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By Hannu Berghäll
North Korea must be the most difficult country in the world to
get to. You can not just get a visa at the border, nor will any
of their few embassies around the world issue a visa to you for
only a nominal fee. So how does one do to get there at all?
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First, you must go to a travel agent approved by the North Korean
government. There are as far as I know only 2 in the whole world,
one being the official state owned one, and the other being a company
called Koryo tours here in Beijing. They both operate out of Beijing.
Basically, the official North Korean travel agency has so few customers,
so that the staff is hardly ever there and the office mostly closed.
Once you manage to get hold of them over the phone, they send you
on to the other travel agency - Koryo tours. This is actually not
a "real" travel agency, it's just a side project of a British landscape
architect working here in Beijing. He does these trips to North
Korea with foreigners a few times a year; either tourgroups around
May workers day, October national day, and I think it was in August
as well, for the celebrations of the former Great Leader Kim Il-Sung's
birthday. These tours number, in total, around 50-100 people/tourists
a year. In addition to this there is about 10-40 more who go there
independently - thereby getting a complete doze of the paranoia
and politically weird weird country by not even having sensible
persons to talk with in the evenings, when you're back at your hotel
after a day of sightseing at model schools, model factories, huge
patriotic statues of the Great Leader, museums about the fantastic
achievements by the state, party and workers; etc. etc....
But more about getting there: Once you have approached the travel
agent you need to write them a paper stating who you are, why you
want to go there, and give them info about your passport, your workplace,
your birthdate/-place, phonenumbers home and to work and also another
phonenumber in case of an emergency, etc. etc ad nauseum.... Your
employer also needs to send the travel agency a fax written on your
employers official officepaper (logo's etc. are good if they are
there); stating that you are employed by them, what you do there,
how long you've worked there, your employers telephonenumbers address
faxnumber email - etc. etc. All this because they are so fanatically
afraid of getting a journalist into the country (But, if one WAS
a journalist, this could all be faked anyway, right? [see important
note about this at the end of this mail!!!!]). So in my case, I
wrote an A4 introduction letter myself, and had my Postal Master
boss fax the travel agent here with details about my work.
A few days later I got an email from my parents saying that they
had had a phonecall from a "Che" (No, that is not a name taken in
honour of communist comrade/compadre revolutionary Che Guevara;
Che is apparently also a Korean name) at the North Korean embassy
in Stockholm. He spoke Swedish and wanted me to phone him up to
ask me a few questions. Why am I supposed to phone them? My parents
told them I am in Beijing, and phoning from here is difficult for
me because I'd have to phone in the afternoon or evening - and that's
when I am teaching here! So instead I sent them a fax, saying as
it is that I am a backpacker already in Beijing, that they/he (Che)
can email me OR phone me here OR ask the questions via my parents
that can then email them to me OR fax the travel agent that can
state my story is true OR..... Bureaucrasy; I hate it...
The fax arrived to the North Korean embassy in Sweden/Stockholm.
The embassy didn't email me, nor phoned me or faxed me. Instead,
this guy Che phoned up my parents again, and said they would allow
me into the country - They would only need the equivalent of 30$
for various fees, so that they could fax their reply of approval
to their embassy here in Beijing. This is the embassy issuing the
participants of this 28/4 - 6/5 tour with their visas. OK, so my
father asked if he could pay this money to a bankaccount? Or to
a postal giro account? Or wire the money? No way; it had to be paid
in cash at the embassy itself... Luckily my father had already taken
half a day of from his work in Sweden to go to the dentist, and
so could also the same day drive into Stockholm city to pay them
this fee and get things going. When my father was there paying the
300 SEK, he insisted on a receipt for it. Big confusion at the embassy
and nobody knew how to react. Finally my father got dictated for
him what to write on a piece of paper, and then the young assistant
behind the counter (not the Mr Che that had phoned up my parents
a few times), warned my father gravely that one MUST go via the
official state approved travel agency to go to North Korea.
Nicholas Bonner, the Brit that runs Koryo tours here, said that
Che, or someone at the North Korean embassy, must need some money
for a few beers or something - this fee is extremely likely just
something they came up with at the spur of the moment, to cover
some costs for that bancrupt country... But Nick is cool and said
he would deduct the fee from my tourprice - he's a really nice guy...
As Nick also said; what good is all this faxing and paperwork for?
Apparently one of the participants of this tour I'm going on is
a Brit working and living in Hong Kong. This guys introduction letter,
and statement from his work, Nick had faxed to Britain/London, where
N. Korea has a consulate or something even smaller (as the diplomatic
relations between Britain and N. Korea is just about to open again
since the Korean war in the 50's). The diplomats there had faxed
the papers back with a stamp of approval on them (without any extra
fee as in my case), but what had they really checked up on about
a guy working and living in Hong Kong? NADA, of course. It's all
just bureaucrasy...
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So now it's all about money: These North Korea tours don't come
cheap. For an individual tour you'd have to pay 300 USD a DAY, all
inclusive!!! Going on a tour with others significantly reduses the
price, but still - 1490 USD for a week all included. OK, you get
5-star hotel and all (apparently according to Nicholas Bonner the
best hotel he has ever stayed at anywhere in the world), all meals
(to be taken at the hotel - no strolling around on your own outside
the hotel without a guide); all transports, train in and (an reputedly
almost empty) old Russian plane out of the country returning to
Beijing on 6:th of May...
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I have heard that Goran Persson, the Swedish prime minister and
at the moment also chairman of the European council, is on his way
to North korea too. He will be there at the same time as I, coming
in for top political meetings representing EU on the 2-3 of May.
He'll apparently be staying at the same luxury hotel (only one in
Pyongyang) as I and the tour will be housed in. Wouldn't that be
great if I'd meet him there and I'd be able to say in the future
"Well, actually me and Goran are long time friends. We met in Pyongyang"...?
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On the 27:th of this month I will hand in my passport to Koryo
tours to get a visa for the country (on a separate peace of paper).
Then it's departure on the 28:th...
It sure will be an adventure to round this 3-year trip up with.
Hannu
Note for journalists thinking of going to North Korea: DO NOT try
to hide the fact that you are a journalist from the travel agent
- they can find other solutions for you to get into the country!
If you do, you risk the safety of the whole tourgroup (that might
be expelled out immediately), the future of Koryo tours, and the
lifes of the Korean guides, that are personally responsible for
not bringing in the wrong people into the country. Nick from Koryo
tours told me that 3 years ago a Channel 5 journalist from Britain
came on the tour without informing him about his real work and real
intentions. Once in the country, he had asked to be taken to orphanages
etc. to get the real picture of the country... He then spent the
following six moths in a re-education camp working on the countryside
in that wonderful workers paradise that North Korea is...
Read More of Hannu's Adventures
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