Gray map of North Korea on Googlemaps
We wake up today with an international political news that involves the most hermetic country on the planet: the death of North Korean leader Kim Jon-il . Despite the pressing closure of the country, every year some privileged visit the North Korean destination in search of a different type of tourism, a trip diametrically opposed to the others and that draws attention for its greatest drawback: secrecy.
To be able to manage a trip to the eastern country, from Spain we have two options: process the expeditions of the Organization of Friends of North Korea (chaired by the Spaniard Alejandro Cao de Benós) or manage the trip with the only Spanish agency that organizes said trip, Viatges Pujol . We have spoken with its Director and Founder, José M. Pujol, to find out a little more about a country closed to the world.
About 8 years ago, Pujol embarked on an investigation of the tourism sector to improve the strategy of his travel agency and he found a rather intrepid market niche: to offer an inhospitable trip to a different and difficult to access destination , like the North Korean country. He was getting contacts on the Internet and received refusals until a few months later and after much insistence, they contacted him, invitation to the country included, with which the procedures between Viatges Pujol and North Korea began.
Is it worth visiting the Forbidden Country? Undoubtedly, the halo of mystery, the adrenaline rush of prohibition and secrecy, They powerfully attract the attention of the most daring and the most curious traveler. José M. Pujol was amazed by the autumn landscape of Pyongyang, by the immense rice fields, by subway rides "that become small museums" and the magnanimity of the monuments and buildings. But above all, for the arirang festival , where in a stadium of 150,000 people, a mass movement is orchestrated between the gymnasts who occupy the center of the stadium and the student-actors positioned in the stands performing human mosaics. Another demonstration of a power whose visit now is in suspense after the death of its maximum leader.
In a country that we cannot even 'visit' through Google maps and that the Freedom House Foundation classifies as "Not Free" in its ranking on freedom of the press and information, the problem of entering the country is diluted in papers to present before the Department of Tourism, within the Ministry of Cultural Relations of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea ; Once reviewed and approved, the Ministry issues the visas to this agency, which is delivered to the travelers before departure (and to avoid problems once the trip has begun) .
Triumphal Arch in Pyongyang
After this first hurdle, José M. Pujol tells us that the trip is subject to a established program that can be modified by the Korean Ministry at any time . In addition, as soon as you get off the plane, all mobile phones are seized and around the group of travelers they position themselves three companions who will follow day after day the activities of these : on the one hand, a Korean guide who speaks perfect Spanish (although with a Cuban accent, to the surprise of the visitors), the bus driver and a third person "who is in charge of the safety of the travelers" (or the Korean population?, we wonder).
With the entire entourage organized, a visit begins that stops, especially, at the great works of north korean power : the Arc de Triomphe "slightly larger than the one in Paris", the Korean Traditional Medicine Hospital... and even, as Pujol tells us, "huge, impressive highways, about three lanes... but they turn out to be empty, without cars ”. The founder of Viatges Pujol points out that they do not usually check the cameras but that it is strictly forbidden to focus on the airport, the train station, the military... any issue that is considered strategic for the country.
Year, only about 3,000 Westerners (and privileged ones) visit the Korean country , according to what Pujol tells us. And for these eight years that Viatges Pujol began this adventure, its Founder has not highlighted any incident: "there have been no major problems, the relationship is completely cordial and the Koreans we deal with are kind, polite.” What is not recommended is to leave the hotel or get out of this closed circuit that is the trip. There have been cases of visitors who have made their night outings but the next morning the problem falls, above all, on the guide, who has to make a report.
“You cannot move on your own, you are always accompanied” . The circle is restricted and the capacity for free will movement is minimal. Even so, the founder of Viatges Pujol affirms that for a couple of years, they have been allowed a certain freedom, a certain relief; for example, allowing some free time in a park sharing space with North Korean civil society , as it happened in one of his last trips, although any kind of interaction with the inhabitants remains non-existent.
What will happen from now? Too early to draw conclusions, José M. Pujol answers cautiously : “Tourism interests North Korea because we assume a source of foreign exchange; but of course, political evolution is difficult to predict in a country so hermetic, so mysterious, that you never know how things work and how they will end...”
One of the statues around the Juche Tower