While trips have been known to end in tragedy, a select few continue to go to learn about the mysterious country.
Roman Harak. North Korean flag. CC BY-SA 2.0.
Traveling to North Korea is extremely rare, as it is not only logistically difficult, but also very dangerous. Only 200,000 people traveled to North Korea in 2018, which was a record number for the country. However, that number has gone down significantly since the beginning of the pandemic. Out of those 200,000 visitors, only about 5,000 of them were from the west, and the majority were from China. While 200,000 may sound like a large number, it is miniscule when compared to South Korea’s tourism numbers. In 2019, pre-pandemic, South Korea had over 9 million visitors. North Korea has been trying to encourage tourism in recent years for economic purposes—an effort that has been largely unsuccessful, with the exception of Chinese visitors, whose numbers have increased significantly the past few years. The citizens of most other countries in the world are put off by horrifying stories of visitors being detained and abused.
Individual travel to North Korea is not allowed under any circumstances; the only way to go is through a state-sanctioned tour. However, even this limited access is not available to everyone. North Korea typically does not allow visitors from South Korea; travel between the two countries is only permitted in extremely rare circumstances, and requires special permission from both governments. While South Korea is the only country that North Korea has specifically banned travel from, some other countries don’t allow their citizens to travel to North Korea. The U.S. State Department does not allow travel to North Korea unless someone is granted special permission, because the U.S. does not have diplomatic relations with North Korea. The threat of being arrested in North Korea is extremely high, and the United States government is unable to assist American prisoners in North Korea.
Statue of Kim Il-Sung. Roman Harak. CC BY-SA 2.0.
While most people would never even consider a trip to North Korea due to the risks, most of the visitors out of the small number who do go have relatively pleasant, if censored, experiences. One of these visitors is travel writer Lisa Jackson, from South Africa, who details the underlying fear that she and her fellow travelers felt during their stay in North Korea, as well as the charming cultural scenes that they witnessed, with the unspoken knowledge that they were almost certainly being deceived. Jackson noted that all of the North Korean citizens she saw wore badges with former Presidents Kim Il-Sung and Kim Jong-il, and said that the tour guide said it was a way of showing how close the leaders were to their hearts. Jackson writes that she took this as a sign of indoctrination, but it is also very likely that many North Korean citizens are simply too scared to voice their true opinions. This is one example of the confusing nature of a trip to North Korea: you can never assume that what you hear is true.
A highlight of Jackson’s trip was the Arirang Mass Games. These games were an enormous performance, with 100,000 performers dancing and marching. Jackson describes it as completely unbelievable: a joyous and one-in-a-lifetime spectacle. However, Jackson also noted that she and her fellow travelers had not been allowed to speak to anyone other than each other and their tour guide throughout their entire trip. This demonstrates the artificial nature of the limited tourism North Korea offers: impressive, patriotic spectacles coupled with a lack of interaction with any actual citizens.
Arirang Games in 2012. Huseyin. CC BY-NC 2.0.
Unlike Lisa Jackson’s trip, a jarring percentage of trips to North Korea end in tragedy. There are currently only four non-citizens being detained in North Korea—all from South Korea—but there have been 31 known non-citizens who have been detained since 1974, many for extremely minor crimes. One high profile example of this is Otto Warmbier, an American college student who was arrested while on one of the aforementioned group tours in North Korea in 2016, and eventually passed away from injuries sustained in a North Korean prison. Warmbier’s story reflects the sad reality that makes travel to North Korea so rare: people are aware that they may never return home. Warmbier was arrested trying to leave the country at Pyongyang airport, and accused of stealing a poster. Warmbier confessed to stealing the poster, but it is impossible to know what truly happened. Warmbier was supposedly given a trial, though the trial lasted only one hour. Warmbier was convicted and sentenced to fifteen years in prison, yet he was released about a year and a half later, in June 2017, and sent back to the U.S. in a coma. The North Korean government claimed that Warmbier had been injured to the point of being comatose from a condition called “botulism”, yet doctors found no evidence of botulism. However, doctors also did not find evidence of significant beatings, which was what many people assumed caused Warmbier’s brain injuries. Otto Warmbier sadly passed away only six days after his return home. It was Otto Warmbier’s arrest and death that led the U.S. to implement the ban on travel to North Korea.
Otto Warmbier’s case highlighted to the world just how careful one must be when traveling in the authoritarian country of North Korea. Additionally, given that the total number of visitors to North Korea is so small, the number of detainees, and thus, the risk, is disproportionately high. A trip to North Korea may appeal to a small number of people despite all its risks—it is a country shrouded in secrecy, and it is an incredibly unusual opportunity to be able to go there. But travelers should seriously consider the risks, and take caution to an extreme if they choose to visit. Lisa Jackson’s account of her visit to North Korea also emphasizes the prevalence of propaganda, and the importance of acknowledging the carefully curated story people are told when they travel there, as opposed to the truth.
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Calliana Leff
Calliana is currently an undergraduate student at Boston University majoring in English and minoring in psychology. She is passionate about sustainability and traveling in an ethical and respectful way. She hopes to continue her writing career and see more of the world after she graduates.