Visit Last Communist Dynasty !

ByThe Skeptical Traveler
The image is the national emblem of North Korea. It features a hydroelectric dam with water flowing from it, a transmission tower, and a power plant. Surrounding the central image are sheaves of rice, and above it is a red star with rays emanating from it. At the bottom, there is a red ribbon with Korean text.
Coat of Arms of North Korea
I read the very interesting post North Korea trip (part 1): go or no go? – Rapid Travel Chai and this reminded me of one of my hundreds of ideas: a travel agency that organizes trips to North Korea. They would have a lot of business, many people would want to go visit the last communist country, a country that defies rationality and where (almost) everyone is brainwashed. This is a country outside of this world, and hopefully communism will fall peacefully there and very soon.
I have never been to North Korea but I have been to Cuba, closely related to a certain degree. I could not tell whether in the below picture the boy’s face was defaced with a moustache or this was the original so that the following message was conveyed: ‘Every boy is a man when it comes to defending the fatherland’.The image shows a mural on a wall. On the left side, there is a cartoon-style drawing of a young person dressed in a uniform with a hat, boots, and a backpack, holding a tool over their shoulder. On the right side, there is a block of text in Spanish that reads: "...Y un Palacio de Pioneros es esencialmente un centro de formación, un centro de educación y quizás el tipo más importante de centro de formación técnica, de formación cultural, de formación política, de formación deportiva, pero es esencialmente un centro de formación. Eso es un Palacio de Pioneros." The text is attributed to Fidel Castro Ruz and the date "15/07/2008" is visible at the bottom right corner of the image.

2 Comments

  1. Thank you for the comments, you captured the feeling perfectly with “defies rationality.” Every other place I have been in the world, no matter how different from my prior experiences, has had more similarities than differences, all part of common humanity, but North Korea felt like a different planet.

  2. There is already at least one U.S.-based North Korea travel company, Asia-Pacific Travel Ltd. (www.northkorea1on1.com). Walter Keats is the head. I’m sure he would tell you some fascinating stories for trying to get a license from the DPRK to bring Americans in.

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