(Arirang Mass Games, Pyongyang) I wonder what they thought seeing all these fat Chinese tourists.
I try to avoid telling my Korean friends in school that I went to the North, because they always look at me strangely and ask why I would ever want to go there. I don’t blame them – some have family histories and bad memories of the place. The immediate assumption is that I’m some kind of sick tourist that delights in seeing the suffering of others, or worse, that I perpetuate it. But that couldn’t be further from the truth.
The reason why I went to North Korea is the same reason why I’m a perennial attendee of all the related speaker events at the Weatherhead Institute, ran across DC to see exhibits at the Woodrow Wilson center and the Library of Congress during my lunch hour, took the train out to some church in Brooklyn to see Yodok Story, and search desperately for online DVD sales of Crossing (크로싱). It lies at the intersection of all my professional and personal interests.
My professional interest is in markets and development i.e. my college major. The DPRK presents one of the most difficult economic development challenges, especially in the transition to a market economy. It is also an important case study of underground economies and illicit trade like narcotics, counterfeiting, proliferation etc. That segues neatly into my other professional interest, political science and international relations i.e. my other major. My personal interest is in the cause of liberty. I went there to try to better understand what it means to live under an authoritarian regime, and by understanding it, try to make a difference.
At first I was hesitant to go on an ‘official’ tour. I knew that the fees charged would go directly into the regime’s hands, and that I would not see anything sensitive anyway. That tourism revenues flow directly into the hands of regime officials means that I would have personally contributed to the perpetuation of the system, and I want to be part of the solution, not the problem.
After some consideration I came to the conclusion that the benefits outweighed the costs. Hyundai Asan’s Kaesong tour business alone has brought a hundred thousand tourists to Kaesong and transferred some 10 million USD to the DPRK so far. That isn’t counting the Kumgang-san tour. And this is just Hyundai Asan – there are many more tour agencies like Koryo Tours etc.
Yes, the tour is a highly profitable business unit for the conglomerate. Perhaps it is naïve but I do not believe the conglomerate would have been allowed to operate it, if it ran counter to its national interest i.e. that ROK officials have made their calculations and found that on net, it makes sense from a national security perspective. Tourism is a more legitimate source of foreign exchange than say, proliferation and counterfeiting, and may displace the latter. It may also be a particularly effective way to undermine regime propaganda – see the photograph above.
Since there is a state monopoly on tourism operation, they can price discriminate, and they base this on country of origin. Koryo Tours, Koreakonsult and other agencies that cater to Westerners charge many thousands of dollars/euros – way above my budget and far more than I was willing to contribute to the regime. The next tier of pricing is for Japan, Hong Kong, Taiwan etc. Still too high. I chose to minimize this by making arrangements through a Chinese agency based in Dandong, which is necessarily charged a price more appropriate to the average disposable income on the mainland. I also chose to take the train, which was a lot cheaper than flying there.
So it came to be that I followed Geoffrey’s footsteps and joined a Chinese tour group to the DPRK while I was in Beijing. Thus begin my Pyongyang Diaries.
Next time on Pyongyang Diaries: Getting There
