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Newsletters
Koryo Quarterly – October/November
2007
Dear All,
Over the last few months there has been a great deal going on in North Korea
which we outline below; Mass Games began in August and was then put on hold
while relief work to repair flood damage went on. After 2 weeks they were resumed
and continued until the 10th October which was Party Foundation Day. On the
diplomatic front things appear to be moving forward (guarded optimism is the
order of the day) with agreements with the United States being posited and
the Inter-Korean summit from October 2 – 4 which saw the President of
South Korea Roh Moo-Hyun and an entourage of hundreds of prominent industrialists
from the South headed for Pyongyang to meet with Leader Kim Jong Il which has
led to agreements on further co-operation and real progress.
We have put up our 2008 tour dates, Mass Games are expected again from August
to October and American citizens can expect to be welcomed again during that
time, all dates, prices, itineraries can be found on our website. Of course
this year’s tourism season is not yet finished; although it is now too
late for the Mass Games we still have the final tour of the year in November
(also the cheapest tour of the year!) which includes a chance to attend some
international football in Pyongyang as North Korea take on the mighty Australian
national team in a crucial Olympic qualifier, free ‘Come on Korea!’ T-shirts
for all who attend the match as part of our tour (what a sweetner! How can
you possibly turn that down?) So please see below for a smorgasbord of information,
news, nice pictures and more - happy reading!
US CITIZENS and NON-US
CITIZENS
OVERVIEW
Tours update
- 2008 Arirang
- shameless plug and Koryo Tours products for the next year
DPRK news
- DPRK-ROK summit
- Flooding and Typhoons
- US and DPRK, nearly best friends again!
- Terrorism and Drugs
- International Espionage
- DPRK on Google Earth
Koryo Tours
news
- women’s football world cup in China
- Koryo Tours Winter Party
- DPRK art
- singing waitresses
- Koryo Tours on FACEBOOK!
FULL TEXT BELOW
Tours update
- Mass Games is anticipated to take place again next year (2008)
between the dates of August 1st and October 10th, this is not
yet confirmed (as ever) but is strongly suspected and materials
promoting the event on these dates have already appeared in Pyongyang
so it is a high likelihood, this is reflected in the information
given on our tours pages for non-US citizens here and
for Americans here Don’t
miss the Arirang Mass Games, it truly is the most remarkable
show on earth, a clip can be seen at this link http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GwKWttrEaSM and
of course bear in mind that watching on a small screen can in
no way compare with the full spectacle of 100,000 performers
in the world’s largest stadium, there’s only one
place to see this show – Pyongyang!
- tours for US citizens are expected to be extended to 4 night
stays as opposed to the usual 3 night limit, however, as always
we do request maximum flexibility from all people booking tours
in order to take advantage of any loosening of the rules, also
as ever you will hear it from us first!
- Before you read on here’s the shamelessly blatant plug
for our own services, click here if
you like or just go ahead and read on, with any luck you’ll
be back to this link when you finish the page! We have scheduled
a special tour during Arirang for those who have visited before
but missed out on the games, there is also a new special interest
tour in June which focuses on DPRK arts and education as well
as one which coincides with the 2008 Pyongyang International
Film Festival. Hope you can join us in North Korea in 2008!
- Please take the time to check out the website for our newest
film ‘Crossing the Line’ http://www.comradejoe.com We
expect this to be available on DVD early next year.
DPRK news
- Roh Moo-Hyun, President of South Korea arrived in Pyongyang
on October 2nd for only the second visit by a South Korean President
since the division of the country in 1945, as yet there hasn’t
been a return visit by the North’s leaders (aside from
Kim Il Sung’s ‘visit’ to Seoul and other parts
of South Korea during the Korean War of course), a major difference
between this summit and that featuring Roh’s predecessor
Kim Dae-Jung in 2000 was that instead of flying to Pyongyang
Roh and his delegation of over 300 people crossed the land border
and arrived in Pyongyang by car (and a fleet of buses) cheered
along the route by flower-waving northerners Roh and Kim Jong
Il finally met in front of the April 25th House of Culture in
Central Pyongyang. The Summit meetings lasted for two days and
despite the invitation to extend the visit an extra day the delegation
departed again by road on October 4th, travelling along the recently
renovated Reunification Highway to Kaesong and then through the
DMZ again. The joint statement released at the end of the summit,
elaborately titled "the Development of Relations Between
the South and the North and Peaceful Prosperity" is an optimistic
but vague document containing many good intentions such as finally
signing a peace treaty to end the Korean War once and for all,
moving towards reunification through inter-Korean co-operation
rather than reliance on outside forces (sounds familiar to anyone
who has spent any time in the North!), moving towards denuclearisation
(again) of the Korean peninsular, and surely most importantly
it was agreed that the cheering squad supporting the South Korea
Olympic team will travel to Beijing by train travelling from
Seoul through DPRK directly to Beijing. A brief report on the
summit can be found at http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D8S295101&show_article=1&cat=0
- as you will probably be aware a sustained period of heavy rainfall
at the end of August and beginning of September caused massive
damage and flooding in many areas of the DPRK, the country’s
mountainous topography helped the water cause huge crop damage
from runoff from deforested slopes and massive destruction of
arable land washed away in the deluge, an estimated 1000 - 2000
people were killed and between 100,000 and 300,000 left homeless
in the aftermath with up to 12% of the country’s arable
land simply washed away. Almost every major humanitarian agency
has put out an appeal for funds and assistance to help the needy
and those worst affected by this disaster, we are directing donors
to contact Randal Eastman on dprk.projects@mac.com to
support the work of the Rotaract Club who are collecting funds
for medical aid as well as several other long-running projects
in the DPRK, please give generously if you can
- as if flooding wasn’t bad enough this was swiftly followed
up by DPRK being hit by Typhoon Wipha, a further 100,000 hectares
of land was reported as being destroyed in the event http://english.yonhapnews.co.kr/northkorea/2007/09/24/47/0401000000AEN20070924001900320F.HTML
- relationships between DPRK and the US appear to be improving
after the mutual animosity and name-calling of the past few years;
Aid from the US related to flood relief has been arriving in
Pyongyang, for example recently a 747 flew direct from the US
loaded with aid and heavy fuel oil shipments tied to the recent
agreement over Pyongyang’s declaration of its nuclear capabilities
are imminent, things finally seem to be moving in the right direction,
some civilian initiatives are even being mooted, for example
an invite has been extended to the New York Philharmonic Orchestra
to tour DPRK and a delegation went to Pyongayng for a recce earlier
this month http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/05/arts/05orch.html with
a plan to performing there in February 2008 - lets hope it goes
ahead!
- in related news the US looks set to remove DPRK from its ‘List
of States which sponsor Terrorism’ http://www.guardian.co.uk/korea/article/0,,2161579,00.html this
is more than a simply symbolic move (after all there are plenty
of states who sponsor terrorism who are absent from the list!)
as removal from this list enables DPRK to apply for financial
aid and loans from international institutions such as the World
Bank and the IMF, these bodies refuse any dealings with countries
named on the list making it a very powerful tool to wield over
poorer countries. However removal from the list is not confirmed
and it looks likely that Washington will push for further concessions
from Pyongyang before getting out the erasers http://edition.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/asiapcf/09/03/north.korea/index.html.
DPRK has however been dropped from another of the US’s
many lists though, they are now officially not a producer and
distributor of drugs http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601101&sid=aoz3eFSXpk8M
- one of the most unusual stories to come from DPRK recently
has been the statement by the state media that North Korean security
forces had apprehended several foreign spies and their North
Korean co-conspirators who were engaged in electronic espionage
of some kind, the Koreans involved in the conspiracy are believed
to have been ‘turned’ by the agents of the unnamed
other country who were also captured in the operation, this is
believed to be the first time that DPRK citizens have been publicly
implicated in such schemes, a good article can be found here http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Korea/II11Dg01.html although
the claim by an expert that Russia and China are “ideological
allies” of DPRK can be safely laughed off by anyone who
has paid any attention to global politics in the last 20 years
there remains speculation as to the nationalities of the foreign
spies captured and why this hasn’t been revealed, could
DPRK be saving a former "ideological ally’s" blushes?
More articles can be found at http://www.nkeconwatch.com/2007/09/11/north-korea-announces-arrest-of-spies-tied-to-foreign-agency/
- also at www.nkeconwatch.com run
by our good friend Curtis you can get hold of a patch for Google
Earth which labels pretty much everything there is to label in
North Korea, very useful for those going on a tour, very interesting
for just about anybody, load it up and enjoy the view, for the
ground level version you’ll have to join a tour though! http://bbs.keyhole.com/ubb/showthreaded.php?Cat=&Number=861907&page=&vc=1&PHPSESSID=#Post861907
Koryo Tours News
- on September 18th Koryo Tours organised a bus trip to attend
the Women’s World Cup football match between DPRK and Sweden,
101 people boarded the buses for the trip to Tianjin’s
brand swanking new Olympic stadium to watch the plucky Koreans
defeated by the mighty Swedes 2-1, it was however a case of everyone
being a winner (in some sense) as DPRK progressed to the next
stage on goal difference while Sweden, having failed to win by
the required 3 goal margin, were sent packing back home again.
Unfortunately for Korea they were duly eliminated in the quarter
final by world number one and tournament favourites Germany,
congratulations on the progress though to the DPRK Women’s
team for getting so far against tough opposition including a
2-2 tie with the US team and a 2-0 defeat of African Champions
Nigeria. Here you can find FIFA’s information on the team
and how they did http://www.fifa.com/womenworldcup/teams/team=1883726/index.html
- we will be having our annual Winter Party in Beijing at the
end of November - time and place to be announced - expect the
soju to be flowing
- Emily is running the gallery we have of DPRK artwork: www.pyongyangartstudio.com and
we can offer 20% discounts to any of our ex tourists
- as those of you who have travelled to the DPRK know, the Koreans
love to sing - enjoy watching this rendition of the famous 'Pangapsumnida'
(Nice to Meet You) from the lovely ladies at the teahouse on
the way down to Kaesong http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bEPwgFE8F9M
- we've finally done it - Koryo Tours have created a group on http://www.facebook.com catchily
named 'Koryo Tours' so for those of you who are already on the
'Book please come and find us and join the group in order to
be kept up to date with all the latest info. Look forward to
seeing you on there!
THANK YOU FOR READING THIS NEWSLETTER – PLEASE
PASS ON THE LINK TO ANYONE WHO MAY BE INTERESTED AND OF COURSE
WE WELCOME YOUR COMMENTS!
Nick, Hannah, Simon and Emily at Koryo Tours.
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