Day 3: Downtown Pyongyang

The reunification monument.  The North Koreans do want to reunite the two Koreas, but under Kim Jong Il's rule.  The two sides of this sculpture, obviously enough, represent North and South Korea.  The driver made too good a time heading back from Kaesong and the next act in the North Korean tourism song and dance wasn't quite ready.  We pulled over here and waited around this monument for 30 minutes before it was time to move on. 

The North Korean side is portrayed as strong, dignified, and willing to help their needy brothers.

South Korea is shown as desperate, impoverished, and pleading for help from their neighbor to the north.

The USS Pueblo, captured by the North Koreans in 1968 and is the only US Navy ship in currently captivity anywhere in the world.  The guy in the foreground is the other minder assigned to us, the hard-drinking, chain-smoking Mr. O.  When we arrived there about a hundred North Korean soldiers on board who weren't too thrilled to see us.  Seemed awfully tense and awkward, especially considering anti-American documentaries are screened here.  Some of the soldiers look like kids, couldn't have been much older than 15... if at all.  

The bullet holes from the fire-fight that resulted in the ship's capture.  One US sailor was killed, the rest of the crew, some 80 men in all, were captured and tortured for 11 months before they were released.

The ship's flag, as well as the captain's uniform.

Manning the ship's only armament.

The girl is the one who runs the tours of the ship.

After seeing the Pueblo, we took a ride on the Pyongyang metro, here's the ticket.

Statue of Kim Il Sung at the national library.  We had to bow to a Kim Il Sung statue on one occasion.  Refusing to do so can land you in some trouble, people that aren't willing to play along apparently shouldn't so much as think about traveling to North Korea.  Here we got a chance to use North Korea's intranet.  Supposed to be a lot like internet, except it allows access only to North Korean sites approved by the state, and apparently only accessible to select few anyways.  They allowed me to do a search using their search engine (they took a few steps to allow the whole process to work in English).  I looked up the most innocuous thing I could think of, "cars."  I got 3 or 4 results and I don't think any of them were relevant. 

Ridiculous Kim Jong Il painting.

Kim Il Sung square... largely empty aside from the people practicing for the Arirang mass gymnastics that take place every August.

The tower near the center is the Juche Tower. Named after the Juche philosophy created by Kim Il Sung.  The whole city goes dark at night and this tower is the only thing that remains lit at all times.  The Juche philosophy centers around self-reliance and the notion that man decides and controls his own fate. Ironically North Korea relies heavily on foreign aid and the North Korean state determines the fates of its  people.

Kim Il Sung once again, he's pretty much everywhere. 

The only other non-Korean or Chinese people we saw the whole time are these portraits of communist icons Karl Marx and Vladimir Lenin.  

North Korea's Arch of Triumph, they're quite proud that it's taller than the original in Paris.  It commemorates the Japanese being driven from Korea, which is attributed solely to Kim Il Sung and his resistance movement.  In fact, during the closing days of WWII, the Russians drove the Japanese out in a matter of days and faced little resistance; Kim Il Sung played only the most minor of roles.  The few Chinese tourists present did manage to ruin my shot. 

Pyongyang as seen from the top of the Juche Tower.

Plaques from various places that study the North Korean permutation of communism, located at the entrance oft he Juche Tower.  Looks like Kim Il Sung has a following in the USA too, or did back in 1975 anyways.

Pyongyang's not bad-looking from a distance.

Building across the street from the Juche Tower.  Don't remember what it is, it's a bit over-exposed, so much so you cane barely see the Kim Il Sung portrait on it.

Monument that commemorates the founding the Korean Workers Party. The sickle, hammer, and brush represent the three facets of the Party, the peasant, worker, and intellectual, respectively.

Had lunch in yet another restaurant that lacked electricity.  One of the interesting things about restaurants in North Korea is there doesn't ever appear to be a menu.  Most tourist meals consist of several courses but you really don't have much say over what you get, if you don't like something, you simply choose not to eat it.  The minders do attempt to ascertain any dietary restrictions tourists may have (for example, they would ask, "You do eat meat, right?")  

The Pyongyang Metro, clean but old, run-down, and kinda smelly.  Got lots of stares from North Koreans here.  I was never able to determine for certain whether it's true that regular North Koreans aren't legally allowed to interact with tourists or if they're simply wary about it because everything they're taught about foreigners.  Maybe both, but either way they kept their distance.  The two Koreans I sat by on the metro quickly changed seats and preferred to stare from a distance.  According the US State Department, if a tourist attempts to interact with any of the locals, it can be construed as espionage.

A Kim Il Sung painting that suggests he had a personal hand in building the Pyongyang Metro.  It seems the dude knows everything about everything.

Some real North Koreans, these people are quite privileged, life tends to much worse outside of the showcase capital city.

Every subway car is adorned with a Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il portrait.