Trip to North Korea
Day 2
Wednesday
12th August 2009
Trip to North Korea
Day 2
Wednesday
12th August 2009
Day 2
We woke to a beautifully clear morning, almost giving credence to the article we had read in “Korea Today” on the flight to Pyongyang that the skies over North Korea are always clear and bright compared with the smog-ridden air over the South.
The exhibitions in this museum are fairly strong in the areas of photographic and documentary evidence, although like every war museum in the world, they present a fairly one-sided good-vs-bad account. We saw a very impressive animated diorama showing the bravery of the North Korean truck drivers in the face of enemy air attacks, including one incident where a group of people used their own bodies to support a bridge damaged in an air raid so the trucks could cross, and another where an elderly driver deliberately turned on his lights while driving at night to divert enemy air attacks away from the main column of trucks. With the inspirational music playing in the background, it was emotionally quite heavy.
Other highlights of the museum included the basement area, which contained rows of captured American vehicles (tanks, trucks, jeeps), some with smashed windows or headlights from the fighting, and quite a number of US warplanes that had been shot down in various states of destruction.
After the museum, and a very quick three minute walk through the sculpture garden of war monuments nearby, we drove to another place that received the benefits of Kim Il Sung’s on-the-spot guidance, the Grand People’s Study House overlooking Kim Il Sung Square in central Pyongyang. This huge building in traditional Korean style serves the dual role of a central library and an adult education centre. It is claimed that there is space for about 30 million books, and the building has access to the national intranet (although not the internet). One facility that particularly appealed to me was the ‘ask the expert facility’ - if anyone has any questions about what they are reading or studying, they can go to a special room and ask an expert “who knows everything” about the subject. On the day of our visit, the ‘expert’ seemed very lonely in his office; perhaps the national intranet is an effective information tool after all.
Our third visit before lunch was the captured American spy-ship, the USS Pueblo. I still remember the Pueblo incident from watching the television news at the time - this was in 1968 and I was just 14 or 15 at the time. I remember the constantly changing stories conveyed by the US Government, and especially by the-then President Lyndon Johnson. In January 1968 the ship strayed into North Korean territorial waters off the east coast while undertaking espionage activities. The US Government first insisted that it was a civilian research vessel, but as the facts emerged bit by bit, it was finally admitted that the ship was indeed spying. After the first, and only, confession/apology ever given by the United States, the North Koreans freed the crew towards the end of that same year.
The confession is prominently displayed on board the Pueblo, which is now docked in the Taedong River in southern Pyongyang at the site where the Koreans repelled another American ship, the USS Sherman, in 1866 by setting fire to it and sinking it. And who led the attack on the USS Sherman to defend Korean sovereignty? Kim Il Sung’s great grandfather, of course. The Americans claimed that they just wrote the confession to get their military personnel home in time for Christmas; the North Koreans take the apology extremely seriously and display copies both on the USS Pueblo and in the Great Fatherland Liberation War Museum.
Lunch was a little late after this packed program of morning visits, but the wait was worth it as our venue was the revolving restaurant at the top (47th floor) of the Yanggakdo Hotel. With such clear conditions today, none of us objected that the revolving restaurant was not actually revolving; we were more than happy to walk around and take in the spectacular views across the Pyongyang skyline.
Following lunch, we checked out of the hotel and took the 53 kilometre drive to the port city of Nampo on Korea’s west coast. The width of the road seemed a tad excessive, and being a 10 lane highway the whole distance we experienced no traffic congestion (to say the least). Nonetheless, the leisurely drive took just on one hour, and we arrived at about 3:30 pm.
Our main destination in Nampo was the West Sea Barrage. This is an impressive feat of engineering in which the estuary of the Taedong River was closed off to the sea in the 1980s by a series of sluice gates set in an 8 kilometre long sea wall. The aim was to create a freshwater estuary, free of salt water, that could be used for fishing and irrigation water. Ships can pass through one of three locks in the barrage, and the area of irrigated land created by the project does seem impressive.
Our destination was a hot springs spa resort that until recently was reserved for high ranking government officials. Run by the army as far as I can tell, the resort comprised separate huts, each of which had four large rooms equipped with an in-room spa to hold the hot salty waters. Our students had to put in several hours of practices this evening to prepare for the performances at the school tomorrow. Fortunately the hotel had a large room that was perfect for the purpose, but it did mean that the spas had to be delayed until after 11 pm. Tomorrow’s wake up call is scheduled for 6:15 am, but hopefully the spa will help the students have a superb six hours or so of sleep.
It certainly worked for me.
To see a gallery of photos of Day 2 (morning), click HERE.
To see a gallery of photos of Day 2 (afternoon), click HERE.
Wednesday, 12 August 2009