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Three years in North Korea as a foreigner (2021)

mydiplomaticlife.com

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Re: Three years in North Korea as a foreigner (2021)

#51
post #9

The post never mentions a date, but this must have been around 2000-2004, since that is when the UK embassy was established. [1] Some things have probably changed since then. A fascinating read regardless. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Embassy_of_the_United_Kingdom,...

Meanwhile instead of some fancy building, their embassy over here is... Well, a little more domestic.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Embassy_of_North_Korea,_London

Re: Three years in North Korea as a foreigner (2021)

#53
I'll preface this by saying that I can't support this with a source, so take it with a grain of salt. An acquaintance of mine knew someone who worked in that German embassy. Apparently, the extreme isolation of North Korea also made it extremely difficult to have any kind of opsec inside the embassy. Since anything could only be brought in through diplomatic pouches it created an attack vector of one.

A few days after said person had a meeting in the German equivalent of a scif, there was a meeting with North Korean officials. One official let something slip, which meant a bug had somehow gotten into the scif. He didn't say anything about what the consequences were, just that one should not underestimate the North Koreans.

Re: Three years in North Korea as a foreigner (2021)

#54

I'm mostly surprised about the free admission of bribery: > However, I soon found that a bottle of Johnie Walker Black Label handed out at particularly frustrating moments made things miraculously happen a lot quicker. Oh how the North Koreans loved their whiskey.

Sounds like they loved their whisky

Re: Three years in North Korea as a foreigner (2021)

#55
post #6

Years ago, I was lucky enough to listen to a talk from an American who got to be a tourist in North Korea. Ever since then I've been fascinated with stories like this. North Korea is on my bucket list, but hopefully after the state loosens up.

Michael Malice?

Re: Three years in North Korea as a foreigner (2021)

#56

I'm mostly surprised about the free admission of bribery: > However, I soon found that a bottle of Johnie Walker Black Label handed out at particularly frustrating moments made things miraculously happen a lot quicker. Oh how the North Koreans loved their whiskey.

When I went there (2005-6), we were told to bring foreign cigarettes. And this is how I ended up importing Israeli into North Korea. Hopefully they liked them!

Re: Three years in North Korea as a foreigner (2021)

#59

This was fascinating! If I could do it all over again, I'd have gone into the US Foreign Service. Maybe not to places like North Korea (which we don't have a presence in anyways), but I'd have loved to travel the world. Maybe in the next life...

> Maybe in the next life...

I told myself this about an important decision. I thought about it more and decided I didn't really believe in that (proof: what do you remember from your last life), so just did it in this one. No regrets!

Re: Three years in North Korea as a foreigner (2021)

#60
post #6

Years ago, I was lucky enough to listen to a talk from an American who got to be a tourist in North Korea. Ever since then I've been fascinated with stories like this. North Korea is on my bucket list, but hopefully after the state loosens up.

North Korea can take you with whatever justification they feel like and return you as a vegetable. I know the mass games look cool and people like to go to weird places, please avoid North Korea

I am sorry but if you travel somewhere like Iran or North Korea you are doing so explicitly against the advice of most governments. Every single person visiting these places is told that they need to keep their shit together, otherwise the consequences could be dire for them or for those they come into contact with.
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