Well, there are certain awesome advantages of living in China. Traveling to North Korea (DPRK) with a multiple entry visa to China, is just one of those fascinating advantages. Since I work in Suzhou, in October 2018 I decided to travel from China to North Korea (my 21st country). Now I’m back to China and I’ve started writing my blog-posts about travelling to North Korea, one of the least explored countries on our planet.
Since Asia has been a cradle of multiple ancient civilizations, when you travel to the Asian countries, expect to see different cultural issues (some cultural dramas may surprise you). North Korea is not an exception! In fact, the nation boasts its own cultural heritage. Moreover, if you are planning to travel to North Korea safely, you’ll need to understand how to respect the North Korean culture and its leaders. So, in this post, I’d share with you some of the details for showing respect to the North Korean culture and leaders.
Let me now go through some of the details.
Social Manners
I spent three years learning Korean language (the South Korean version). During this language learning journey, I realized that the respect is a very important part of Korean language and culture. The respect varies from person to person you are interacting with. When I came to North Korea, I realized that Korean people are very particular about the social manners, respect for the elderly, and caring for the children.
When you are in North Korea, please respect the Korean people’s living habits. Show genuine respect for the Korean people and leaders.
If you can speak the Korean language, make sure to understand the differences between the North Korean and South Korean languages.
How do you call the Korean leaders?
When you call the leaders by name, you need to add the respect as well. Here are how my Korean guides always referred to their leaders-
- The Great Leader Kim Jong-un (sometime as the Great Marshal Kim Jong-un)
- The Great General Kim Jong-il
- The Grand Leader Kim Il-sung
I was not very used to such practices and when I wanted to ask some questions about the Korean leaders, I’d ask something like, “hey, the current Korean leader has ever been to this lake” or “hey, did the first Korean president has been to this mountain”.
I’m of the mind that if you ask like, “hey, did Kim Jong-un ever visited this lake”, the Koreans would get offended. If you are not comfortable using the respect words, just keep quiet and avoid using the leader’s names.
You don’t need to praise the Korean leaders all the time. It’s fine if you don’t like praising (just keep quiet, you’ll be fine). But if you are speaking to a North Korean, under no circumstances, you’ll show disrespect to the North Korean leaders and people.
Don’t point fingers to Korean leader’s posters/statues
If you travel to North Korea, you’ll see the posters and statues of the Korean leaders omnipresent in the country. You can’t show fingers to the leaders. You can, of course, show the hand. Here is the photo that my Korean guide explained me about how to point to the leader’s posters/statues.
Politics
You shouldn’t be asking your North Korean guide about politics. And most importantly, please don’t argue with your Korean guide about the political questions. In North Korea, it is absolutely prohibited to seek any form of interview, or to attempt to obtain political information.
Minders (tour guides)
During your trip to North Korea, you’ll be accompanied by two local North Korean guides virtually all the times. You cannot visit any places in North Korea without a Korean guide with you during your trip in the DPRK. During your whole stay in North Korea, you should obey the group arrangements by the Korean tour guides. It is prohibited to leave the team activity without permission.
Photographs
You are not allowed to take photographs of military objects or soldiers. During your visit to Panmunjom (the DMZ – Korean Demilitarized Zone), please don’t greet, or wave to South Korean soldiers.
At any point of time, if your guide wants to check your camera, please let them do so. If they ask you to delete some photos, please do comply with the guides.
Visiting locals
You are not allowed to visit relatives and friends while traveling in North Korea. Also, you are not allowed to go to local people’s homes. You should seek permission of your guide if you need to buy something from the distant places, most likely the guide will accompany you to the place.
Getting laid in North Korea
Well, in North Korea it’s illegal for the North Koreans to have sex with foreigners. It’s illegal, even if they are abroad. North Koreans are not allowed to marry foreigners. Public Display of Affection (PDA) is not a welcome gesture. For example, you can’t kiss in public. So in a nutshell, you shouldn’t try to get laid with a North Korean (it’s a sheer waste of time for a single dude).
If you want to get laid in North Korea, my suggestion will be trying your luck with foreign tourists – there are plenty of them.
Some of the hotels in Pyongyang do offer a full body massage (not full service though) for RMB 230/hour or so.
No religious drama
During your DPRK visit, you are not allowed to spread religious documents to local people. You can’t bring religious books (e.g. the bible) to North Korea. Please respect the Korean people’s living habits, and ideological concepts.
Korean people believe in Juche ideology and you should never speak anything against the same.
Opinions about North Korea
I was often asked by my tour guides, “do you like our country?”, I’d always give them positive answers (in fact, I very much liked travelling to the North).
At DMZ, a soldier asked my opinion about the USA, and I told him, “I don’t know much about politics”.
I was also asked about the South Korean president and his policies, standard of living in South Korea, etc. I often indicated lack of my political knowledge.
As such, the North Koreans have no idea about the what’s up in South Korea. That’s the reason, foreigners are not allowed to bring any south Korean books, movies, CDs, etc. into North Korea. You are simply not allowed to talk about South Korea with the North Koreans.
North Koreans may be shocked if you tell them that South Korea is a developed country. Also, to me, returning safely back to China was more important than speaking the ugly truths, so I avoided talking about South Korea. In fact, I had deleted all the K-Pop songs from my phone before starting my trip.
What happens if you don’t obey the law/rules in North Korea?
Well, the punishments in North Korea are rather harsh, even for the petty crimes! You might be sent to a 15-year long labor camp. If you are a US citizen, you’d better not visit North Korea. Here is the travel advisory to the US citizens–
“The Department strongly urges U.S. citizens not to go to North Korea/the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) due to the serious risk of arrest and long-term detention.
North Korean authorities, under North Korea’s system of law enforcement, impose unduly harsh sentences–including for actions that in the United States would not be considered crimes.
They also threatened U.S. citizens with being treated in accordance with the “wartime law” of the DPRK.”
In summary, if you are travelling to North Korea, please follow the suggestions of your tour guide. If you have any problem arising from disobeying the local rules/laws, you’ll have to deal with the problem yourself. Even your embassy may not be able to help you. In fact, only few countries have embassies in North Korea.
That’s all about the North Korean culture blog-post in North Korea Safe Travel Guide and Reviews. If you have any question about traveling to North Korea and organized tours, feel free to post in our forum so that others could also contribute and learn. For regular updates like us on Facebook, or follow on Twitter!
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Wish you a wonderful trip to North Korea!
Cheers!
Last updated: Monday, October 15, 2018