In the news: Top South Korea party seeks talks with North on killing

Yeah that’s right, a South Korean woman was shot and killed in the Geumgangsan Tourist/Military district recently. The duality of this resort is uncanny. You are a tourist, you are encouraged to get excited about the trip and then you are frightened about it. You are informed that you are entering a military compound and should never take any pictures unless explicitly told so. You are closely supervised, counted, and branded with a make-shift passport that must be worn at all times. And despite all of this, someone actually managed to freaking die.

I have to admit I was a bit surprised to hear about this, and despite the rhetoric of how Geumgangsan is supported by leftists working to put money in Kim Il Sung’s hands, I was a bit saddened by this event. Not for the woman’s death (which honestly is as tragic as any death brought upon its victim by its victim through blatant disregard for the rules), but for the fact that the tourist traffic has been suspended indefinitely. No indefinitely here does not mean infinitely as it is often construed. It simply means that no one is talking about that at the moment and it is closed until further notice.

My Experience at Geumgangsan

I managed to go to this military paradise back in February. Forgive me if my tone is not readily discernable as sarcastic or not. I do not pretend to condone the actions, particularly the anti-humanitarian ones, of the Northerners but for me personally there is a very strong allure to the north. Geumgangsan really was quite a stunning sight. I consider myself a better than average-educated person when it comes to North Korea. I suppose the majority of my attraction is to understand the prolonged stalemate of this largely defunct society. I feel like I know enough about things to at least get why they’ve been so “uncooperative” in the eyes of the west. In general I feel that the western nations need a large dose of humility but with regard to North Korea a deeper understanding into the beliefs that are so broadly ingrained into the 22 million+ people in the north would actually benefit everyone. Understanding Juche does not have to mean embracing it or condoning it.

If you bothered to read my previous post you would know that I had really really wanted to go and was shut down by my benevolent employer. I cannot escape the morality issues involved here but the curiosity and the draw towards the unknown remain quite strong. Maybe I will be on this side of the earth for the next mass games.

Anyways, going in Winter to Geumgangsan is about half price and every bit as beautiful…just colder, a lot colder.

Here are a couple shots that I took: (click for larger view)

Commercial compound

Anyways, as I was saying. It was sad to see that this will be shut off, it is surely a political relations nightmare. There is no telling how exacerbated this tale will become and how few people (South Koreans) will be willing to go in the future. They tend to latch on to urban legends and tales of one person having bad luck and it tends to be spread around as a general warning for everything.

Like others who have posted blogs about this, I am equally baffled as to how this could have happened. It seems like maybe she even snuck out and deceived the people who are put in place to keep guests from doing just that. Maybe she felt she had just as much right to be out in the world as anyone else (she would have a point there). I really have no idea. The point is that whatever she was thinking, she paid the ultimate price for it.

In my experience we were well supervised and even the above picture of us drinking Korean beer (which by the way is delicious) on the lake was a staged photo-op that took much reassuring to the guides of the benign nature of what we were trying to do. They always seem a bit on edge about the tourists there, perhaps embodying the precarious nature of the entire arrangement. This is open to interpretation of course.

I’ll leave you with an account of a woman in our group who claimed to have tried to do something similar and what she said she saw. This is unverifiable of course.

A Canadian girl from our group claimed to have tried walking back on the main road to the hotel complex from the commercial complex. I suppose the 15 minute bus wait had proven too much for her. Anyways she was spotted by some employees and they immediately recognized the danger of the situation and herded her into their makeshift pre-fab house to avoid an approaching vehicle. She claims to have stayed there for about 15-20 minutes and been served tea. She said that the tiny room had a small speaker that spouted propaganda and could not be turned off (this is much like other reports within Pyongyang and other places). Every meager item in the place was stamped Hyundai-asan. I suppose this is to keep it out of the hands of the native people. I suppose the employees were the ethnic Chinese that are allowed to roam a bit more freely but are still restricted.

Drinking North Korean lagers on frozen Lake Samilpo

Anyways there is a lot more to say about this but in the interest of keeping a semi-concise blog (minus the content) I’ll end it here. Take this information for what you like.