Subway in Pyongyang

[category pyongyang 2008, north korea 2009]

Here are some pictures you don’t find on the internet often… I’ve forgotten, what that particular metro station was called, but here are some pictures of it. It was very dark, since there were only a few energy-saving light-
bulbs to lit the entire station. At the end, you could see another mural of Kim-Il-Sung. The trains seemed to be old metro coaches from Berlin. Inside, it was very crowded, very hot, no ventilation, dark and the train went very very slowly through the tunnels.
ABOVE: What they want you to see…
BELOW: What they don’t want you to see.

Construction in North Korea

First, let’s look across the Yalu River to see how construction is done in Dandong right at the waterfront. You’ll see clean concrete, construction lifts and bamboo grids with green nets.

Let’s now go back to North Korea and see how construction is done here:

First, the material to build with has to be taken from riverbeds or quarries.

The stones are then sorted and classed by size.

In the next step, they’re broken to smaller fragments. A drum-like machine is depicted in the above photo on the left. The stones are put in there with giant bowling size iron balls to crush the material. The crushed stones are then used to heavily stretch cement to form rudimentary bricks.

Those bricks are used to build most of the structure…

…while real concrete and steel are used to build the necessary skeleton. Lack of proper tools and knowledge reveals a nasty finish.

Here’s an example of construction at the Ryugyong Hotel. You’ll see in the lower right corner the mounting brackets for the glass facade.

After the building is roughly finished, the rough spots are being covered with plaster, to paint it later on.

Click on the photo to enlarge. Some rudimentary construction outside Sinujiu. Instead of carts to transport material, they use two-man wooden stretcher like thing with one open end on one side to quickly poor stuff on the next pile.

Click on the photo to enlarge. Building a concrete road right outside Sinujiu.

DMZ, Panmunjon, Kaesong and a really beautiful country

We went to the utmost south of North Korea: the border town Panmunjon and the next big city Kaesong. A long drive over an endless straight highway, built for absolutely NO traffic and passing by one of the most beautiful mountain ranges i’ve ever seen. Along the entire trip, i’ve only seen mountains, which could have been sculpted by any artist.

Then we arrived in Panmunjon. Hordes of Chinese People, staying there on their holiday, while North Korea received a big time visit from China today in the capital. All over the place, just before the DMZ started, about 150 tourists waited to be let through to the actual border.
You could see the tank barricades, which, in case of invasion, would be dropped to the road by detonating charges along the road.

So every vehicle got it’s soldier. One of them was the official tourist guide too and took us to all the different sites, where the cease-fire was negotiated, where it was signed and to the houses right ON the border, where some negotiations were held. I would have loved to also see South Korean soldiers and some American soldiers, but they hid themselves. There were no tourists today on the south side. But what I did notice was all the cameras mounted on either side of border, staring at each other. The South had more of them.

So the soldier/guide came up and asked, if and what questioned I had. I had some… How has he been now in the army, what rank do border posts have at Panmunjon and are they specially selected… Have there been any incidences, when somebody ran from the north to the south or from the south to the north… Turns out, he was five years in the army, the rank of the border posts are normal foot soldiers, who really really believe in the system. And in 1983, there had been a “sowjet” student who fled from the north to the south, running across the line. The incidence started, when North Korean soldiers came running after him and crossed to the south, too. He didn’t know, what happened afterwards and neither of what became of that sowjet student.

On the way back to where we started, I noticed that he had only been answering our questions. So I asked him, if HE had any questions to foreigners like me. He took a moment to think about it. Obviously he took it very seriously. He asked, what the opinion was, on North Korea pursuing their nuclear weapons program. And he heard as answer, that it’s not just an internal nor bilateral thing, but that it concerns the entire world, because the effects of a nuclear weapon reaches the entire world. We started a nice little discussion on what to do. So my obvious answer was to rid the peninsula of nuclear weapons and research of any kind. That would lead to trust in the long run and would help to integrate North Korea into the world. He had then doubts about integration. So I explained to him, that countries growing together and integrating would mean the build-up of trust. And to answer a common “fear” here in the north, I told him, integrating countries does NOT mean losing its respective individuality and sovereignty. The European Union after WWII was a perfect example. Nobody wants to attack North Korea. It’s for peace.
By that time, we reached the last check point. We thanked each other for our talk and he seemed authentically happy about our small discussion, despite him being a very devout North Korean soldier who believes in the system and that there’s supposedly a threat from “imperialist” America. He seemed very smart and kind. I made NK propaganda responsible for that paranoia. …so… We didn’t reach any conclusion, but the important thing was that we talked. He listened, he talked… to a foreigner. And we shook hands.

So I went to Kaesong to see the city. Obviously much smaller than Pyongyang but still built in the socialist chic. But people smile and wave back, when you smile and wave at them. They greet you back and they laugh with you. That doesn’t mean, they haven’t any hardships, on the contrary, they’re especially stricken with a hard life. But something seems to keep them going and I’m not talking about government propaganda nor the smile of Kim Il Sung. Maybe it’s hope.

take nr. 2: some more pictures.

drying corn (yellow stuff) and peppers (red stuff)

workers doing something with the corn

construction

market somewhere on the way to Dandong

washing clothes in the river, in a fairly big town -> no water tab?

more little private stands, scattered all over

Dandong (China), seen from North Korea

Sinujiu, with a poster of the “100 Day Campaign” to make the extra effort, followed immediatly by another 150 Day Campaign to inspire another great effort. NK isn’t doing well.

By the way, here’s a light smog map of north korea I found in google, or what China let me find through Google. The map is inverted. You’ll see Beijing and Seoul clearly.

breaking radio silence: Dandong and back.

I haven’t been updating my blog for a few days now. There was simply no time. Among other things, I travelled back to Dandong for a night and got bombarded again with just too many impressions. I could capture some on pictures, but most of them I just had take in. So here are some of the thoughts, that came to me:
I like traditional Korean houses much more than Chinese Houses. They are not build with predominant “kitsch”, but sleeker and simpler.

People are being ordered to do anything and everything. Today, they’re road workers, tomorrow, they’ll be farmers and yesterday, they were roof workers. And if there isn’t anything to do, they collect the little they can grow, prepare it, carry it somewhere and sell it to passers by. Mostly old people. Either cigarettes or snacks. And I saw it all over: In Pyongyang or on my way to Dandong.

Arriving in Dandong, I enjoyed this 700000 people city, bustling with life, took a room in a hotel, got a great view of the mountain range. All those lights, freedom of movement, capitalism, more lights and that typical background noise of a big city.

Just thankful to be back again.

Pyongyang by Night (the government tour and its contrast to reality)

I went out for a stroll yesterday night and it was dark as the deepest night. The eery thing about it was, I was walking in a young evening through the capital of a nation: Pyongyang.
Some people had flashlights, who turned them on as they crossed the streets to alert oncoming traffic, as if traffic cared for pedestrians. The first stop was at Kim Il Sung Square…

I set up the tripod and started shooting pictures of the “Tower of the Juche Idea”, commissioned by Kim Jong Il to indulge his father and to cement his succession to power. Then I walked all over and shot some random scenery, trying not to be noticed. The damn display of my little Canon was too bright.
I’m just imagining, how it was a year ago, when school children from all over Pyongyang were forced to practice for the 60th anniversary parade on this square. :(

These Photos were taken around 2:00 am.

“Kim Il Sung loves children.”

the sound of korea

As I learned today, ancient Korea originated somewhere in what is today Manchuria, subsequently China. So in that aspect, I’m just gonna count Dandong as part of Korea…

the sound of Korea.

Starting with Dandong in China, landing in an airport, built in pure socialist china. It was quite a shock stepping out of our plane onto the tarmac. What we left was the grand airport from Beijing, Terminal 3, built for the olympics and one of the prides from China today and we get to see this old crummy but awesome airport. We walked from the Air China B737-300 right to the baggage claim… which was made fully out of tiles, a conveyor belt sunken into the floor and in the middle of it were lots of pots with plants of any kind. From there it was right out into the street. That was it.

Dandong is loud… people talking everywhere, honking all over and people on the promenade making music, trying to escape the advertising loudspeakers in central Dandong.

There wasn’t really a difference between night and day. On the shores of Yalu River, you could see right over to North Korea, imagining an international timezone border. It was pitch-dark on the other side with a 300000 soul city being there. Just one light was lit, while Dandong was one great example of light-smog. In the hotel room, the same: noise all over. BTW… every night they’d call up my room to ask: “Lady-massage, yes or no?” Lack of trust let me always say “no”. I must have seemed like someone lonely. I think I am, but that’s another story. Somehow the whole room was trimmed for paid pleasures. The minibar had, among other things, condoms, chinese versions of spanish fly and viagra and see-through lingerie for both women and men… sealed of course. Next time in Dandong, i’ll stay in the crown plaza… a bit outside, but so silent, that you’d just relax.

So, the next day, we went in.

North Korea, DPRK, whatever…

First sound, a whistle from some distant train… and silence. After the formalities at the border, we went through Sinujiu and I managed to take one picture of two despite our speed… it was already late and getting too dark to take pictures while in motion. (I took this picture a year ago, while on the same route as well as the next pictures of Pyongyang.)

Over land, there was that typical sound while standing on a deserted acre, with occasionally a truck passing by or the quiet murmuring of people. As it got dark, there was literally no light everywhere. As if the entire country was ordered to keep lights off because of a strategic blackout, with the difference, that there was no electrical infrastructure anyhow. The only lights were from the few oncoming trucks or from some people with blue-whitish shining LED flashlights.

Arriving in Pyongyang wasn’t any different, except for the buildings with single lit rooms. Many of them had energy saving lamps, some had tungsten light bulbs. But the sounds were just… absent. Cicadas (giant mutant-like crickets making a hell of a lot of noise) at most, our engine roaring but when it died down… nothing. In Caracas, I had always some background noise… but here, it’s only crickets.

And early in the morning, about at 7am… Sirens go off, followed by propaganda style chanting through loudspeakers, mounted all over the city…

So those were some sounds from Korea, all the way from the noise in Dandong, to the sounds of the land, the silence of pyongyang and the sound of crickets, my typing and iTunes, with big brother eavesdropping on every sound of korea. 1:45 am.

Notice: Pictures 4,5 and 6 on this blogpost were taken a year ago. I’ll keep the good stuff coming as soon as I set off with my bike alone in Pyongyang. #anxiety

Dandong by Night

Some impressions of Dandong by Night, shot just a few hours ago, submitted to Europe to upload it on youtube.

1 day to go! packing things, organizing stuff & twirling thumbs

ok, passport, tickets, credit cards, cool backpack, tripods, batteries, more batteries, the other batteries too, portable hdd, storage media, mac, chargers, three cameras, navigational thingie, maps (shit, still gotta print them), cosmetics, clothing and something to write on and with. seems simple enough and yet there’s too much to organize… where does all that come from?! i dumped half of my belongings and it’s still too much. aaaaaargh!!! my room’s a mess and i still have to wash clothes, organize mail forwarding… over-friggin- whelmed.

“crazy in pyongyang” went south. about 130 hits or so and no answers. well, i got an answer from someone i haven’t seen since… loooooong ago.

well… other than that, there’s nothing else to do, than to wiggle my toes and twirl my thumbs until i get going.

Picture: taken a year ago from dandong. North Koreans being put on a boat and shown dandong. you can watch, but you can’t touch.

The Ryugyong Hotel in Pyongyang

Footage taken in Pyongyang in December 2008.

1st Footage: Unscheduled elevator stop in the Koryo Hotel on the 27th floor. I was supposed to ride the elevator right up to the top floor, where I would be met by a service attendand. The 27th floor, most like every other floor was dark and abandoned.
2nd Footage: The Ryugyong Hotel, seen from the southwestern side. The southerneastern side, facing the city center is being paneled with glass, just to make it look better. Notice the progress bars on the posters, showing the “people’s progress”.
3rd Footage: Pyongyang Central Station, secretly shot from the top of the Koryo Hotel.
4th Footage: An electric powered bus, passing westbound on Okryu Bridge.