Wonsan
Wonsan is a port city and naval base in southeastern North Korea. Until recently, Americans
were barred from visiting there. One of the reasons for me returning to North Korea for a
second time was because of the unprecedented access given to tourists in certain parts of
the country that are normally closed to outsiders. Nothing can be taken for granted in North
Korea, and who knows how long these cities will remain open. I wanted to go before this
opportunity might close again. I will include some shots taken from the bus window on the
drive in and out of the city because these roads, too, were once prohibited for Americans to
travel upon and so all this scenery is new in way or another.
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The major intercity highways in North Korea are constructed in a rather unique manner.
Essentially they consist of gigantic concrete blocks stacked end to end for hundreds of
miles. The plus is that this would last much longer than asphalt, but the disadvantage is
the rhythmic thumping you have to listen to four hours on end as you drive.
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Sinpyong rest stop, halfway between Pyongyang and Wonsan, set along a beautiful stretch of
river.
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We witnessed some seriously hard manual labor at this rest stop. People moving piles of
large boulders by hand and wheelbarrow to help shore up the riverbank. I wasn't sure what
surprised me more -- the fact that this activity ended up with a huge audience of
gawking foreigners, or that no one seemed to mind us taking pictures of it. A lot of the
workers seemed to enjoy the attention!
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Rest stop gift store. Yes, that's a real snake inside that bottle.
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More of the usual -- a detailed lovely painting of the Great Leader and his son the Dear
Leader atop Mt Paektu showing no signs of exhaustion from the climb up. What made this
particular painting unusual was its location directly next to one of the dirtiest and
filthiest bathrooms in the whole country. Men's urinals are just to the left in this shot.
Perhaps the Great Leader is pointing the way?
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Back on the open road, enjoying various rural scenes along the way.
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Another rest stop farther down the road. More incredible roadside scenery.
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Some locals also enjoying the rest stop.
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Lots of tunnels on the drive to Wonsan. In this shot I was trying to be artsy with the
silhouettes of the soldiers standing on the truck in front of us. Officially we weren't
supposed to take pictures of any soldiers, but I thought this would be permissible.
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As soon as we hit the Wonsan city outskirts, our guides told us that the city is still very
conservative and that people do not like having their picture taken. On the entire trip,
this was the place that they seemed most concerned with us taking pictures, even going so
far as to issue the suggestion (gasp!) that we ask them for permission each time we wanted
to take a picture of something.
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Our lovely green digs in Wonsan, the Tongmyong Hotel.
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Since we were still under strict orders to refrain from photographing nearly everything in
the city and of course were forbidden from leaving our hotel unescorted, I used my hotel
window to try to get some discreet glimpses of city life. The photo below was my view
straight down, a nice bird's eye view of a guy trying to fix his wood-gas truck.
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Another view from my hotel window, this time to the left facing the road in front. These
little kiosks are the only sign of private business that you see in North Korea. Most sell
small portions of food or else drinks served in reusable plastic cups. Sometimes cigarettes
or sweets are for sale.
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Just down the street from our hotel.
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Our first real stop on our Wonsan City tour was the Wonsan Railway station. Due to its
relatively small size, we were split into smaller groups. While some went inside, others
waited outside. The guides would not let us leave the grounds, and indeed seemed to try to
prevent anyone on the street from seeing us by keeping us hidden behind some fences. It was
all very odd. The shot of this building was taken from where we were kept waiting/hiding.
"Juche" (self reliance) is written in big letters on the building on the left.
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Then, with no warning, the senior guide said he had made some very special arrangements for
us and told us to follow him. We walked very quickly. We were going to get to photograph
something that no one else gets to. What could it be? He breathlessly led us to the giant
cement portraits below. Portraits that are in every North Korean city in multiple
locations. It was all so strange, the way we were hurried to these portraits, the nervous
way the guides looked left and right while we snapped a few pictures, and then the way they
hurried us quickly away and back to our original hiding place. You would think that they
would love for us to photograph their leaders. But for some reason, our guides seemed more
substantially more nervous having to chaperone us in Wonsan than anywhere else.
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Of course our guides were more than thrilled when we busted out our cameras at pre-approved
spots, such as the Wonsan Railway Station, famous in this country because the Great Leader
came to Wonsan after his victory over the Japanese (no credit given for the USA using atomic
weapons to force Japan to surrender, but that's another story...). Naturally the train --
the ENTIRE train -- that brought the Great Leader home is now preserved here for
posterity.
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Our tribute tour to the Great Leader next moved to the guesthouse that he stayed in while in
Wonsan. Not unexpectedly, it is now a museum with guides oozing pride at his greatness for
having once been there. By tuning out the constant drone of praise, I was finally able to
just focus on how pretty the grounds are.
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Thankfully the kids in this city didn't seem to mind being photographed. These little girls
stopped playing to stare at the foreigners, no doubt a very rare site in these parts.
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These passing boys also didn't seem to mind our cameras.
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Back on the road again, passing the usual propaganda signs. This one says, "The Great
Leader Comrade Kim Il Sung is eternally with us." In North Korea this is taken quite
literally. You would think that his death in 1994 would have prevented the Great Leader from
gaining more titles, but you would be wrong. After his death, he became president of the
country FOR ETERNITY!
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Next stop, a tour of the Songdowon Children�s Camp. We knew this was going to be amazing
because, if it wasn't, we wouldn't have been allowed within 10 miles of the place. Below, a
shot of our local guide. Some other children were present as well, but overall the grounds
were very quiet. When we asked where all the children were, we were told that they were on
vacation. Vacation from camp???!
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Closeup of Korea on the world map. No room for separate north & south halves here. The kids
are taught that there is only one true Korea, and its capital is Pyongyang. Also note the
great care to show disputed islands as Korean territory as well (the two red dots between
Korea and Japan are claimed by both countries).
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The Great Leader is shown adoring kids. So this camp must be cool!
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We were told that this room was typical of the ones at camp. We weren't sure if they were
referring just to the layout or to the fact that it was completely spotless. What child
could possibly live like this??? Not shown here is the screaming (as in intense pain) we
heard coming from another room -- door closed on that one -- down the hall. A clearly
embarrassed guide told us that that child was "practicing." That convinced no one, but we
knew better than to ask what for.
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There were lots of political displays to educate the kids. I recognized this picture
instantly. This is when former president Clinton had to fly to Pyongyang to rescue the two
Gore network journalists who originally claimed that they had accidentally wandered into
North Korea from China. So it fell on Gore's old boss to fix his mess. I couldn't wait to
read the caption below this photo to see what they would say about the captured reporters
and President Clinton. But the caption was anticlimactic, just some blurbs about "pending
issues," "consensus of views," and a "negotiated settlement" in the end.
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What I found most fascinating was that, unlike in American museums or displays (especially
those geared toward children!), there is absolutely no attempt here to make the animals look
cute or friendly. These snarling furballs looked like they were just milliseconds away from
taking a leap at my jugular vein.
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Roof of the children's palace theatre. Anyone who has seen the movie Logan's Run
should recognize this immediately. It also gave me a very eerie, weird feeling about the
importance placed on youth in this culture. Renew!
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Waterslide! It was so hot outside on this August day that we were this close to throwing
caution to the wind and joining them.
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Throughout our stay in Wonsan, we passed the central square many times and begged our guides
to let us stop for a few moments to take pictures. But the guides always said no, that we'd
have time later to visit it. The square was always empty so we didn't see what the problem
with our requests was. Well, the appointed time of our visit finally came, and to their
utter horror we pulled up in the parking area to see thousands of students and soldiers
practicing their marching for the upcoming Liberation Day festivities. What happened next
was a great study in how things are done in North Korea. Nothing is left to chance.
Everything is pre-arranged. No one wants to be in the position of having to think
spontaneously, especially when in charge of a group of foreign tourists. Our guides were
completely frozen in this quandary. This was the day and time our group had been approved to
see the square, but someone higher up obviously had forgotten about the parade practice. Now
what? The tourists in the group knew we had to act fast; we all started piling out of the
bus with our cameras at the ready, knowing the longer we stayed put on the bus, the more
likely the guides would force the driver to back us up out of there to hide somewhere until
they could make some phone calls. Of course they made feeble attempts to remind us not to
take pictures of the military as we ran away from the bus as fast as we could, but in this
case it was impossible not to. We were in heaven! :)
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At first a lot of these marching squads didn't know what to make of our presence. Or our
cameras. They looked uneasy with all the attention. But they also assumed we must be there
with the approval of someone higher up, so they started to relax around us and continue with
their practice.
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A ferry ship with a lot of history. This is the Mangyongbong-92, a ship that used to
regularly shuttle between Japan and North Korea. This ship was reputedly also the means of
conveying spies, drugs, and counterfeit currency into Japan, and for bringing the laundered
proceeds, weapons, and delicacies for Kim Jong Il back. Japan had finally had enough with
North Korea's erratic and dangerous behavior and suspended the route a few years ago. So for
now, the ship just sits here waiting for sanctions to be lifted.
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Lovely Kim Il Sung statue anchors one side of the square. I had no hassles photographing
this monument but several other foreign tourists reportedly were ordered rather angrily to
stop taking pictures of it. This wasn't the first time we encountered inconsistencies like
this, and it wouldn't be the last.
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On to the beach for some R&R! We figured this might be an interesting way to mix with the
locals. We should have known better. Soon we pulled into the parking lot of the "Songdowon
Foreigner's Bathing Place." Even at the beach the North Korean government was going to try
to limit our contact with its people.
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To no one's surprise, there was a fence separating where the "foreigner" section of the
beach was from where the locals were supposed to stay. Luckily kids are kids and are fond of
climbing such things. It didn't take long before we had a bunch on our side, and a couple
proud parents taking pictures of all of us.
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Leaving Wonsan and watching countless propaganda murals go by...
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"Let us thoroughly arm ourselves with the revolutionary ideology of the Great Leader Kim Il
Sung!"
