Russia and North Korea are moving closer together. This is not only demonstrated by rocket deliveries from Pyongyang. The first tourists allowed to visit North Korea after the pandemic also come from Russia. But a propaganda trip leaves a bitter aftertaste for holidaymakers.
Relations between Moscow and Pyongyang are better than they have been for a long time. The reason is the war in Ukraine. Russia needs ammunition for the invasion that it cannot produce sufficiently itself. In addition, components are missing due to Western sanctions. North Korea can supply ammunition, including missiles. The strictly isolated and also sanctioned country can look forward to political support and help for its own nuclear and satellite programs, for example.
To seal the new friendship, Russian leader Vladimir Putin traveled to his country’s Far East last September, where he received North Korea’s dictator Kim Jong Un. As the icing on the cake, Kim received a luxury car from Putin. Meanwhile, Ukrainian cities are being bombarded with missiles from Pyongyang (including Western components).
The almost 100-strong tour group in front of the Pyongyang airport.
(Photo: via REUTERS)
But Putin’s cozy course should apparently not be limited to military and technological cooperation. An example is the trip of Russian tourists to the neighboring country. Since the attack on Ukraine means that most Russians are no longer able to travel to many western places, North Korea wants to step into the breach and present itself as a tourist dream country.
The almost 100 Russians who flew from Vladivostok to Pyongyang on February 9th were the first tourists that North Korea allowed into the country since the pandemic, during which it sealed its borders. Before 2020, there were several thousand tourists every year, including from Western countries, who mostly visited North Korea out of curiosity. The Russian travel group wasn’t just looking for relaxation either: among the participants were journalists and representatives of the travel industry as well as bloggers and influencers, who were primarily intended to spread beautiful pictures from the dictatorship and drum up advertising. But that didn’t really work.
“It’s surreal”
According to the travel agency Vostok Intur, which organized it, the trip lasted four days. According to the British broadcaster Sky News Tickets cost the equivalent of around 690 euros. “The weather is great at the moment. It’s the best time for a winter holiday,” wrote the Russian embassy in Pyongyang to greet you on Facebook and wished you “a good mood and unforgettable impressions”. The vacationers actually got them – some reported from the Air Koryo plane, the only North Korean airline. “The plane is old and smells like mothballs,” Sky News quoted one of the tourists as saying. Others reported technical defects in the 41-year-old machine. “Everything is falling apart,” it says.
When they arrived in Pyongyang, the tourists not only visited the statues of the country’s founder Kim Il-Sung and his son Kim Jong Il – a must-see for visitors – but also the monument to the Juche ideology and an event by students with accordion music. They were accommodated in the Yanggakdo International Hotel, but they were not allowed to leave the premises on their own. The reason: “You don’t speak the Korean language and could get into problems,” like travel blogger Ilya Voskresensky Radio Free Asia tolda broadcaster funded by the US government.
Voskresensky, the on Instagram documented his trip, reports further restrictions: On the plane, while they were still in Russia, a tourist had unpleasant pictures deleted from his cell phone. In the country, construction sites and dilapidated buildings were not allowed to be photographed, only picturesque, beautiful views. In addition, you were not allowed to move freely. “We haven’t had a chance to talk to ordinary people in North Korea,” he said.
In any case, there were only a few people and cars on the streets even at rush hour, which shocked him. “Sometimes you would see people, and surprisingly they all looked the same,” he said, referring to their clothing. he told CNN, it felt “like a trip into the past”. The empty streets and the lack of advertising reminded him of his grandparents’ stories from the Soviet Union. “It’s surreal.”
Separate department planned for Russians
The Masikryong ski resort, which the group visited after a night in the capital, was apparently better received. The resort, which opened in 2014 near the city of Wonsan in the east of the peninsula, is the only one of its kind in the country and was built on the instructions of Kim Jong Un to attract tourists from China in particular. Western technology was also used, which was apparently smuggled past the sanctions.
The tour group was largely alone because other tourists don’t come to the country and a visit would be unaffordable for most North Koreans. But their guards were on their heels: Voskresensky shows a man skiing behind him in a video and writes: “This is our personal escort and not paranoia.” After all, according to him, there were no restrictions on photography and filming here.
That may also be North Korea’s plan: under no circumstances should Russian tourists explore the country or meet locals. It would be much better if they stayed to themselves in a sealed off area. The investigative portal The Insiders reports accordingly, citing a Russian regional authority on the border with North Korea, that a separate holiday resort for Russian tourists is already being planned. Pyongyang wants to build 17 hotels, 37 guest houses, shops and a four-kilometer-long beach on 2.8 square kilometers on the east coast. This fits what a head of a Russian tourism agency says Euronews said: “Some people dream of visiting North Korea. North Korea is an amazing country.” Russian state television also reported enthusiastically about the travel destination. Vacation there is apparently in the interests of both governments.
“Korean cuisine not seen”
The results of some of the travel group’s participants, on the other hand, were more than mixed. Voskresensky, for example, was not only shocked by the deserted streets, but also put off by the omnipresent propaganda. “It’s shocking how the cult of personality has crossed all boundaries,” he said. He also criticized the lack of Korean culture and cuisine. “I didn’t see Korean cuisine in North Korea,” he said. “I feel like they’ve lost that culture because of years of poverty and ‘communist equality’.”
The organization of the trip and the constant observation were also bitter for other participants: “The meticulous preparations for our visit felt like a theater performance,” Elena Bychkova told CNN. “Amidst the choreographed scenes, I couldn’t shake the feeling that there is another side to North Korea, one that remains hidden.”
Yulia Meshkova wrote after the trip: “I won’t go there again for moral and ethical reasons,” even though she highly praises the ski resort she visited. In another post she describes North Korea as a “totalitarian dictatorship.” The country has no tourist value. “Of course it’s worth the trip. To get your dose of surprises, to sympathize with the frightened Koreans and to enjoy the contrast with their southern neighbors,” she wrote on Instagram. She personally felt unwell, despite the generally happy trip.