Images from paradise

The previous blog entry didn't include any photos. So here is a small selection of images, and some comments for each of them. Click on them to get a fullsize image. Some of the images has links on them. If you click them, you will see on a satellite map in Google Maps where the site is. And you can zoom in and out to study the area in more detail.

I hoped I wasn't refused, after reading what it said on this bag...

I got one of the hostesses to take a photo of me. The in-flight service consisted of a cup of water.

"A typical meal in North Korea", I was told. Traditionally, it probably is. But I seriously doubt this is the typical meal for a people who's Great Leader has told them to cut down to one bowl of rice a day...

The "Buddhist temple". When I arrived, the bells of the pagoda started ringing when a breeze flowed by. "It is saying that you are blessed!" the guide told me. "Ok" I said. I would have loved to show photos from the Friendship Exhibition Hall. But photos where "strictly verboten" there.

The barrage. Quite simple, but according to the propaganda "Only the people of the DPRK and its Great Leader Kim il Sung could have built it". Riiiight.

A "random metro station in Pyongyang. Complete with its own propaganda image of Kim il Sung (Or was it Kim Jung Il? I keep forgetting. Some Leader anyhow).

The humble beginnings of the Kims. Weeeel.

"Typical European house" at the film studio.

A part of the "Great War Victory Monument". War everywhere you look. Fore someone who "only wants peace", it is strange how they praise the war.

The bronze statue of Eternal President Kim Il Sung. Smilee asked me if I wanted to lay down flowers. It wasn't a question. More of an order. "Many foreigners have come here and laid down flowers, expressing their thanks to Great Leader." Well. I have met a lot of deranged people in my life. So no question there...

At the Korean Museum. "Female pottery"...

At the Korean Museum. "Male pottery"...

The Lotus flower... Is it my dirty mind, or does this resemble a phallos?

The mausoleum of Wanggong.

The Folk Hotel in Kaesong was in a sort of Japanese style. With a small stream running through it. And these cute, small bridges. It was a nice hotel, with heated floor in the bedrooms, paper walls, and mattresses on the floor.

A door to a room. The rooms where more like small apartments. With livingroom, bathrooms and sleeping room. And a small courtyard in front. Nice, but run down.

The waitress in the restaurant in Kaesong had decorated the whole restaurant with "a female touch". The phone was no exception...

Panmunjom. First we got some propaganda about how the "US imperialists and the puppet soldiers of South Korea" had filled their side with arms and guns, while the peace-loving north had filled it with a small village. (I took a photo of the "village", and it was obviously empty. And thus only for propaganda purposes. Who would have thought...)

The negotiation room. The North Korean negotiators entered from the door behind us, and the "US imperialist forces" entered from the door in front here.

The demarcation line. The US imperialist forces and the puppet soldiers where obviously on Easter vacation at the moment. But obviously, they are sitting with their finger on the trigger at all times, ready to invade... Beware of the dangerous binoculars you cannot see on the other side.

Spy ship "Pueblo". In itself a story on how well oiled the propaganda machine is in North Korea. The propaganda video they show you is such an obvious fabrication that you need to be brainwashed not to see it.

"And this is a....aaaa....what is it called? Aaaaaa....." Yeah, this is probably the most dangerous piece of equipment on board.

The Arch of Triumph

The monument for the "Workers Party of Korea".

A waitress in traditional clothing at the restaurant where we had the last dinner. The food was excellent. The service too. The power came and went. So we only got to enjoy the "western songs" (in Korean) in parts.

The forever project that is always two years away from completion. Now it is 2012. But if you study images on the net, you see that it is the same images since the eighties. Ryugyong Hotel. The project started in 1987. But has never finished. And probably never will unless someone from the outside takes the bill. The sides showing from Yanggakdo hotel have glass facade. The other side is just concrete and holes where the windows are supposed to go.

The reunification monument. Of course, the North have the Leader. All the South Koreans have to do, is to throw out the US imperialists, and they too can enjoy life in paradise...

This is a spot just north of Dandong in China. It is called "the one meter hop". On this side of the stream is China. On the other side is North Korea. In some places it is literally a one meter hop between the two. The North have of course erected a fence. But still, Brooklyn told me, in the winter one can see thousands of footprints on the ice-laid stream. The telltale signs of the people either escaping or smuggling.