
Photos from Inside North Korea (2014) - iamjeff
http://www.earthnutshell.com/100-photos-from-north-korea-part1/
======
nchammas
Related: A YouTube channel [0] dedicated to videos of "everyday life" in North
Korea, from an Indonesian expat living there.

Couple of random examples:

* Walking around Pyongyang in the winter. [1]

* Going to a computer store in Pyongyang. [2]

[0]
[https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCzvCf_q10UZkUJE0lOav0ag](https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCzvCf_q10UZkUJE0lOav0ag)

[1]
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=If2ZkXz_1U8](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=If2ZkXz_1U8)

[2]
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FtDWYzwwuUs](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FtDWYzwwuUs)

~~~
blhack
Whoa. At 2:59 on [2]
([https://youtu.be/FtDWYzwwuUs?t=179](https://youtu.be/FtDWYzwwuUs?t=179)), it
looks like that camera is 100,000 won? Thats $111 according to google.

Any idea what's up with that? Am I interpreting the price wrong?

~~~
tuna-piano
Actually, Google is quoting the official rate.. but the official rate is
basically impossible to convert at. You'd need to convert at the black market
rate, which is supposedly about 8,000 north korean Won to $1. If it's actually
priced in North Korean Won, that would make it $12? I think we're missing
something.

[http://www.foxbusiness.com/markets/2017/02/05/north-
korean-e...](http://www.foxbusiness.com/markets/2017/02/05/north-korean-
economics-101-how-much-is-dollar-worth.html)

[https://www.nknews.org/2015/04/north-korea-the-most-
expensiv...](https://www.nknews.org/2015/04/north-korea-the-most-expensive-
place-in-the-world/)

~~~
pandaman
In the USSR there was a chain of stores ("Березка" \- "Birch tree") where
imported goods were sold for restricted currency. The currency was denominated
in "rubles" but could only be obtained in exchange for a hard currency. The
rate of the exchange has been arbitrary and the prices were too. The whole
system had been set up to incentivize citizens who earned foreign currency
(sailors, touring artists, diplomatic corps etc) to give it to the government.
Giving it to the government had been mandatory, of course, but if they got
nothing in return (or something as useless as regular rubles) they would be
trying harder to hide their earnings. I'd imagine something like that could be
going on here. It's hard to imagine an imported camera being offered for sale
to regular citizens.

~~~
helb
More on this:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beryozka](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beryozka)

We had something similar here (former Czechoslovakia, Tuzex shops) and
probably in most of the other socialist countries (eg. Poland,
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pewex](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pewex)).

The only way to pay in these stores was to use special cheques. These were
obtainable only in exchange for "western money", typically US Dollars, British
Pounds, or German Marks.

And of course, there was a black market for them, with prices going as much as
five times their nominal value (80s in Czechoslovakia, don't know about Poland
and others, but I imagine it was quite similar).

------
dominotw
This documentary has real footage from inside north Korea, not the usual
'north Korea show' you usually see everywhere.

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=csI1EoMOXXk](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=csI1EoMOXXk)

Secret footage shot by an activist inside north korea.

eg:

markets inside a north korean town
[https://youtu.be/csI1EoMOXXk?t=1366](https://youtu.be/csI1EoMOXXk?t=1366)

dead bodies of people who tried to escape in the yalu river

[https://youtu.be/csI1EoMOXXk?t=1145](https://youtu.be/csI1EoMOXXk?t=1145)

~~~
iamjeff
As an African (hardship implied), this hit hard- indescribably heartbreaking.

------
brianshaler
The photo and caption about the spectacular paintings in North Korea remind me
of how much I regret going into the country without a good amount of cash. On
the tour, we visited several galleries and artist studios stocked full of
large and exquisite paintings—most not propaganda—at what I remember being
very reasonable prices.

Obviously, they were unable to accept Visa, MasterCard, or American Express.

~~~
idlewords
That is the most capitalist regret ever.

------
foobarian
It strikes me how expensive these visits must be for NK. It seems that every
tourist gets a dedicated guide, while someone (or multiple people) is probably
also monitoring them remotely. Then, consider the little details like that
empty restaurant they cleared for the sake of a tourist. In terms of manpower
it's probably a factor > 1 relative to the number of visitors.

Imagine every visitor to the US was escorted by a government employee, with
background surveillance attached. It would cost a fortune!

~~~
mseebach
"'Best Jobs In North Korea' Pay $62 A Month"

[http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-
way/2013/04/03/176121772/...](http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-
way/2013/04/03/176121772/best-jobs-in-north-korea-pay-62-a-month-now-theyre-
diplomatic-pawns)

NK is not exactly resource-constrained on labour. As others have pointed out,
the visits are a valuable source of foreign currency. (And propaganda - the
number of people in this thread uttering variations of "that doesn't look too
bad" is staggering).

------
egourlao
I had already read a couple of blogposts relating travels in North Korea, but
this is the first one that made it feel like a gleeful adventure. The corn
fields, the countryside cities, the small picnic and barbecue parties with
food and soju... It reminds me of good times that I had in South Korea. Of
course, it always has to be considered that it's also NK's propaganda
machine/tourism industry in action, but some of those pictures warmed my heart
up.

~~~
iamjeff
There is an element of adventure to these pictures. Some of his pictures are
clearly illegal, disallowed, or uncomfortable in the North Korean context.
There are examples of these especially in the second instalment [1]. Having
spent some time in small-town Russia, I could almost taste the soulless
architecture. The sense of adventure is further heightened when watching vlogs
from Jaka Parker (noted elsewhere here), including this one video of him
travelling almost 200km outside of Pyongyang along North Korea’s major highway
[2]. There are remarkably few cars on the road and at several points, it felt
like B-roll footage from a movie set a-la The Walking Dead: the desertion in
the roads of this nuclear power is simply astonishing.

On a related note, several tour companies across Africa offer overland tours
including a 73-day journey across 10 countries in Eastern and Southern African
countries [3] and a terrifying 27-day trip across the western edges of the
Sahara Desert [4, 5, 6].

[1] 100 Photos Inside North Korea – Part 2
([http://www.earthnutshell.com/100-photos-from-north-korea-
par...](http://www.earthnutshell.com/100-photos-from-north-korea-part2/))

[2] 100kms outside Pyongyang - North Korea
([https://youtu.be/zCjpxZDTyqs](https://youtu.be/zCjpxZDTyqs))

[3] Nairobi to Cape Town Overland Tours ([https://www.absoluteafrica.com/The-
Absolute-Safari/AS71](https://www.absoluteafrica.com/The-Absolute-
Safari/AS71))

[4] ([http://www.overlandingwestafrica.com/trip-overview-
availabil...](http://www.overlandingwestafrica.com/trip-overview-
availability/))

[5] Mauritania 2013. Exploring West Africa by expedition truck
([https://www.flickr.com/photos/128667255@N04/sets/72157649867...](https://www.flickr.com/photos/128667255@N04/sets/72157649867575375/))

[6] Overland West Africa - MAURITANIA - 2013-2014
([https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eRHiAXjyHTk](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eRHiAXjyHTk))

~~~
toomanybeersies
Those overland tours are surprisingly affordable.

~~~
iamjeff
Wasn't sure whether to take you literally, but the quoted cost does not
include the cost of tours/etc bundled up as the Kitty. However, the price for
the overland tour over Eastern and Southern Africa (the Safari route) are
comparable to a round-trip plane ticket from Nairobi to Johannesburg and a
3-day stay in Jo'burg. The overland is about 73 days long and, from past
testimonials, adventure of a life time.

------
idlewords
Keep in mind these are photos of the capital, in areas that tourists are
allowed to see.

There's a fascinating photoset from 2008 by some Europeans who through a
bureaucratic miracle were allowed to enter and cross North Korea by train:
[http://vienna-pyongyang.blogspot.com/2008/09/khabarovsk-
khas...](http://vienna-pyongyang.blogspot.com/2008/09/khabarovsk-khasan-
border-russiadprk.html)

~~~
waqf
Did you read the first few lines of the page? Or pretty much any of the
captions?

> _Most tourists only experience the political smokescreen of Pyongyang; I had
> the privilege in visiting all corners on one of the longest tours ever
> executed (no pun intended) for foreigners into the hermit kingdom._

Photos from an officially supervised tour, yes, but limited to Pyongyang,
definitely not.

~~~
jpatokal
It's not quite that straightforward: through exploitation of a bureaucratic
loophole, they managed to enter the DPRK through a border that's supposed to
be closed to foreigners and had quite a bit of time essentially unsupervised
(although most of it was on a train).

------
jpatokal
(2014), and posted to HN before:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10003615](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10003615)

But still fascinating!

------
yequalsx
It's immoral to visit such a country. It has concentration camps. It tortures
on a large scale. It's citizens suffer and visiting the country gives money to
an evil regime.

~~~
tuna-piano
We've had a strategy of isolationism towards them for 50+ years, and it
doesn't seem to have worked. If you wanted North Korea to be as free as
possible in 20 years, what would you do today to help enable that? I think
visiting might in fact be a net positive. Also, Jimmy Carter went there, so
maybe you should too!

That said, I struggle with this question. In some ways you're absolutely
correct. My personal struggle: North Korea has a chain of restaurants abroad,
and I walked by one quite often while I was in Bangkok. Out of (morbid)
curiosity, I would have loved to dine there and talk to the (very attractive)
North Korean waitresses. I couldn't stomach giving the regime the $3 for the
meal though.

In some ways, going to the NK restaurants supports the quazi-slavery of the
workers in the restaurant. But in other ways, that spending enables the
restaurant workers to live in Thailand and not North Korea. In the end, I
decided not to visit, as I couldn't help but think of how I would feel about
someone dining at a Nazi restaurant in the 40s. Difficult ethical questions
though.

------
bane
There's a very recent and pretty interesting series of interviews with Thae
Yong-ho on Arirang. He's the highest ranking North Korean to ever defect (he
was the Deputy Ambassador to England and defected last year). He provides some
pretty fascinating insights into life in North Korea from a North Korean
perspective.

[https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=Thae+Yong+Ho+Sp...](https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=Thae+Yong+Ho+Special)

------
rgerganov
The female tourist guide may have problems after the leakage of these
pictures.

~~~
thewhitetulip
Are NK citizens having complete access to the regular Internet? If no, then it
wouldn't matter to them

------
FTA
Here is also a recent (2015) sequence of dashcam photos through Pyongyang:
[https://www.mapillary.com/app/?lat=39.02463076010619&lng=125...](https://www.mapillary.com/app/?lat=39.02463076010619&lng=125.7870475241894&z=9.475876720316464&pKey=IjWuV2iAi43ARg4sLdh6tA&focus=photo).

------
palerdot
>Even military officers traverse the streets of Pyongyang by bicycle. Cars
exist few and far between, reserved only for the wealthy and elite.

This is really fascinating, albeit being an unintended consequence of
disproportionate wealth distribution.

------
0x54MUR41
I also recommend to check out this one [1]. It's about someone who has
traveled to North Korea for 8 days. His travel documentation is awesome
because he told us from start to finish. Beside that, he attached photos
inside it.

[1]: [https://medium.com/swlh/8-days-in-north-
korea-5c651c3883de](https://medium.com/swlh/8-days-in-north-
korea-5c651c3883de)

------
ionised
One thing I always think when seeing images of NK towns and cities is how
_clean_ they look. They seem to be immaculately maintained.

Though I suppose that is all for show and another word could be _sterile_.

------
United857
Fascinating pics -- however, his guides in North Korea will likely get in
trouble due to their publication.

~~~
spodek
No they won't. These are the views every tourist gets shown. Some are nearly
the same as pictures I took on my visits. These are the parts of the country
for show.

------
elastic_church
"Isn't it stately and above board national defense, not subservient to outside
forces?"

of course why do you ask!

------
mproud
Already seen these. As another poster has bred, this is not the first time
these have been posted.

