North Korea’s largest square, named for the country’s “Great Leader” and founder, is a central focus of Pyongyang, much as Red Square is in Moscow or Tiananmen Square is in China. Accordingly, Kim-Il-sung Square is featured in many North Korean media releases and is the site of frequent military parades, demonstrations and events such as … Continue reading
Communism and raw, smokestack industrialism seem to go hand in hand like apple pie with ice cream in the popular imagination… So, it seemed more than appropriate when we paid a visit to the belching smokestacks and roaring furnaces of North Korea’s Chollima Steel Complex. Named for a mythical winged horse, the Chollima Steel Complex … Continue reading
An empty North Korean highway: One will see some cars and other vehicles in Pyongyang. I wouldn’t go so far to say that there is traffic, but one will at least look both ways before crossing a street in the capital city. This contrasts rather strangely with the countryside of North Korea where one can … Continue reading
I went to the dentist last week for a routine cleaning. Settling into the dental chair, the contrast between what I saw around me in Dr. Carver’s office and what The Velvet Rocket staff observed in a North Korean dental office during our recent visit there, prompted me to decide that I would not wish … Continue reading
One of the famous traffic girls of North Korea: Although they are primarily associated with Pyongyang, they actually have traffic police in other cities across North Korea. However, it is in Pyongyang that the traffic girls are truly an institution (and a fine one at that). The “traffic girl” is a popular image in North … Continue reading
The Mass Games in North Korea are not exactly an obscure or unknown event and so I shall not write too much about the experience other than to advise you that, as per standard The Velvet Rocket policy, I will try to show what it is like to be there. That said, I know this … Continue reading
Something that surprised me when I mentioned to people that I was going to North Korea (or had already been when I returned) were the number of people that told me it was not possible to do so. Now, I could understand this if it were phrased as a question – something along the lines … Continue reading
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