Trip to North Korea - The world's most mysterious country (Part 1)

At 21h on September 21st, I spent 7 hours waiting in the airport at Guangzhou. The television screen in the waiting room was showing images of the North Korean crisis. A few days ago, President Trump called the North Korean leader "rocket man" and threatened to use nuclear weapons. In return, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un referred to a nuclear attack with devastating consequences.

The hotter the news, the more eager I get to North Korean. In this world of over 6 billion people, only a few people have the opportunity to print footprints here. Fortunately, I'm one of them.

North Korean travel information is almost zero

Three months ago, I was sitting in the air conditioned room at home but sweating with information about North Korean travel. There is nothing more than a few photographs of international photographers. They always say that they only allow limited shots, some photos were deleted at exit.

On the contrary, the easiest thing to look for when searching for the North Korean keywords on the Internet is diplomatic crises or missile tests. I feel like the whole world is eyeing the country the North Korean but in the end they do not know anything. Me too.

My next problem is that the cost of the trip is quite high, even, more expensive than going to Europe. This is a big obstacle that many visitors have to consider. 

There are many options for exploring North Korea, including the Pyongyang, DMZ, Panmun, Panjang, Nampo and Mount Kumgang. These destinations differ in whether they are long or short, and whether there are extra points in the schedule.

China: The only gateway to North Korea

To go to North Korea, the only way is to cross the Chinese border.

According to the regulations of the North Korean government, all tourists are required to buy a tour if they want to visit the country. North Korea says no to free travel. The easiest way is through the travel companies of China.

The director of a Chinese travel agency contacted for filing a North Korean visa application

After consider, I decided to choose an office company located in the border city of Dandong (Liaoning Province, China). The company is managed by the Dandong police so it is quite safe.

Arrived in North Korea

At 2100 pm, after 7 hours waiting in Guangzhou, Airport staff informs the plane will arrive 2 hours late. I feel like my patience is coming to a limit. Later, maybe I will miss the train from Shenyang and then there are a series of other malfunctions. To North Korea, maybe something I really do not want to miss in my life.

At the first moments of the second day, the plane finally landed in Shenyang. Then I took a taxi to Shenyang Station, waiting for the train at 5:30 am. Dandong City is only an hour away thanks to the speed of 300km / h.

That afternoon, the Chinese travel company paid for the tour to transfer to the North Korea side and to apply for a visa (papers include passport, 2 photos 4x6 cm). All good things, filing 15h, 7h the next morning has a visa. It is a loose paper instead of sticking on a passport like another country. When tourists enter the military will check and withdraw at the exit, no seal is attached to the passport.

Before I got on the international train I checked once and decided to erase the image, removing all the communication stuff inside the phone. Those who went to North Korea, the travel company and some of my traveling companions warned me very carefully before the trip. The phone does not save images related to Catholicism, Korea, USA, not saved "cool" images, political photos and no acclaimed content or propaganda about any country.

North Korea was very close.

Station workers are checking of the train.

Passengers take a photo celebrate the sign of the train. The two words on the left are "Pyongyang" and on the right "Dandong"

The director told me not to do anything arbitrarily in North Korea. The stories of Western tourists arrested here I have read quite a lot. But the director told me there was a Chinese traveler go out at night with a camera and then he did not return. The story also makes me nervous.

The train left the station about 3 minutes to the bridge on the Yalu River. Passing through this bridge is North Korea. Through the door, I saw a broken bridge being bombed by the F-80 bombers of the United States in the 1951 war in an effort to cut off Chinese supplies to North Korea. Many visitors standing on the bridge waving to the train.

The hissing of the train on the railing signaling Dandong's bustling city stayed behind. North Korea is in the harvest season, rice fields that stretch hundreds of kilometers from the border to the capital Pyongyang. Most of the people harvested by hand, used bicycles, old plows to transport rice. Small villages, small streets and the door. Adults, children queue waving as the train passes.

The Chinese - North Korea Friendship Bridge, also known as the Yue Liang Daiqiao, is the only way to enter North Korea from Dandong. The bridge was built in 1943 right next to the bridge collapsed during the 1951 Korean War. The bridge is only for trains and cars, no motorbikes and pedestrians.

Tickets to visit the bridge is 30 yuan. Visitors can take souvenir photos, view information about the bridge in the past with pictures on the television hanging on the bridge.

A military checkpoint near the station enters the North Korean border. The soldier patrols outside the train when the train stops the entry procedure.

North Korea outside the window are not high-rise buildings, the boulevards are wide but instead, small villages, low roofs with a few dozen households in clusters. They built the road by hand.

There are also North Koreans on board. They are often silent, not conversing with anyone. I saw the cautiousness in their eyes.

The train arrives near Pyongyang Station, high rise buildings are beginning to appear, although old but clean. The streets are gradually appearing with very few means of transportation, there are trams, buses, but most are bicycles and walking. People are very rushed, and silent.

(continue)