Newsletters

Koryo Quarterly – August 2008

Dear All,

Welcome to the latest edition of our newsletter. Peak season for DPRK tours is right upon us now and Mass Games begins on August 4th, running until September 30th (with a possible extension not yet confirmed). This season looks set to be a big one despite the Olympic madness in Beijing causing hotel prices here to be hugely inflated - (this greediness has caused many to remain empty), the difficulties in obtaining the necessary Chinese visas and of course the pollution (see pic!) which is still here (and the Olympic slogan of course remains; ‘Beijing Welcomes You’). A succession of national holidays in Korea are approaching. First we have Victory Day on July 27th, the anniversary of the Armistice which bought Korean War hostilities to an end (still waiting for that peace agreement though, a mere 55 years later!), then Liberation Day on August 15th, the only holiday observed North and South of the DMZ marking the surrender of the Japanese (AKA: VE day), and finally the biggest day of this year; September 9th – National Day, an explanation of which lies below, read on if you want to learn more!

Once again DPRK has managed to make headlines for good and bad reasons on recent weeks; construction, demolition, shootings, etc all of which are expanded upon below in our DPRK news section. Koryo Tours also managed to wangle a mass media presence with an extensive mention on BBC Radio 4’s Excess Baggage travel program (in which we were described as pioneers!) a link to that program can be found in the Koryo Tours news section also below. A cornucopia of DPRK news awaits those brave enough to read on!

As before the big news though in terms of tourism in DPRK is the Mass Games event – this year for the first time two different performances have been arranged with the classic Arirang show being performed on Mon, Wed, Fri and Sat, and the brand new, not-yet-seen (even by the critics!) Prosper the Motherland! taking place on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Both of these shows feature the full complement of 100,000 performers in the May Day Stadium and both will run to approx 90 minutes offering anyone who s there the chance to witness what is simply the greatest show on Earth, some information on the events can be found here. The Olympics will pale in comparison… a double dose of Mass Games will undoubtedly be vastly superior to the sight of amateur athletes running around in circles and throwing things!

Anyway before we plunge into the news items please do consider coming on tour with us, more info can be found at our website and below and the links to the tours pages as ever are here:

US CITIZENS and NON-US CITIZENS

OVERVIEW Tours update shameless plug for our product Pyongyang Film Festival DPRK news Construction of Ryugyong Hotel Resumed Korea vs. Korea World Cup football…again! Nuclear cooling tower demolished South Korean tourist shot Relief work continues National Day What is it? What goes on? Koryo Tours news Koryo Tours on BBC Radio Cricket comes to DPRK! Pyongyang Pub Quiz Crossing the Line available in Beijing Shameless appeal for help

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Tours update

• Usual Shameless Plug - Application for all tours taking place during the Mass Games season is now underway and some tours are very popular and filling up fast while others still have plenty of space on them. If you are American and would like to travel with a smaller group then we can suggest US Tour 5 as the tour most likely to have the least people on it. We do also offer lower-priced tours for second timers focusing on visiting the classic sites and the lesser visited spots, these tours also will have very small groups so sign on up without further ado if this is what you are looking for.
• Two Thumbs Up! - The Biannual Pyongyang film festival takes place this year in September and features a good range of films from a great variety of countries including France, UK, Iran, Russia, China, and many more. Koryo Tours once again have been deeply involved in the organisation of the festival and assisted many filmmakers in entering their movies into the competition as well as securing guests for the event. A mooted visit by Oscar Winning Director Kevin MacDonald is on the cards and those who take part in our Pyongyang film festival tour in September will not only see the Mass Games and the best of the DPRK but also be able to attend the festival itself and schmooze with the great and good of the DPRK film industry. Nick Bonner has been to Sundance, Tribeca and more but nothing compares to the Pyongyang silver screen. If you’re a movie lover you can fly to Cannes anytime; try something different!
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GwKWttrEaSM has a clip of the Mass Games, of course this doesn’t come close to being comparable with actually seeing the event live and in full effect; watch to whet the appetite!
  
  

DPRK news

Construction Time Again – Despite standing derelict since 1992 (work began in 1988) Pyongyang’s giant Ryugyong Hotel which was once memorably (and inaccurately) described as “the world’s worst building” has seen work recommence on its upper stories. Although details are sketchy it is known that a subsidiary of the Egyptian telecoms giant Orascom (who recently signed a deal to run the proposed DPRK mobile phone network) has taken control of completion of the building, a 105-story pyramid that dominates the Pyongyang skyline. The timescale for completion is unclear, but work is definitely taking place there, during a visit in May Koryo Tours staff and tourists saw a red flag flying from the crane perched at the top of the building, this denotes the presence of a work unit at the site, and recently the top few floors (designed to be a series of revolving restaurants) have been covered in construction tarpaulins. Watch this space for updates and as soon as the hotel is up and running we’ll be offering you the chance to stay there, see you in the bar on the 105th floor!

A Game (and country) of Two Halves – As you may be aware recently North and South Korea faced each other in home and away matches (although the North’s ‘home’ game was played in Shanghai in front of a crowd of mainly South Koreans) in qualifying matches for the 2010 football world cup, both matches ended in 0-0 draws and both teams managed to get through to the next stage of qualification where they were lucky (!) enough to be drawn together once more. The group can be seen on FIFA’s website the top two teams from each group go through to the World Cup in South Africa, the third place teams play off for a chance to compete. The first Korean derby match is due to be played in Pyongyang on September 10th and if this does indeed go ahead (the match will definitely be played but it may be moved to China as was the last one, although since then South Korea has hosted the North without incident to the favour may be returned) then we will be offering the chance to attend to all our tourists who are there at the time, get your DPRK scarves now (available at Koryo Tours’ office only!) , Underdogs vs. Running dogs part 2!

• No More Nukes – In late June the DPRK publicly demolished the cooling tower at their Yongbyon Nuclear power plant, foreign reporters were invited to view the event which, due to the redundant nature of the tower anyway, was little more than a gesture but has had the desired effect of opening up channels for DPRK to be more widely accepted into the international community. US response was guardedly welcoming of the move and the wait for a timetable for the proposed steps forward along the road to international recognition and a scaling back of the sanctions regime against DPRK (Conditions of the demolition) now begins. A report can be read here and a video of the actual demolition itself can be seen here
• Bad News - On a more tragic note a South Korean tourist at the Hyundai Asan-run Kumgangsan (Geumgangsan in South Korean transliteration) resort was shot dead by a Korean People’s Army sentry after somehow trespassing into a secure military area on July 11th. Exact details of the story are still slowly emerging and at this time it is still unclear exactly what happened other than that a woman was fatally shot, the Kumgang resort has been closed down for the time being. A frequently updated report can be found here. This tragedy has not affected tours to DPRK-proper (ie: anywhere other than the Kumgangsan resort)
• Relief work for areas damaged by last year’s catastrophic flooding is ongoing in DPRK, as before we would ask anyone interested in donating towards assistance projects to contact the Rotaract Club who continue their vital work in Korea. Best is to contact Randal Eastman on dprk.projects@mac.com The Rotaract Club are collecting funds for medical aid as well as several other long-running projects in the DPRK, please give generously if you can.
• also at http://www.nkeconwatch.com run by our good friend Curtis you can get hold of a recently updated 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=#Post8619077
  
  

National Day

• What is it? - September 9th 1948 is the date of the foundation of the DPRK; the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. Although Japanese rule of the Korean peninsular ended in 1945 the country was divided along the 38th parallel by the occupying armies of the United States (in South Korea), and the Soviet Union (in the North). The Korean Workers’ Party had been established in 1945 with Kim Il Sung as party leader and it was under this Party that the Republic began life less than 3 years later (the Workers’ Party to this day rules the DPRK) just before the withdrawal of the US army (who would return soon thereafter though for the Korean war, and have not yet fully left since) and the establishment of the Republic of Korea in the Southern part of the country (seen as a puppet state by the DPRK)
• What goes on? - Every September 9th is a big occasion marked by a national holiday but this year is a particularly big event as it is the 60th anniversary with 60 being an auspicious number in Korea. So big celebrations are expected; the new Mass Games performance Prosper the Motherland! has been created (first new Mass Games since 2002) to mark the occasion and there is even a chance that DPRK Leader Kim Jong Il will attend the shows on the day itself. A Military Parade is also a possibility although tourists are not permitted to attend these (they are very infrequently held in fact despite being featured on every news report on DPRK ever shown on BBC or CNN!) and all will combine to create an electric atmosphere in the usually quiet and restrained Pyongyang. There won’t be another date as big as this until August 15th 2010, the 65th anniversary of Liberation from Japan.
  
  

Cricket coaching from the experts

Pyongyang's First ever Pub Quiz

DPRK's 1st batsman

Koryo Tours News

• Koryo Tours features in BBC’s Excess Baggage: - a discussion on tourism to DPRK who goes and why! http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/excessbaggage/
• Hannah's Cricket Tour report - May Day Holiday was a week of several ‘firsts’ in Pyongyang – the first ever cricket match and the first ever pub quiz (see below)! The cricket match was held in Taesongsan Park and comprised of the Juche Team & Reunification team (both made up of members from Shanghai cricket club) and the Pyongyang Cricket Club – newly formed for the event. The latter was made up of 4 Koreans who had never played or seen cricket before, the Koryo Tours staff, a few tourists and a delegate from the British Embassy in Pyongyang. The event was sponsored by DHL who paid for the shipment of a roll of coconut matting from the UK to Pyongyang and had support from the DPRK Ministry of Sport. The match went superbly. The opening batsmen were 2 Koreans who played incredibly well especially considering they had only picked up a cricket bat once before at a practise in Moranbong park a few days earlier. Picnic lunch was provided by accordian-playing waitresses and after the 2nd match we had a traditional cucumber tea. Despite not getting the highest scores, the PCC were the clear winners that day (trophy in the Koryo Tours office!). The day rounded off with a sunset boat trip along the Taedonggang followed by a black-tie dinner in the Yanggakdo Revolving Restaurant.
• Simon’s pub quiz report - On May 1st this year I organised the first ever pub quiz in Pyongyang, 12 teams competed for the coveted title of quiz masters of the DPRK in the Yanggakdo Golf course bar, over a couple of hours the brave contestants wrestled with questions on diverse topics including a current events (a particularly hard round in a place without internet access). it was a hard and fairly-fought quiz and the winning team was presented with a bottle of Pyongyang’s famous Adder Liquor
• Our latest film Crossing the Line is now available for purchase the film presents the previously untold story of James Dresnok – the last living American defector still living in DPRK – the film’s website is http://www.comradejoe.com Hope you have had a chance to see the film, let us know what you think! The film is also available on DVD in Koryo Tours’ office in Beijing or www.verymuchso.co.uk We also have all 3 films in a gift box for that ideal Christmas present for those fascinated with all things Korean!
• Comrade Kim goes Flying - we are in development with our new romantic comedy feature film…to be filmed in Pyongyang with Korean cast and crew….more about this later – but a coal miner dreams of flying on the trapeze until she is thwarted by the strong man….
• HELP!!! - We have been asked by our partners in Pyongyang to help find travel agencies in France and Canada who would be interested in starting up tours to the DPRK. If you know of any who you think would be potential candidates we’d be really grateful of any suggestions. Also, we are always looking for new channels of promotion and one good way is to get our name in travel magazines or expat magazines. If you are an avid reader of a particular travel magazine/expat magazine that you think would be interested in hearing from us then do let us know.
  

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.