Our time in North Korea seems to have passed so quickly - it is already our last full day in the country. We woke up to yet another day of beautiful weather (we have not had a wet day on this trip in North Korea) and the wonderful fresh mountain air of Mount Myohyang.
Our first stop was the Pohyon Buddhist Temple. Largely destroyed during fighting in Korean War, the temple has been largely re-built and is now set amidst the gardens of beautiful grounds. We were told that this was active temple, although we were also told that North Koreans have no interest in religion and so the worship activity seems to be limited to foreign visitors. We did meet a monk who trained at Kim Il Sung University in Pyongyang - apparently there is a department of religion there, although it is not a very popular area of study. Whatever the status of the temple, it did represent a beautifully preserved and restored example of traditional Korean architecture, and it was certainly interesting to hear the place of religion in North Korea explained to us.
The second stop represented our major destination at Mount Myohyang, the International Friendship Exhibition. Housed in two huge underground galleries, each fronted with traditional style edifices guarded by soldiers carrying silver-plated machine guns, the Exhibition is a huge collection of the gifts given by world leaders, friendly political organisations and international companies to Kim Il Sung, Kim Jong Il and Kim Jong Suk.
Even though Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Suk have been dead for many years, both are still receiving gifts sent to them, ironically mainly gifts symbolising longevity. According to a digital readout, a total of 223,579 gifts from 180 countries had been given to the three leaders as at today’s date, signifying the high esteem in which North Korea’s leaders are held in all parts of the world. The most recent gift to Kim Il Sung arrived recently from Australia, cynics might suggest about 15 years late. We were told that if we spent one minute looking at each gift, it would take one and a half years to see them all.
To see the exhibits, we had to check-in our cameras (no photos allowed) and wear slip-on overshoes to prevent our shoes scratching the polished marble floors. The exhibit of gifts to Kim Il Sung (together with the understandably much smaller number of gifts to Kim Jong Suk, who passed away in the late 1940s) was the larger of the two halls, comprising 200 rooms in a deep underground gallery built into the mountain. The gifts represented an artistic and visual memorial to the DPRK’s history, with gifts during the 1950s and 1960s mainly from fraternal socialist nations.
Particularly noteworthy in my opinion were the stuffed crocodile serving drinks from Nicaragura’s Sandinista, some exquisite portraits of Kim Il Sung made up very fine Arabic writing, a very tasteful gift from Billy Graham, a basketball signed by Michael Jordan presented by Madeline Albright, an armoured car from Josef Stalin, a railway carriage from Mao Zedong, and a very realistic life-size wax figure of Kim Il Sung from the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party. The gifts of live elephants, giraffes and other assorted fauna and flora were represented by photographs. And then there were the 170,000 or so other gifts.
Under another nearby mountain was a smaller 50-room exhibition hall of gifts to the current leader Kim Jong Il. According to another digital readout, today’s total of gifts to Kim Jong Il was 57,511 (a figure which is included in the earlier figure of 223,579) from 165 countries. Unlike the gifts to Kim Il Sung, the gifts to Kim Jong Il seemed more contemporary in nature, and included a large screen monitor for watching DVD movies, various pieces of electronics gear, a hunting rifle from Vladimir Putin, a black limousine from South Korea, and the largest of all the gifts, a collection of 333 sets of furniture (each set comprising a room’s ensemble of furniture) from a South Korean factory that apparently closed down all other production for five months to produce the gift (which is apparently mentioned somewhere in the Guinness Book of Records).
Overall, the collection of gifts was quite extraordinary in its breadth, diversity, extravagance and historical value, if not always its artistic merit. If it were ever auctioned, it would surely fetch a value measured in tens of billions of dollars. I was told that one visitor had commented that having visited the Exhibition, he felt he had seen everything fine that the world had to offer and no longer needed to travel anywhere. I thought that was stretching things a tad, as visiting the exhibition had not dampened my enthusiasm for future travels. Nonetheless, the collection was certainly impressive, if also at times bizarre.
After walking around the Exhibition for a couple of hours, we returned to the hotel for lunch, and then undertook the two hour drive back to Pyongyang. We arrived at a little before 4 pm, and our first stop in Pyongyang was the Pyongyang Maternity Hospital. The hospital opened in 1980 and housed 1500 beds, 1000 for women and 500 for babies. In fact, the hospital was more than a maternity hospital, being the main general women’s hospital that serves the entire country.
In order to tour the hospital, we had to remove our shoes and wear specially provided slippers, as well as white medical gowns. Although at times we felt we were intruding a little, the reception was warm and cordial. The tour began with a group photo in front of the foyer painting of Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il, and then continued to the closed-circuit television booths on the ground floor where new fathers can speak to their wives through a telephone while watching them on a TV screen without infecting them or their new babies. We received quite a thorough tour of the hospital, including breast cancer screening equipment, various testing laboratories, the dental clinic, the optical clinic, the ultrasound room, the humidicribs for premature babies, and of course the normal post-natal wards.
One can only guess what the patients thought as my white-coated students toured the wards, but we were treated in a friendly and courteous manner at all times. As we concluded our tour, we were proudly shown the brass plaques from the WHO and UNICEF certifying the hospital as “Baby Friendly” for practising all ten steps to promote successful breast feeding; we were told that after six months the majority of mothers who have attended the hospital are still breast feeding, and tests conducted by hospital have shown it is still possible for a mother to be breast feeding two years after the birth of her baby.
If we discount the last stop of the day, which was an exhibition (in North Korea, the word ‘exhibition’ is shorthand for ‘small shop selling souvenirs to tourists at inflated prices’), our final stop was the No.3 Department Store. Although interior photographs were not permitted, we could get a clear impression of the shop. It comprised three floors selling a wide range of goods, from food to furniture, toys, clothes, electronic goods and pharmaceuticals. I was surprised to see that most of the goods on sale were imported, but I was told this was typical of all North Korean shops these days.
Although some of the goods were from fairly cheap sources (such as Chinese electronic goods and Russian pharmaceuticals), some of the food seemed to come from surprisingly expensive sources, such as Germany. However, this was explained by saying that these goods had first been imported into China, and when the ‘use by’ date had expired they were re-exported to the DPRK at a discounted price.
Overall, the department store was poorly lit by overseas standards, the number of customers was surprisingly small, and the layout was straight from the 1950s (with most goods being kept behind glass cases), but it was well stocked and the range of goods seemed quite impressive. We were assured that this was a typical department store, but I did notice several taxis in front of the shop, and given the extreme rarity of taxis in Pyongyang, that did make me wonder.
Our day concluded with a special ‘farewell’ barbecue duck dinner at a restaurant on Tongil Street, one of Pyongyang’s newer and extremely wide streets. It was a great meal despite the lack of drinks included, and a truly celebratory way to end our trip through North Korea.
