Pyongyang - DPR Korea – Part I

The flight to Pyongyang is the first contact with the People’s Republic Korea. On the airplane you can read Korean newspapers and magazines in English and watch music events or a Korean movie. After almost one day of flying – including all the time I had to wait on airports for connecting flights, I’ve decided not to do either and had a little sleep. In Beijing I just had enough time to visit the Tiananmen Square and the mausoleum of the father of modern-day China – Chancellor Mao Zedong.

In the temporary airport building (a magnificent old building that will be replaced by a new – maybe even bigger, but definitely very modern) we spent some time, for one of my suitcases was misplaced along the way from Budapest. It was the first chance to experience the warm-heartedness of the Korean people. They helped me in filling out all the application forms so I only had to sign at the bottom. And I must say, it was beyond anything I could have expected, when they allowed me access to the luggage part of the airport to search through the luggage that arrived without any tags on it.

During our stay, they presented to us the ideology of the People’s Republic of Korea – named Juche or Kimilsungism and Kimjongilism. It is the ideology based on the political, military and economic independency, developed by Kim II Sung and Kim Jong II.

The birthplace of the founder of the democratic People’s Republic of Korea: Kim II Sung

It is located in the outskirts of Pyongyang and is surrounded by a park, which is carefully tended to by Korean girls, who do all the work manual to show respect for this work, which is quite a big honour to do. All hints found in certain media that this work would be forced labour are just silly! The pure smiles on the faces of these women and relaxed mobile phone conversation during work clearly show these women are not forced to do this. Forced labours would certainly not use mobile phones during work.

The museum of the history of armaments

It is located alongside the City of Sport, or to better explain, the part of the city with sport halls for various sports. The museum is a great display of Korean military might. Here you can see everything, from the infantry weapons to strategic missiles and is the biggest collection of armaments I’ve ever seen. The museum is so large there is a special electric train connection parts of it.

Rungrado Island on Daedong River

This is without a doubt the most fun part of Pyongyang, where everybody finds something they like. There is a large aquarium with dolphins on the island, which is connected to the sea by special plumbing, so the dolphins always have fresh sea water. True, it is still not the same as if they would be in the sea itself, but it is a great step forward from what I’ve seen in European and other aquariums, which are saying how proud they are to “care for animal rights”.

A morning walk through the streets and squares of the city

Since I was a part of a larger group, and our itinerary was very full and we had a time schedule to keep, the moments before breakfast where the only time I had to go and explore the city on my own. It was very interesting to see some of the early trams and electric buses, how they were driving almost empty through the city centre. It was also interesting to see, how well maintained they were, even though some of them were half a century old. There were also some from the eighties and naturally also brand new ones – domestically produced. But I didn’t go walking to see the public transport. The city itself is very systematic and the mightiest buildings are concentrated along the Daedong River. The Kim II Sung Square is located in the very heart of the city. This is the Square where many state manifestations – such as the military parade – take place. But it is also the place where the grand people’s library impresses you with its size and splendid Korean architecture. Then there’s the new part of the city, with tall skyscrapers that give it a very modern look. The other side of the river features a tall torch, which is the museum and an outlook tower at the same time, built as the monument to Juche. From top of it you can see almost the entire city and some of its surroundings. The straight line city architecture also connects the monument of the foundation of the workman’s party with the hill, were gigantic monuments of Kim II Sung, the founder of the People’s Republic, and his successor Kim Jong II stand. The city offers a lot more, but I had very little time, for as I’ve said, our schedule was really packed with activities and the before almost empty trams were now packed with people going to work, school or other duties they had.