51–60 of 63 posts
This is really fascinating, albeit being an unintended consequence of disproportionate wealth distribution.
It strikes me how expensive these visits must be for NK. It seems that every tourist gets a dedicated guide, while someone (or multiple people) is probably also monitoring them remotely. Then, consider the little details like that empty restaurant they cleared for the sake of a tourist. In terms of manpower it's probably a factor > 1 relative to the number of visitors. Imagine every visitor to the US was escorted by…
http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2013/04/03/176121772/...
NK is not exactly resource-constrained on labour. As others have pointed out, the visits are a valuable source of foreign currency. (And propaganda - the number of people in this thread uttering variations of "that doesn't look too bad" is staggering).
It's immoral to visit such a country. It has concentration camps. It tortures on a large scale. It's citizens suffer and visiting the country gives money to an evil regime.
People often boycott and don't like visiting circuses or shows that generally abuse and exploit animals (elephant shows in Thailand come to mind). I can't see why visiting NK is any different.
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Actually, Google is quoting the official rate.. but the official rate is basically impossible to convert at. You'd need to convert at the black market rate, which is supposedly about 8,000 north korean Won to $1. If it's actually priced in North Korean Won, that would make it $12? I think we're missing something. http://www.foxbusiness.com/markets/2017/02/05/north-korean-e... https://www.nknews.org/2015/04/north-kore…
In the USSR there was a chain of stores ("Березка" - "Birch tree") where imported goods were sold for restricted currency. The currency was denominated in "rubles" but could only be obtained in exchange for a hard currency. The rate of the exchange has been arbitrary and the prices were too. The whole system had been set up to incentivize citizens who earned foreign currency (sailors, touring artists, diplomatic corp…
We had something similar here (former Czechoslovakia, Tuzex shops) and probably in most of the other socialist countries (eg. Poland, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pewex).
The only way to pay in these stores was to use special cheques. These were obtainable only in exchange for "western money", typically US Dollars, British Pounds, or German Marks.
And of course, there was a black market for them, with prices going as much as five times their nominal value (80s in Czechoslovakia, don't know about Poland and others, but I imagine it was quite similar).
The female tourist guide may have problems after the leakage of these pictures.
Related: A YouTube channel [0] dedicated to videos of "everyday life" in North Korea, from an Indonesian expat living there. Couple of random examples: * Walking around Pyongyang in the winter. [1] * Going to a computer store in Pyongyang. [2] [0] https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCzvCf_q10UZkUJE0lOav0ag [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=If2ZkXz_1U8 [2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FtDWYzwwuUs
They used to sell imported goods like TVs, bicycles, cameras, typewriters etc etc, but only in exchange for American Dollars.
You couldn't legally buy American Dollars in Poland - the only way to legally obtain them was to have them sent over from abroad by a relative(you could buy them from the national bank for business, but it was a massive pain to get the necessary permissions).
I just think it's interesting, as the experience looks similar, except that the korean store takes korean won. On the other hand, I imagine only members of the korean elite are allowed in that store, while anyone could at least enter a PEWEX and marvel at the imported goods.
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Well, that was unexpected. How is this even possible?
I am curious as well. I have no doubt that a small number of foreigners live and work in North Korea, move around freely without minders, and are allowed to have cameras and make videos, but how do they get the footage out? Even if they work at some university and have access to the internet, I very much doubt it's unrestricted like that. I am willing to believe some of them might smuggle it out, but this guy walks a…
Related: A YouTube channel [0] dedicated to videos of "everyday life" in North Korea, from an Indonesian expat living there. Couple of random examples: * Walking around Pyongyang in the winter. [1] * Going to a computer store in Pyongyang. [2] [0] https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCzvCf_q10UZkUJE0lOav0ag [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=If2ZkXz_1U8 [2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FtDWYzwwuUs
Wow. I'm surprised, it all looks so... normal. If not for lack of advertising noise, this could easily pass for a small city in Europe.
Big roads with lots of space between high rise building blocks. Not a lot of shops or other activities on the side or roads designed to move people, not keep them "idling."
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I am curious as well. I have no doubt that a small number of foreigners live and work in North Korea, move around freely without minders, and are allowed to have cameras and make videos, but how do they get the footage out? Even if they work at some university and have access to the internet, I very much doubt it's unrestricted like that. I am willing to believe some of them might smuggle it out, but this guy walks a…
I'd bet on the fact that if he has a gopro strapped to his chest, most people won't even know what it is.
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Did you read the first few lines of the page? Or pretty much any of the captions? > Most tourists only experience the political smokescreen of Pyongyang; I had the privilege in visiting all corners on one of the longest tours ever executed (no pun intended) for foreigners into the hermit kingdom. Photos from an officially supervised tour, yes, but limited to Pyongyang, definitely not.
It's not quite that straightforward: through exploitation of a bureaucratic loophole, they managed to enter the DPRK through a border that's supposed to be closed to foreigners and had quite a bit of time essentially unsupervised (although most of it was on a train).