as part of the "axis of evil" by the US government.
"My wife, who grew up under Communism in Ukraine, has always wanted to go, and my interest started about 10 years ago when I watched a documentary, Children of a Secret State, about starvation in North Korea," Porter explained why he made a decision that looked unexpected to most people especially when media reports are highlighting tensions rising in the Korean Peninsula on the nuclear threat.
The Porters delved into North Korea's propaganda, depicting chubby-cheeked people in colorful or revolutionary scenes, while at the same time reading news of the country's widespread starvation and political repression. They came to Beijing in 2006, hoping to head onto Pyongyang, but their visas were denied after flooding struck North Korea.
"The trip was not all a loss though, we ate at nearly every North Korean restaurant in Beijing," Porter joked about their first attempt.
The couple is actually among a rising number of Western tourists visiting North Korea.
"There were 4,000 foreigners visiting North Korea last year," Simon Cockerell, one of the founders of Beijing-based Koryo tourist agency, which he says handles half of Western trips to Pyongyang, told the Global Times.
Even though the high season to visit North Korea is in August and October, Koryo has still sent 200 people in the last six weeks to the country.
"The number is increasing but the total amount is still very small. We got a number of clients calling to cancel their trips worrying about increasing tensions and rumors about North Korean government closing their borders. But there's no mass panic," Cockerell said.
Damaging rumors
The biggest problem of arranging trips and attracting clients for Cockerell is that most of their potential clients don't even know that going to North Korea is possible.
The Porters are lucky because they had a friend who went to the isolated country to build an orphanage, so they had long planned the trip.
"Most people from the US think travel to DPRK is banned but while researching the country, I came across a blog writing about Americans going to North Korea and their experiences about two years ago and learned I could visit the country," Chris Latham, a 35-year-old freelance Web designer, told the Global Times.
There are currently two major tourists agencies run by expats in China that organize trips to North Korea. One is Koryo in Beijing and the other is Young Pioneer, based in Xi'an. They promote themselves largely through social media.
"We want to let people know that going to the country is not impossible. And the Internet is less costly and effective for us. But we do have strict background checks to make sure that no journalists or people currently serving in the army join the group or our partner in North Korea will be severely punished," Cockerell said.
For Chinese, going to North Korea is not particularly hard, with more than 30,000 people crossing the North Korean border last year from Dandong, northeastern bordering city in Liaoning Province, according to Jackie Zhang, a manager working for China International Travel Service which is the biggest player in organizing tours to the neighboring country.
"The number of visitors is on the rise, but the situation has become more vulnerable to the reports of nuclear crisis. Compared with the number in April last year, a "significant number" of Chinese clients dropped their trip plans concerning about whether it is still safe to go there," Zhang said.
Pioneering travelers
Latham's interest in the North was spurred in 2005, when he saw pictures of everyday moments in the lives of North Koreans.
"Seeing their faces, seeing them go to their jobs or school, seeing how they interact with tourists and each other was important to me so that I could put a face to this country many Americans know so little about," Latham said.
But he was also curious about why other tourists want to go there as well so he popped the question to fellow travelers and got responses with a pause before an answer.
"I think this is because North Korea is such a mystery to outsiders and the political issues are so complex. It's not about a single reason. It's about the totality of it," he added.
Jan Engelhardt, a 27-year-old German IT consultant, was born in the then East Germany just a few years before unification. Engelhardt said he just wanted to see how the country is really like, especially since not many other foreigners have been to the country before.
It is the same curiosity that draws Chinese tourists to the country as well. But they preferred a shorter trip, and a four-day trip cost them 2,000 to 3,000 yuan ($325 to $487.5) if they enter from Dandong. The cost is less than the average wage of Beijing residents. But for the same schedule, Westerners have to pay double the price and in Chinese tourist agencies, Americans have to pay highest for the trip.
Some Americans pay a higher "price" to visit.
Kenneth Bae, also known as Pae Jun-ho in Korean, was tried on April 30 and was sentenced to 15 years of compulsory labor for "attempting to overthrow the North Korean government," according to the country's state news agency KCNA.
South Korean activists believe Bae may have been arrested for taking photographs of starving North Korean children, the BBC reports.
Bae is not the first American citizen to be arrested or tried in North Korea. Over the past few years, Pyongyang has detained two American journalists, a businessman, an English teacher and an activist. Korean-Americans have been particularly likely to be targeted by the authorities, though most Americans arrested have eventually been released through negotiations, usually before sentencing.
"I have been following Bae's case, and forgive me but he is an idiot and should have known better. A single person is not going to overthrow a government, especially one like North Korea. But I'm fairly sure that Bill Clinton, Bill Richardson or Dennis Rodman will end up flying there and getting him out," Porter said.
The Porters' visit coincided with Army Day in North Korea on April 25. There was no large-scale military parade but groups of people visiting around Pyongyong.
"I was quite shocked at how little anti-US elements there were. I only saw two things. One was a game at the zoo which you throw a grenade at an effigy of an American soldier. The second was at the Army Circus, one of the acts was an 'American' who was a Korean in makeup, being taunted," Porter said.
Though Latham missed Army Day, he got the chance to see the mass dance for Kim Il-sung's birthday celebration on April 15.
"Something I learned while in North Korea is that the military largely serves as construction and infrastructure labor. I often saw the military building homes, repairing roadways, and installing utilities. This makes sense why the country has a 'million-man army,' The size of the army is a non-issue," Latham said.
Hermit problems
With North Korea closed to most of the outside world, very little can be known about the country, and rumors play a dominant role.
After current leader Kim Jong-un took over at the end of 2011, he has made more appearances with his wife than his father and grandfather.
Cockerell sometimes has to explain to some clients that their trips are not equal to supporting Kim's regime, shunned as a pariah state and currently subject to UN-backed sanctions, which China has supported, for its attempts at nuclear proliferation.
"We don't have direct interactions with the North Korean government, but we do have North Korean partners which are State-owned companies. We found them honest business people and our cooperation has lasted for almost two decades," Cockerell said, stressing that the limited number of tourists from the West couldn't compete with exports as a major source of income for the country.
Surfing blogs about North Korean travel, many restrictions are visible. No cameras, no cell phones, no imitation at the leaders' image popped in articles written by Chinese going to the neighboring country.
But Cockerell said even 3G cellphones are allowed in North Korea now. Taking pictures and videos are possible as long as tourists don't use them in media publication.
North Korean propaganda often emphasizes enmity with the West, but the experience on the ground is different.
"At the demilitarized zone, the guide learned that I was an American and gave me a hug. North Koreans often state 'we hate the American government but love the American people.' I was thankful for that," Latham said.
The signs are showing improving communication between the North and the outside world, it is still difficult to arrange activities in the country.
"It took me two years to arrange a fun run in the country while in my neighborhood in Beijing, I just have to make a few phone calls. But letting more North Koreans and foreigners have more chance to interact with each other is the right way to understand the country," Cockerell said.