I went on the tour today so I thought I would pass around some information for anyone thinking of going up north for a trip before I forget.

Before Going

Booking: I booked it in one of the travel agents (www.joonangtour.com) on the 6th floor of the Lotte Hotel. It cost around W188,000 but this may vary according to the travel agency as I didn’t have time to shop around.

I was warned that there would be no English info on the tour and a English speaking guide would have cost me over W200,000 for the day so I decided not to go for it.

Security clearance is required for the tour so you need to bring along your passport and two passport size photos. It takes two weeks to process this apparently so you will have to plan in advance before going.

Money: If you want to buy anything you should bring American Dollars. A couple of the stalls in Kaesong also seem to take Euros but I didn’t have any with me to test this out. Bringing won or other currency in your pocket is no problem and long as it stays there during the tour.

Dress Code: There is no dress code for Kaesong like there is for Panmunjeom but there is a warning about possible malaria infections in the North at the South Korea security centre on the way up so I would recommend long sleeves and no shorts just in case.

Cameras: Be careful about which camera you bring. The tour agency intro in Seoul mentioned that nothing larger than a 160mm lense can be brought. My Camera has a 20X Optical Zoom and the South Korean guides wanted to take it off of me until I grovelled a bit. The North Koreans took a quick glance at it on the way up but didn’t seem to have a problem with it.

Starting Point: I think different tours start at different spots but the agency I used picks up tourists near Gwanghwamun. It is nearest exit #7 (which is currently closed for constuction) of Gwanghwamun Subway Station. Walk along the road from where exit #7 would come out for about 500 metres until you see a Two Some Place cafe and the pick up point is just before that corner. Its a pretty random place and if you are not familiar with the area it could be a good idea to go the night before when the cafe sign is lit up and it is easier to spot.

Breakfast: My tour started at 6:10am. There was nowhere around the Seoul starting point open at that time to grab food and there is only a small shop with a few things at the South Korea security checkpoint that I didn’t get time to buy anything. So I ended up doing without food until the lunch at 12:15pm. So a trip to Paris Baguette the night before could be the way to go.

Prohibited Items: MP3, Phones GPS/any other electronic communication devices are not allowed but if you do being along something by accident don’t panic because the South Korean checkpoint will store it and give you a tag to reclaim it. Books and Newspapers are also not allowed and any other products with writing on them may be inspected and confiscated so better not to bring anything of value.

During the Tour

Stuff to buy: Each sight has where pretty North Korean girls in Hanboks sell snacks and drinks. The drinks are all produced in North Korea of course. North Korea carbonated orange and water and other stuff for about $1 each.

At the bottom of the waterfall crafted walking sticks are also on sale for the walk up the trail beside the falls but I didn’t bother to find out how much they cost.

At the end of the tour there were some gift shops with interesting bits and pieces. I was tempted to get a book of stamps celebrating the life of the great and dear leaders for $10. There were also large pictures for $25 and up, vases, coffee table picture books, ginseng gift sets, alcoholic drink gift sets and other stuff.    

In the end I settled for some propaganda postcards (3 for $1) and a small picture of a temple ($15). After buying them the South Korean tour guide told me I had to hide all propaganda/stamps when going through South Korean customs or they may take it off me so be careful what you buy.

Waiting around: We had to wait an hour at the South Korea security point to get access to the North and unfortunately I was told that this often happens. I just got comfortable and slept on the bus.

Security: The North Korean military are now taking a softly softly approach after what happened at Geumgangsan and mostly just look on from a distance.  At each site the South Korean tour guides form a perimeter as the tour buses arrive and ensure that nobody wanders off in the wrong direction. The North Korean guides within the groups don’t seem to be armed and I didn’t see the military personel holding guns (they were just mostly in hostlers or thrown over their shoulders).  I felt very comfortable at all times but its still not a good idea to try anything like this there.

Taking Photos: There are loads of rules (only in Korean) on the intro docs about what you can and can’t take pics of. Mainly it boils down to the following. Pics are only allowed when the group is at one of the offical stops and people are allowed off. Again the South Korean guides will stop you if you are taking a prohibited photo.

Also a North Korean soldier checks all the photos you take when you are leaving.

Unfortunately most of the interesting sights (i.e people living normalish North Korean lives) are when the buses are in transit so i recommend the following for people who want to get interesting shots:

Just bring two memory sticks; one for transit and one for the sights and then sit near the middle of the bus. There will be South Korean and North Korean guides (4 altogether on the bus) but they stick to the front and back while the bus is moving. The North Korean solider checking the photos didn’t search me for an additional memory stick so it would be quite easy to do.

From the photos I took he deleted a few at the checkpoint on the way back. Strangely they were photos of a half constucted building and of a traffic policeman.

The North Koreans were very interested in taking photos using the modern cameras and they seemed to be almost encouraging people to take photos of the girls selling snacks and drinks (to show how pretty they are to the world no doubt).

Language Issues: As explained to me before going nothing at all was in English. The North Korean guides didn’t speak English at all and the South Korean guides gave all instructions and info only in Korean even though they had good English in normal conversation outside of the buses. I can understand a good bit of Korean though so I didn’t mind much but I could imagine some people might feel uncomfortable because they went into great detail on the do’s and don’ts for the Korean tour group members. It was mostly silly stuff though like don’t ask about Kim Jung-Ils health etc… so there is not much to miss.

The sights: The main sights are not terribly interesting but they are ok. I would recommend reading the background info on the net in English before going to make the best of it. Luckily on the way to the sights the buses criss-cross the city a few times so there are loads of opportunities to look out the window and see plenty of the city. Also after the lunch stop there was a chance to walk up and down a “normal” main street in Kaesong and take a few photos of people passing by.

The people of Kaesong are getting used to foreigners now and some of them smile and wave which is nice to see. They still look a bit nervous but thats to be expected.

The Truman Show: Sometimes the tour reminded me of the Truman show because some sights were definitely arranged in advance. Cows grazing happily in the fields beside the main road. Yeah right. Groups of North Koreans (10-15 people) eating happily in circles as the buses pass (not staged at all) etc… but these things are also interesting to see as they show how hard the country is trying to put on a brave face.  

Crowds: The buses travel in a 7 bus convoy along with North Koreans in Kia’s at the front. 7 buses full of people result in quite a crowd at each place but luckily there is plenty of time at each stop to find your own space away from them as they usually move in herds following the tour guides closely.  Just make sure not to get left behind! Honestly I don’t think this could happen because they double count the people on the buses after each stop but it would be easy to slip away during some of the stops if you want to escape into the wilderness of the worker’s paradise and see how you get on.

Moral issues in going on the tour: Some people think that it is better not to go on these tours because the money is essentially just going to support the regime.  They are right of course about the money but I have another view. The people of Kaesong are now representatives for North Korea as they are all part of the route so that means that the North Korean government will look after them in order to make them presentable to visitors. So none of the privilaged few who live in the city will be allowed to starve or walk around in rags while the tours keep going there.  So visitors are helping to maintain a whole city (albeit probably just full of loyal party members) and if tours open in other cities maybe the same privilages will extend to there. And addition to the above, Hyundai Asan has had to fix roads, bridges and arrange sanitation for the town as part of the tours which will also help the locals.

Also loads of North Koreans get to see and speak to South Koreans and other Korean speaking foreigners quite freely during the tour and some of them are bound to pass on their experiences. I was listening in on the conversations and was surprised by how much was discussed. The North Korean girls working in the shops/stalls and the South Korean female tour guides now see each other everyday and some of them seem to be really friendly and chatty with each other. However on the other hand, one South Korean man in our group (a Kookmin Uni Prof.) was asking questions about politics and culture too directly and that didn’t go down well.  The North Koreans mostly just tried to change to subject to get away from him but they were always polite.

What I tried to do was just introduce myself and starting talking about my own country and this seemed to get them very curious and they asked me loads of questions. This of course may not work if you are from America but it might be still worth a try.

Overall: I thought it was a fascinating trip even though it was a controlled environment. However I knew that was going to be the case before going and it was more laid back than I expected and we also saw more locals than I thought we would so that was a plus. 

I met one very interesting South Korean man during the trip. He was 78 and he was born in Kaesong and this was his first time back.  He said the place is mostly unrecognisable but he could see a few spots from his childhood. It must have been really strange and emotional for him to be back there. Nearly all of his family escaped south during the Korean war but a few stayed. He got to meet one of his cousins that stayed in an arranged reunion in Geumgangsan a few years ago but all the others disappeared. She became a famous North Korean singer and even sang for the dear leader himself. She passed away recently at the grand old age of 82 which is no mean feat for a person living up north.