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North Korea proves tough sell as tour destination...no really!
EFLAs the South Korean tour bus rattles across the 1) No teasing the children with candy bars, 2) No teasing little Kim with strip bars. "Donât point your finger at the portraits of Kim Jong-il and Kim Il-sung," says Park Chae-eun. Better not to use the names of North Koreaâs leader or his late father, she adds, but if itâs unavoidable, "always use honorifics. For example, it should be General Kim Jong-il or President Kim Il-sung." Always avert your eyes! A visit to the Diamond Mountain resort is a journey through minefields in more ways than one: real ones in the DMZ, linguistic ones for the unsuspecting visitor and commercial ones for Hyundai, the deeply wounded conglomerate that runs the tours. The Lonely Planet Guide did not mention this! Once tourists disembark, they climb valleys, bask in a hot spring, watch a North Korean acrobatic show and shop at duty-free Hyundai stores packed with Western liquor and North Korean brand Red Star and Paradise cigarettes. ...gaze upon the concentration camps, practice sprinting to the fall-out shelters...still no mention in Lonely Planet! But the place is hardly tourist-friendly. Ya think? One trip was suspended for two hours because a minder inspected the shiny pebbles neatly arranged at the foot of a Kim monument and found one missing, said Hwang Mi-jung, a South Korean tour guide. In 1999, North Korea held a South Korean tourist for six days, accusing her of "preaching defection" to a North Korean minder. I was once kicked out of a church in Ethiopia. I looked suspicious. The number of tourists is fewer than one-third of what Hyundai had expected. Many South Koreans find it a hassle to apply 10 days in advance while their government vets them before letting them cross the Cold Warâs last frontier. Not much interest huh? Give it time. Maybe some glossy pamphlets would help. Highlight their nuclear program and cuisine. Posted by: Dragon Fly 2004-02-20 |
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