The mystery of what actually goes on behind the illusive North Korean border has fascinated the globe ever since it detached and went rogue in the 1950s.
Sometimes, stories of life on the ground seep through the cracks of Kim Jong-un’s authoritarian information wall. We have heard gut-churning tales of starvation, secret prisons and the draconian social law that has silenced potential dissidents for over 70 years.
Travel to the North has become an increasingly intimidating prospect in the years following the tragic Otto Warmbier incident, where the US student was presumably poisoned after allegedly ripping a propaganda poster off a wall.
That small crime resulted in a sentence of 15 years hard labor. But shortly after his sentencing, the 21-year-old suffered a severe neurological injury from an “unknown cause” and fell into a coma. He died a year later after being allowed to return to the US.
So it’s safe to say the daunting consequences of making a small mistake have never been so blindingly obvious for foreign travelers.
Still, around 5000 Western tourists venture across the border annually for a stickybeak, but even then they are forced to stick close to their official guide, who gives a very curated tour of the nicer parts of the city. Nothing to see here.
Due process and fair trials are rarities, and any slight movement that may suggest you’re an enemy of the state can quickly lead you to a concentration camp.
A South Korean official has shared his first-hand perspective of the reality citizens face under the Kim dynasty, revealing he was close to being detained for committing a cardinal sin while on a short trip to Pyongyang, the hermit kingdom’s capital.
After traveling to the North in 2003, Ki-yon Kil knows better than anyone that a simple question can lead to being shackled inside one of Kim Jong-un’s prisons.
He visited North Korea as part of the Geumgangsan Mountain Tourism Program. The visit, meant to promote tourism and culture, took a dramatic turn once he decided to do a favor for a South Korean news channel.
“A journalist from a major broadcast station asked me to secretly film the panoramic view of North Korean cities from the mountain,” the Seoul Tourism Organisation President said.
But then the penny dropped. His covert attempt at showing the South a glimpse of the North had not gone unnoticed.
“North Korean soldiers investigated all 300 tourists who participated in the program to find the one who took the video,” he said.
“I never came forward, and my video was broadcast on the morning news when I returned to South Korea.”
He recalled seeing a truck full of North Korean workers being ferried to a fruit farm, many of which had white bandages around their heads. But that was about as close as he got to people living on the ground.
Foreigners are generally told to stay away from civilians. Depending on the nature and prominence of your visit, walking around at night is heavily discouraged.
In Ki-yon’s case, soldiers were stationed outside the front of his hotel physically blocking him from taking a look at the city after nightfall.
“I was not allowed access to any civilians. All the civilians were being moved from places we went,” he said.
“Another thing that surprised me was when I went to the Rungrado Stadium in Pyongyang, where a parade was being held,” he continued.
“Thousands of North Koreans were mobilized into participate. They all moved systematically.
“But what was even more surprising was the fact there were 100,000 people in the stadium, but when the visitors from overseas went outside and turned around, they had all disappeared.
“I think the people in the stadium must have left through an underground facility.”
Because North Korea is always prepared for war, the capital city has multiple tunnels and bunkers underneath its streets for people to flee to.
While the tunnels are mostly relics of a war that has sat in a stalemate for decades, the government’s insistence on spending the bulk of its economic profit on military armaments suggests an air of panic among the nation’s ruling family.
Fear is the strongest weapon of the Kim dynasty, and it’s on full display when tourists come to town.
“I stayed there for four or five days and when we were leaving on the bus, we could see North Korean soldiers on trucks on both sides of the road,” Ki-yon continued.
He said they had knives and guns at the ready in a show of intimidation as they inspected the foreigners, likely to make sure no North Koreans had attempted to flee before they boarded the plane.
“I think this gesture was to show the military power they had. It is a controlled society, so everything is controlled by the regime,” he continued.
“So by having these soldiers following the bus, it shows that although they’re not financially well-off, their national defense system is very systematic.
“I think this was North Korea’s effort to exhibit the military power they possess.”
He said student from a nearby university who was accompanying him gave him a quick reminder to never prod at the status-quo.
“When I kept on asking questions about the livelihood and the living standards of North Koreans, the student actually threatened me and told me I ‘needed some education’,” he said.
“It was very frightening and threatening experience.”
As President and CEO of the Seoul Tourism Organisation, Ki-yon uses the striking comparison between the North and South as a means of encouraging travelers to visit. He mentioned the lack of modern facilities and recalled his hotel losing power multiple times during his stay.
Meanwhile, South Korea’s capital has become a technological marvel and a major player in world economics just an hour’s drive south of the border.
The nonchalant attitude to the North’s frightening regime appears to be ubiquitous across the South. The topic of North Korea is rarely shied away from, and most will have a story of a time when they, or someone they know, flew a little close to the sun.
Another journalist, who did not wish to be named, said he ran into serious trouble with the North Korean authorities while on a similar trip.
He took a photograph of a mountain and was immediately confronted by officials who berated him for “taking photos of military sites”.
What began as an innocent tourist snap immediately became a standoff that could have easily landed him in prison.
There were, in fact, multiple military bases hidden inside the natural landmark, totally unbeknown to the South Korean reporter.
A tense altercation ensued, but he said he was eventually able to negotiate his way out of the problem and safely make it back to the South in one piece.
But others aren’t so lucky. Recently, the non-profit organization Korea Future produced a report claiming they had uncovered new details of life inside the country’s prison system.
“The purpose of our report is basically to reveal the human rights violations that have taken place within North Korea’s penal systems. (It) finds that even 10 years after the UN established a Commission of Inquiry there still is systematic and widespread human rights violations,” says Kim Jiwon, an investigator with Korea Future.
The NGO produced 3D models of some of North Korea’s detention sites and claimed to have evidence of what it believes are more than 1,000 instances of torture and degrading treatment of inmates. The report compares the situation to that of Soviet Russia before its collapse in the 1990s.
“Comparable to the Soviet Gulag, (North Korea’s) penal system is not to detain and rehabilitate persons sentenced by courts in safe and humane facilities. Nor is its purpose to decrease recidivism and increase public safety,” the report says.
“It is to isolate persons from society whose behavior conflicts with upholding the singular authority of the Supreme Leader, Kim Jong-un.”
One survivor’s famous account said inmates were treated like animals. Inside the concentration camp, human rights were abused at will by North Korea’s foot soldiers, as detainees scrambled to survive.
“When we raise rabbits, we keep them in dens with fences and give them food. (In jail), it was like we were the rabbits, kept in a cell and given food from behind bars … we were not treated as humans, but as some kind of animal,” the anonymous survivor said in an account published by CNN in 2023.
