Day 4, Friday May 3, 2002:

Another busy day in Pyongyang for us.

We left the hotel at 9.00 as usual and drove into town. Our first stop was the Fountain Park in the city centre, right next to Mansudae Hall and Department Store Number One. That one was unfortunately still closed, its opening hours are 10am to 6pm. NK work 6 days a week, only Sunday is off. I had read beforehand that stores like these are off-limits to foreigners but we asked anyway if we could have a look. 'Maybe some other time' was the answer, which we understood to mean 'No'. We were to be in for a surprise!

People near the Fountain Park and Department Store #1

The Fountain Park didn't grab my attention at all. Too much concrete and very little vegetation, a bit like Trafalgar Square actually, but without the pigeons, which is a blessing! I don't see why tourists flock to TS, and neither would I think of the Fountain Park as a must-see. The statues amongst the jets of water were all in white and anonymous groups of ladies in flowing attire or groups of children at play. All rather uninspiring. Maybe it was too early in the morning to appreciate it properly. On a hot summer's afternoon it may look more inviting.

Fountain Park

We hung about for 30 minutes and dutyfully took pictures before driving off to the Korean Film Studios.

Usually visiting groups get to spend 45 minutes there, but somehow we got 90. The local guide was very good and worked hard to fill the extra time usefully. He told us the place was founded in 1947 and has produced more than 1000 films since then. He pointed the mosaic murals out to us that decorate the buildings. Indeed, they were massive!
The only thing we did not see were people! Forget all notions of extras in costumes waiting to be called on set, or caravans with stars on the doors, or catering tables. Here you saw nothing and nobody! (One of us needed the toilet and we had to wait for someone to find someone else with a key to unlock a building door!)

Part of one mural at the Korean Film Studios

The only piece of action we saw was when we were taken round the compound and interrupted the rehearsals of some dance scene set in the 18th century or so. A group of about 10 dancers in traditional dresses dance for the emperor but get interrupted as a woman warrior is dragged in and made to confess some terrible crime. She was too good-looking to be a baddy though and will probably go on to safe king and country. Or something to that effect.

NK films are quite remarkable in how incredibly boring they are! They must be the slowest films ever made and even I, who was wildly interested in seeing all this, could not get myself to even watch one fully on TV or buy a video just for interest. I don't care for those historic epics they do, but even the ones set in modern NK are just too dire for words.
Typical titles are 'The County Party Chief Secretary', 'Flames Spreading Over The Land' or 'We Are The Happiest'.
What must be the world's longest running series of films, now in its 58th instalment (as of July 2002), is from NK. It's called 'Nation And Destiny' and repeats ad nauseam the theme of "the philosophical truth that one can live only when one remains true to the WPK's Songun leadership, an all-powerful treasured sword" (KCNA, 7 May 2003).
I'll just give a couple of brief synopsises here (not from 'Nation and Destiny', these are picked at random out of the book 'Korean Film Art'):

'The Girl We Met On Our Trip': "A maid who is a recently appointed material procurer at the county material supply centre, makes a long journey escorting a high-voltage distributing panel to be installed at a newly-built medium power station. The film deals with an episode which takes place in this course." [Riveting!]

'The Fourteenth Winter (in two parts)': "The film renders a heart-warming portrayal of an unassuming heroine discovered and put in the limelight by the great leader. The truthful picture of her life gives an insight into the noble moral and spiritual qualities of people of our time.
A woman biologist Yu Sol Gyong spends four years at first, and then six years, on her research into the crop variety Kaengsaeng No. 1. As the research work deepens, it becomes uncertain whether it will take ten years or twenty. Her colleagues who once got down to the research work together with her full of youthful hope and expectations, get married and leave. But Yu Sol Gyong devotes all her youth, giving up her love, to the research work, finding genuine happiness and joy as a scientist in discharging the duty she has assumed before the country and the people. At last, in the fourteenth winter in her research work, she succeeds in getting three grains of seeds as precious fruit of her efforts. She is awarded the title Labour Hero and becomes a scientist who enjoys the love of the people." (Source: Korean Film Art, Pyongyang, 1985)

"The staff of the institute sincerely congratulate Sol Gyong on her receipt of the title Labour Hero and a doctorate."

It's easy to laugh at these films, but just think, all their films are like this or at least a variation on the theme. What we'd call 'action movies' exist in the guise of revolutionary fighters defending the fatherland at the front or behind enemy lines (I'm intrigued by these spy movies, I must say. I would probably watch one of those.), or Godzilla-like monsters attacking cities (think plenty of small men in rubber suits) and also some historical films. All of them snail-paced. The only foreign films shown occasionally are Indian Bollywood epics. (Our hotel was next to the International Cinema, but we never saw any posters up.)
The picture above may be 20 years old now, but the sentiment hasn't changed, and neither has the fashion. This is still very much the way women in NK dress, only you don't see them smile much...

After the rehearsal the lady dancers were very happy to pose with us for photos and laughed when we tried on some of the costumes in a nearby hut. We improvised a scene under Nick's direction, warriors attacking the emperor and stealing his women. Hi-larious.
Further down the road (it was an open-air studio) some of us were taken on a car ride around the mock-up streets in a very old Czech Tatra car, whereas others tried their hand at horse-riding (on two really rather skinny horses). The studio has seven mock-up roads, from modern Korean to old Korean, Japanese, American and European. I forget the other two. On the way out of the compound the bus drove us round some of them and they were quite hilarious in how stereotypical and old-fashioned they were. Adverts for stockings on billboards and saloons and houses of ill repute. All really rather amateurish.

The bus would take us back into the centre of town, past the grey apartment blocks and downtrodden masses walking everywhere. These bus rides told us more about NK than many of the monuments. If I lived there, what would I do to keep my mind alive and myself amused? TV is boring, music is boring, no books to read other than on the greatness of KIS and KJI, newspapers full of diatribe and apparently even on the trams there's a person with a microphone intoning about KIS and KJI and how wonderful everything is. The list goes on. No wonder the adults all looked cheerless.
The children though seemed perfectly happy, often waving at us as we drove by.

The heart of Pyongyang is KIS Square, flanked on its four sides by the Grand People's Study Hall to the north, the National Gallery to the east, the Korean Central History Museum to the west and the Taedong river to the south with the Juche tower over on the other side.
Our stop was the National Gallery.

In other countries the national galleries display paintings as they were acquired by or bequeathed to the nation over the centuries. The works would be of many countries and dating back to the beginning of painting as an art form as we know it now.
Not so in NK. Here 'national' means just that, i.e. entirely Korean.

National Gallery

We didn't spend too much time in the Koryo rooms as they were not unlike what we had seen the day before in Kaesong. Interesting, but we had come to marvel at socialist realism. And we were not disappointed! It was room after room of KIS and KJI giving guidance, talking to farmers, hugging children and so on. 'Revolutionary Mother' Kim Jong Suk also featured heavily, killing the Japanese Imperialists seemingly singlehandedly.

"A Song Of Homesickness"

Art it wasn't, just another shrine to the Leaders. Impressive, certainly, but where's the point? If you're NK you will have seen this and similar since infancy, so this tells you nothing new. It certainly doesn't broaden your horizons or makes you look at the world in a new light, as art is supposed to.
I found it fascinating and boring in equal measures. It was possibly a bit wasted on us cynical foreigners...

Two pictures however I did notice, one of a young boy in plain shirt (not a pioneer's uniform) looking out at the viewer so full of confidence that you could not help but stop and look back at him. This was great and wouldn't at all be out of place as an entry in the BP Portrait Awards at the National Portrait Gallery in London.
The other was a landscape of green fields, scattered with red flags and a small loudspeaker just to the left. Quite poignant, I thought.

Other than that there were some poor animal pictures and landscapes not unlike the cheap stuff you can buy on Bayswater Road, a few vases and little plastic dolls dancing amongst plastic flowers under glass domes. They were bizarre.

All that of course didn't stop me from buying yet more books in the gift shop. To my shame I bought one I had only bought a couple of days before, but in my frenzy I didn't notice. It's since found a new home through eBay (hi Mark!).

Grand People's Study House

Next stop, still on KIS Square, the imposing Grand People's Study House, 'total floor space 100,000 square metres and a capacity of housing 30 million volumes. It can accommodate over 12,000 persons every day. It has more than 600 rooms which provide ideal study conditions and are modernly equipped for reading, lectures, recording information and consultation. When readers call for books, consulting the catalogues of books in the general catalogue room, they are delivered by the remote-controlled delivery device which the librarian operates by pushing the signal button.'(Source: Pyongyang Review, 1995)

The guide was keen to demonstrate this marvel of technology and challenged us to name any English book (we went for 1984 and Lord Of The Flies). Within seconds four books came whizzing down the chute, unfortunately not even remotely connected with what we asked for. The were all of a technical nature, Connecting Local Area Networks was one and I cannot believe there is much call for it there...
We got shown various reading, music and computer rooms, language labs and the large auditorium. The GPSH was opened in 1982 and the equipment doesn't seem to have been updated since. Perfectly adequate but a bit dusty. I loved the music section where there were records of revolutionary music on display. Oh, how I wanted one!

Books and records

All floors were marble or stone and my shoes were incredibly squeaky. The poor students, it must be a nightmare actually wanting to get work done when tourists are about. The noise intrusion and knowing you're being looked at.
I would not be totally surprised to find out that not all were genuine students but placed there to make the place look busy. Looking at some of the photos we took I can see that nobody in the computer room had pen and paper on their desks, so whatever they were doing, it was not homework or anything like that. They were also dressed rather better than people in the streets. Hmm, not sure...

No venue without a giftshop and this one was well stocked from food and drink through books and stamps to various multimedia CDs of Korea and Pyongyang (one of which I bought) etc. Staff were quite proud of these and keen to demonstrate. Some of the pictures on this site are from that CD because I filmed more than I took photos.
The view towards the river from the balcony, overlooking the square and museums, is very nice.

In the morning we had been told that unfortunately the Pueblo was closed and would not be on the schedule today, so I was surprised when we pulled up there and found the place not only open but other groups being shown around as well. I didn't see Mr K make any phone calls, so I wonder how he knew?
The Pueblo is an American spy ship that the NK caught in their waters in 1968. They captured it and it's now on display as a monument to the treachery of the USA (their words, not mine). We were greeted by one of the four marines who entered the bridge, taking the captain prisoner. We were impressed. He took us to watch the video of the story (the marine starting the machine was hilarious, pulling faces, grinning and winking at us behind his superior's back). We then saw the various rooms, including the encryption room and documents that support the NK version of events. (For the American version of events click here.) The guide said 'As long as the US think they rule the world there will be no peace.'
It was very interesting and we shook the guide's hand at the end of the tour.

Pueblo

Last stop of the day was the School Children's Palace. Nick had said this was not included in this particular tour because all the kids would be busy at the Arirang Mass Games, so I was thrilled to be able to see this place after all.

And I loved it! Call me uncritical, but the kids we saw at practice (musical instruments, calligraphy, taek-won-do, gymnastics) were very good and I took their fake smiles as a natural part of the routine (such as they are at ball-room dancing, ice-skating or synchronised swimming in the West). There is an article by the BBC's Adam Brookes on the internet, who must have been visiting Pyongyang and especially the Children's Palace not long before us, that I have issues with. I'm taking the liberty of making a few comments of my own in response to it here.

Foyer of Mangyongdae School Children's Palace

The CP is a huge building with a central hall on two floors, connected by escalators and with a huge mural, small fountains and a model of the space shuttle in the centre. The space shuttle is draped in NK flags and made to look as if it was part of their space program. You have to laugh at the audacity of it all. Any foreigner visiting will know that the Space Shuttle is American, so why put it here where we can see it?
[Update: I have since learned that the Russians had a very similar looking space shuttle called the Buran and it is likely that the model we saw is based on this one rather than the American Space Shuttle. However, the Buran was only commissioned in response to the Space Shuttle, so effectively the design is American and therefore we can probably be forgiven for our mistake.]

'Space Shuttle' in Mangyongdae School Children's Palace

Any visit to the CP ends with a variety performance in the huge theatre. The place was packed with Chinese, Russians, us few Westerners and NK children. I personally loved the show. Adam Brookes refers to 'exploited, overwrought kids', but I didn't see it like that. True, the performances were all rather too regimented (look at the picture below for how the children stood and sat in neat rows) and none were allowed to show much personality. The kids would come on, perform their piece, bow and exit the stage. That's all!
I still believe that they were enjoying themselves, but youthful exuberance was not encouraged.

Mangyongdae School Children's Palace performance

The only bit of showmanship we did see (and they were extremely popular with the audience for that very reason) were the boy drummers, who had the audience eating out of their hands! They were strutting their stuff like old pros and I just loved them. Somebody wrap them up, I'll take them home with me!

Drummers at the Mangyongdae Children's Palace

Other acts were accordeon players, singers, a multi-talented boy-girl pair that did everything from playing the xylophone to singing and drumming and throwing boomerangs across the hall etc (they were perfect to the point of caricature) and dance acts. Themes were folk and childrens' games, but KIS's birthplace Mangyongdae also featured at least once, and the grand finale of course was, as expected, a tribute to KJI. All kids on stage turned round and cheered a huge smiling image of him that was projected against the back wall.

The video of the show was for sale in the foyer later and I and many others bought it. Comparing it to what we had just seen, some acts had evolved a bit, especially the drummers act had grown from one to three main characters. Others were completely unchanged, which I found disappointing.

K said on leaving the Palace that the NK will get such a shock when one day they are allowed to travel and see the world. I personally think you can add to that resentment at having been locked up for so long and being fed nothing but this sort of technically outstanding but simplistic amusement of the political kind. At the moment I think many NK don't even know what they're missing and are content in their ignorance, but one day they will see what they have been denied for so long and there will be anger.

I could go on. Like so many things we saw, the CP was fascinating, but knowing what I know about NK it was also a little bit sinister. You admire the kids and their skills, but you feel they are being denied so much that you want to take them out of NK and show them that there's so much more to see!
The same actually is true for adults, too. Even our guides, I think, knew precious little of the outside world.

Back to the hotel to enjoy a good dinner. Many thanks here to N from Australia, who kindly let me have her Imodiums, which sorted my stomach out sufficiently to enjoy the day. By day 5 I was fully recovered.

After a quick drink to catch up with the other group I went back to my room to get my daily fix of NK TV. As it happened, I had a combined TV/VCR in my room and it occurred to me to try if it actually works. I bought a blank 3 hour tape downstairs and taped what was playing on the one channel I received (poor-ish picture quality unfortunately). To my chagrin a KIS documentary (plenty of shaking hands with visitors. He seems to have been quite a jolly man!) was just ending, so I started taping from the next program, a very poorly produced thing on a guy being interviewed against various backdrops, probably telling the story of his revolutionary life (but he was wearing casual clothing, not uniform). The sound quality was appalling! And it was so boring I later taped partly over it again, even though I wanted "authentic uncut NK TV". I just couldn't get myself to waste too much space on that.
This was followed by the news. A male presenter (young, good looking) against a blue background. KIS this and KJI that, but some torch march and Arirang footage as well, which was good. Then a female presenter (50s, jolly) reading her bit out in that breathlessly excited way as only the NK can. More KIS/KJI, nothing from abroad.
I let it run through from there and went to sleep. I still have to watch most of it.

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