Axis of Evil World Tour - An American's Travels in Iran, Iraq and North Korea

by Scott Fisher

  Ever wonder why CNN seems to be the only Western news organization regularly allowed into North Korea? The next room perhaps offered a clue. In the 'Gifts from America' room, a whole section of one wall is taken up by gifts from CNN. A few engraved plaques, a coffee cup (yeah, a freaking coffee cup), a logo ashtray, etc. Probably, at most, a couple hundred bucks worth of crap that nonetheless get pride of place in the museum - for they reveal obvious signs of respect from a world-famous news organization. The people at CNN are certainly using their heads and showing they know how to play the game. Though one wonders how that fits in with journalistic integrity.

  Another of the noteworthy gifts in this section was the guestbook signature from former U.S. President Carter's visit. The several sentences, "wishing you peace and good fortune" (hard to remember verbatim when notes and pictures are banned) were a model of empty diplomatic phrases. Exactly the kind of stuff we were getting used to saying ourselves.

  The other interesting gift is one I mentioned at the very beginning of this travelogue - a basketball autographed by Michael Jordan. This one presented by former U.S. Secretary of State Madeline Albright during her fall 2000 visit to Pyongyang. Mr. Huk's eyes lit up in recognition of the name we had asked him about the day before, when trying to figure out what he knew of the outside world.

  "That's the person you talked about? He really is a basketball player!?" Mr. Huk was incredulous that a simple autographed basketball was all that the mighty U.S. government had presented. No cars, entertainment centers or nice respectful plaques, just a damn basketball. It seemed to bother him for quite a while, he even asked me about it later on the bus back to Pyongyang. When I told him Jordan is kind of an American god, who got his start by playing basketball, he seemed somewhat mollified.

  After the gifts display, it was on to the souvenir shop, where we were also asked to sign the guestbook. An act we found out later gets counted in the grand total of overseas gifts presented to the two Kims. Apparently, most of the 10s of 1000s of gifts come in the form of messages and signatures from guests.

  I knew something was up when we weren't rushed through the gift buying, and sure enough, it seemed the rain was going to keep us from what would have been a very scenic mountain hike. Instead, we were to hang out on the balcony of the shrine for a while before heading off to a nearby hotel for lunch. For the first and only time the whole trip, we had some time to sit, relax and look around. They even let us get our cameras to take some shots from the top of the balcony, hence the outdoor photos shown above.

  During our wait, I also witnessed one of the odder spectacles of the whole trip - a group of Korean-Japanese high school students visiting the shrine on a separate tour. Without getting too long-winded, there are large numbers of Korean-Japanese, descendants of those taken to Japan when Korea was a Japanese colony (1910-1945), who still believe the North Korean regime is the rightful ruler of the entire peninsula. One of the largest North Korean hard currency sources is donations from these 'overseas compatriots' in Japan. Chances are, if you've ever played pachinko in Japan (since most pachinko parlors are owned by these Korean-Japanese), a portion of what you paid was donated to North Korea.

  The students we saw were part of a North Korea affiliated high school in Japan. While we talked and took pictures, they took turns breaking into smaller groups to sing songs eulogizing the two Kims, North Korea, Juche, etc. The singing and, apparently very real, fervor were unbelievable. Even Mr. Baek was giving them some odd looks as they continued their emotional, non-stop singing. To grow up in a place as modern and open as Japan, yet still subscribe to this ideology and regime . . . wow. The memory of those earnest young faces fervently singing away is one of the strongest of the trip.

  After about half an hour, we finally caught up to the schedule and were herded back onto our bus. After a fancy lunch in an empty hotel surrounded by beautiful mountains, we were off to Pyongyang to visit Kim Il-sung's birthplace.

  Mangyongdae, Schoolchildren's Palace and Pyongyang Subway

  After having driven halfway to the Chinese border to visit Mt. Myohyang, it was to be another long bus-ride back to Pyongyang for our tour of Mangyongdae, the reputed birthplace of Kim Il-sung. After the big lunch, and with the steady rolling of the bus, everyone settled in to relax a bit on the way home. Other than teaching the guides how to play Hearts, and sneaking a few photos, the trip back wasn't too memorable.

  Except when Mr. Baek almost caught me spying through his files.

  Throughout the entire trip, I had seen all of our guides (including the Japanese and Chinese speaking guides) carrying around and constantly referring to various papers they had stuffed inside folders. I was curious as hell as to what they were looking at. Secret background info? A dossier on our group's activities? Approved ways to praise the Kims? What was in those files?

  I saw my chance for a peek with the guides engaged in a fierce battle of Hearts. Our group had basically taken over the rear of the bus from day one, with Mr. Baek watching over us from the very back row of seats. With the card game though, he had moved up a couple of rows, leaving the back open, and, to my surprise, his folder sitting alone on the seat next to the window. Feigning a sudden interest in the passing scenery, I hopped into the back seat, right over the folder.

  I glanced up at the card game, . . . everyone still busy there. So, using the seats to cover what I was doing, I opened the folder and started flipping through the loose-leaf pages. Glancing them over, I found they were mainly brief synopses of each place on the itinerary, in English and Korean, to help the guides remember what to say. Plus a list of all the members of our tour and . . .

  "Hey, what are you doing?"

  Shit! Mr. Baek had looked up from the card game and noticed me in the back row looking at something. "Oh, I was just trying to open this window. It's a little hot in here. But the thing seems stuck . . . ah, there we go. It's open now. Do you want me to open it a lot or is a little ok?"

  "Uh, whatever you want. I'm fine."

  And with that my heart returned to beating normally. No international spying incident. No five-year slave labor sentence. Just me being reminded, once again, of the usefulness of being a good liar. Perhaps I was adopting more of the local culture than I had anticipated.

  Mangyongdae - Birthplace of Kim Il-sung

  Photo courtesy Thomas St. John

  The rest of the ride back down to Pyongyang passed uneventfully. About three hours after leaving Mt. Myohyang, we finally pulled into Mangyongdae on the outskirts of Pyongyang. The rain had become a light drizzle as we walked up the short path from the parking lot to the actual house.

  The area around Mangyongdae is a pleasant little park, all grass, landscaping and trees. The house itself aims to reflect Kim's humble beginnings as a peasant man of the people. Everything from the thatched roof to the sparse interior and the pictures of his relatives are designed to stress his commoner background.

  Mr. Huk and the on-site guide both took pains to point out these humble beginnings at every turn. Even showing us the kimchi pots and vegetable storage barrels Kim's mother was supposed to have used while he was growing up. The contrast of these humble beginnings with the lavishness of the Gifts to Kim Museum couldn't have been greater.

  Marker identifying the site as the birthplace of Kim Il-sung on April 15, 1912.

  Photo courtesy Thomas St. John

  As the place is a national shrine, it appears to be visited by a large number of tour groups, both foreign and domestic. The parking lot was quite large and we could see groups of North Koreans off in the distance, unfortunately too far away to observe their reactions to the shrine. The flowers in the photo above were presumably placed there to show the devotion of these visitors.

  The overall feeling of Mangyongdae is more that of a memorial to a respected national leader than the 'Kim Il-sung is god, god is Kim Il-sung' religiosity of most other Great Leader sites. The key here seemed to be stressing the simplicity and commonness, alongside a few sprink
les of anti-foreign sentiment, of both Kim and his immediate family.

  Photos of Kim's parents and relatives, all of whom were (of course) renowned defenders of the common people and heroic resistance fighters during the Japanese colonial period. The picture at the bottom right was explained as Kim hugging his mother upon his return from years of guerilla fighting against the Japanese in Manchuria and northern Korea.

  Photo courtesy Thomas St. John

  The rain here again interfered with The Schedule, causing us to cancel a short hike through the grounds. Apparently the hill on which the house and park are located commands a great view of the city below and we missed out on some beautiful pictures. The good point about the change was that it would allow us more time at the next stop. One that proved to offer great views in its own right, though more cultural than pictorial.

  Schoolchildren's Palace

  Near Kim Il-sung's birthplace on the outskirts of Pyongyang stands the giant Schoolchildren's Palace. The North Korean leader strongly believed children are the future of his party and nation, so he spent a good deal of state resources developing educational and after-school facilities for children and young teenagers (older teenagers are generally put to 'volunteer' work). The facilities in Pyongyang built for the children of the elite have become a national showcase, where foreign visitors are taken as a way of showcasing the North's devotion to its youngest citizens.

  A devotion that in many ways is truly impressive, but different from what one sees in the South. I'll never forget addressing children in the North using the standard low form of Korean (as an adult would in the South) and being told by our guides that's considered rather rude in the North. According to Kim, children are the innocent leaders of tomorrow's revolution and therefore the 'low form' should only be for children you know personally, all others should be addressed using the standard, mid-level polite form (Korean has several different levels of formality/familiarity based on age, social position, family and school ties, etc.). This is a huge cultural shift compared with the South and one that never fails to surprise my Southern friends.

  Schoolchildren's Palace Guide

  Photo courtesy Thomas St. John

  Calling this building a palace is a rare triumph of truth over hyperbole for the North. Several stories high, it boasts three wings, a huge gymnasium, a fully equipped computer room (though without Net access) and dozens of classrooms teaching everything from ballet to calligraphy, accordion to taekwondo. The young lady pictured above gave us a grand tour. Though a young teen, her poise and professionalism were remarkable. She obviously took great pride in her work of being able to show off to foreigners all that the Great Leader had given his children.

  Her voice and method of speaking were one of the most interesting parts of this tour. She already had the North Korean method of public speaking down pat, a method wherein you are supposed to enthuse like a preacher caught up in the fervor of an old-time revival. Incredible.

  The first place our dynamo little guide led us was the computer room. And yes, they even use Windows in North Korea. Though one doubts Microsoft ever sees their cut. Oddly enough, the students were using the English version of Windows 98 rather than the Korean one. When I asked Mr. Huk why, he looked at me like I was an idiot and said because there wasn't a Korean version. A fact that must come as a huge surprise to Microsoft Korea! There was no Internet access in the computer room, however. Privileged future leaders of the DPRK or not, modernity still comes with limits.

  Computer study under the two Kims

  Photo courtesy Thomas St. John

  The Internet was basically a giant mystery to the North Koreans I met. Some of them had at least heard the word, but they didn't really seem to have a handle on exactly what it was. Even Mr. Baek, who'd once traveled outside the country to China, didn't quite have a grasp of what exactly e-mail and the Internet really were.

  When asked if he felt like they were missing out on all the great information available on the Net, Mr. Huk just brushed us off with, "We already know the truth from our government. Why would we want to learn what others say?" Which, in a nutshell, seemed a pretty good explanation of North Korean thought as a whole.

  After the computer room, the next place we were taken was a giant gymnasium. At one end was a large group of, mainly boys, practicing taekwondo. At the other end was a group of again, mainly boys, practicing basketball. Given that we had a couple of professional-caliber taekwondo athletes in our group, we stopped to watch that for awhile (and weren't even hurried!). The guides even asked if any of us wanted to join in. We all declined as we began to focus more on the basketball end of the gym.

  After walking down for a closer look, we asked the guides if we could join in for a short game. They loved the idea and soon we were paired up into two teams of four. It took awhile to get them to realize we didn't want to gang up on the kids, instead wanting to join them and play against each other. Once settled, we got into a heated little 4-on-4 pick-up game.

  Photo courtesy Thomas St. John

  The kids turned out to be pretty damn good, with smooth jump shots and plenty of confidence handling the ball. The coach even joined in, he's the one under the basket in the white shirt above. As you can see from Dan's rather unique method of catching the ball, some of us weren't quite up to the level of these young teens.

  Our relative lack of ability didn't matter though; the spectacle of a bunch of foreigners playing basketball generated A LOT of interest from everyone else in the gym. We pretty much brought taekwondo practice and all other activities to a halt. Even the janitors stopped to check us out. Unfortunately, we were unable to give them what they really wanted - a giant dunk. Even though a couple of us are well over six feet (1.8 meters) tall, we are unfortunately far too white to have enough hops for slamin'.

  Given that they were training at probably the top youth gym in the country, I'm very curious about the future of some of these young athletes. You would expect at least a few of them to be on a North Korean national team in another 10 years or so. Who knows, maybe some of those kids will be representing their country in the Olympics one day.

  After the gym, it was on to a tour of several classrooms full of apparently earnest young dance, calligraphy and music students. Classrooms where, after our basketball game, the main impression we probably made was that foreigners are really sweaty.

  Group of young girls studying dance - notice the bright smiles

  Photo courtesy Thomas St. John

  Our young guide led us on the prearranged tour of the various classrooms shown here. The key in all of the pictures is to notice the beaming smiles on everyone's faces. While very cute and photogenic, it was so obviously coached as to be funny. All you had to do was quickly stick you head back into a classroom after everyone had filed out. Then you'd see the kind of expressions you'd expect to find on a group of kids cooped up in a stuffy classroom after school.

  Korean Traditional Instrument Practice

  Photo courtesy Thomas St. John

  Even more interesting was when they saw someone had stuck their head back in. A kind of mini-wave of smiles would gradually sweep across the room as the kids and teacher realized you were still butting into their class.

  In a couple of rooms I tried to ask some questions to see if I could get a conversation started but, other than some giggles at my weird accent, was never able to generate much of a reaction. Just like at the circus the day before, we were to be smiled at only - no interaction. The teachers were also similar to the one I'd encountered at the circus. Friendly enough when they had to be, but in no way willing to talk to us. They simply thanked everyone whenever we praised them and their class and then went back to teaching.

  I can't really blame them - keeping a bunch of preteens focused on class when you have large groups of people (foreigners nonetheless!) barging in and out can't be easy. You have to commend their professionalism, especially given how amazing their students were with their singing, dancing and writing. Incr
edible what kids can do when you take away their video games.

  "For the sake of North Korea . . ."

  Photo courtesy Thomas St. John

  The highlight of the palace tour was a musical performance by the students. To say it was incredible would be a huge understatement. How kids that young can be so talented and perform so well is beyond me. Their timing and professionalism would do honor to anyone. Here of course, the honor was all to the Kims and the North Korean regime. The message was one of how lucky the children were to grow up in such a special place and with such a devoted leader willing to look after their needs and dreams.

  Giant image of Kim Il-sung shown during a song in his honor.

  Photo courtesy Thomas St. John

  Close-up of some of the young performers.

  Photo courtesy Thomas St. John

  "We are one" - written above and sang as the chorus of a song of reunification