A group of Western tourists were treated to a surreal performance of North Korean schoolchildren dancing and singing against a backdrop of animated ballistic missiles during the first officially sanctioned trip to the Hermit Kingdom in five years.
The unsettling choreographed display was just the tip of the weirdness iceberg for the handful of thrill-seeking travelers from the UK, France, Germany and Australia who made the four-day trek to the Asian country’s remote Rason region last week.
One tourist revealed the trip was so closely monitored by Kim Jong Un’s repressive regime that he even had to ask permission to use the bathroom.
“They’ve had five years to fix things. North Koreans are so sensitive about what they show tourists. If this is the best they can show, I dread to think what else is out there,” another visitor remarked.
It was the first time since 2020 tourists were allowed to enter — the notoriously secretive nation locked itself down at the start of the pandemic, leaving many to wonder whether Westerners would ever again be able to cross its border.
But Young Pioneer Tours, a company that facilitates trips into the country, was finally able to resume operations after being thwarted for the last half-decade.
“The North Koreans aren’t robots. They have opinions, goals, and a sense of humor. And in our briefing we encourage people to listen to and understand them,” Rowan Beard, who runs the company, told BBC.
Beard told the outlet once they received the green light, the tourism group had no trouble filling its available slots, which sold out in just five hours.
But it was no ordinary vacation, with no cell phone or internet service — and not so much as an ATM available for use.
The tourists were given a strict set of guidelines to follow, including don’t insult the country’s leaders, don’t mock North Korea’s ideology and don’t be judgmental of their unusual and repressive way of life, the outlet writes.
They were also followed and watched closely at all times by the country’s ever-present minders, who make sure visitors don’t run afoul of the restrictions or stray from the itinerary.
“A couple of times I even had to let them know when I wanted to use the bathroom,” Mike O’Kennedy, 28, a British YouTuber told the outlet.
“I’ve never had to do that anywhere in the world.”
The group entered the country through China on their trip to Rason in the far northeast — more than 500 miles from the capital city of Pyongyang, which once occasionally welcomed occasional tourism groups, albeit under strict supervision and no real freedom of movement.
As in previous North Korean sojourns, the travelers were closely controlled, including pre-arranged visits to locations like a beer factory, a newly built and well-stocked pharmacy and a school.
A group of eight-year-old children put on a show for the visiting westerners, gleefully singing as a large projection screen showed dozens of ballistic missiles being launched before striking buildings in an unidentified animated metropolis in a violent explosion.
North Korea carefully curates its image to the outside world, with official photographs released by the dynastic Kim family, which has ruled the country with an iron fist since 1948.
The photos show off glinting, thriving cityscapes that some of the visitors noted are vastly different in reality.
“The roads are awful, the pavements are wobbly, and the buildings are weirdly constructed,” said Joe Smith, a former writer for NK News who has been to the country three times, noting the dilapidated hotel’s outdated décor reminded him of “his grandma’s living room.”
O’Kennedy said despite his best efforts to toe the line, his Western sensibilities led to at least one dodgy moment.
During a visit to a North Korea-Russia Friendship house, he was presented with a visitor book to sign.
“I went blank and wrote something like ‘I wish the world peace.’ Afterwards my guide told me that was an inappropriate thing to write. That made me paranoid,” he said.
“Generally, the guides did a great job of making us feel safe. There were just a couple of moments when I thought, this is bizarre.”
Groups that arrange curiosity tourism visits to North Korea said the cultural exchange, however restricted and tightly controlled, benefits everyday residents of the despotic regime, who have little to no knowledge of the world outside their borders.
“North Koreans get the chance to engage with foreigners. This allows them to come up with new ideas, which, in a country this closed, is so important,” said Greg Vaczi from Koryo Tours.