“I felt sorry for the people all the time.” The Russian woman visited North Korea. Why did she come home with an oppressive feeling?
Excerpts translated from the Russian:
Lenta.ru: the Russian woman rested in the DPRK and described the experience with the words “the oppressive feeling”
In 2025, North Korea for the first time since the beginning of the pandemic began to let Western tourists. However, numerous publications of foreigners who share an honest opinion about the situation in the most closed country, did not like the DPRK. In social networks, travelers were surprised by the poor quality of roads, the lack of Internet and strict surveillance of tour groups, after which the country’s authorities decided to suspend the development of foreign tourism. Nevertheless, these restrictions do not apply to Russians - they can still visit North Korea on a visa as part of a tourist group. So did the correspondent of “Tape.ru” and shared her observations.
“It’s not like everything I’ve seen before.”A traveler from Moscow Valentina went on a trip to North Korea with her husband as part of a tourist group. The girl shared that she had already visited about 30 countries, but never saw this. According to the Russian woman, she revised many blogs and articles about the DPRK to prepare for the vacation, but in reality what she saw surpassed all expectations.
“Some bloggers admire everything and don’t see anything wrong, only good ones are shown. The other part says that there is a terrible horror. It seemed to me that life there is very, very difficult, even despite the fact that we tried to show the best and led only on the “right” streets, ”the Muscovite notes.
The route was planned by the organizers in advance - no attractions could not be seen on their own, you can only walk everywhere with a guide, but Valentina still paid attention to how ordinary people live. Observation of their life caused the girl an oppressive feeling, she was constantly sorry for the North Koreans
“This is especially true of the peasants. We saw them when we went out of town and drove through the fields. They work almost completely manually, because there is no gasoline in the country. In the fields, people work with a plough, harness the oxen, bulls there. It's savagery because nature seems to be against being planted there. There is almost everywhere clay soil, a lot of sandy lands. How is something growing there at all? It’s incomprehensible,” the traveler was surprised.
The Russian woman added that almost everyone in the DPRK works without special equipment -
they tear grass on urban lawns with their hands, collect stones along the rivers with their hands, in rivers (at least in villages) clothes are also washed with their hands. At the same time, Valentina compared life in various settlements with the “prising peasantry”, since people need a special permit and a significant reason to leave from there to the city.
Everyone we talked to was fake.... “There is a father and a deacon, one got his rank in Khabarovsk, the other in Moscow. Whatever you ask them, they say the same thing, that all this is because of our leader. They have no spirituality. And when we were in a Buddhist temple in the mountains of Mehyan, we were also staged an indicative speech: they told that monks live there and that they were engaged in Buddhism. But we are sure that as soon as we left, these monks changed into ordinary clothes and went on their own business, ”the traveler shares ...
“One of our guides once said that they, as little children, hold the leader’s hand and do not ask where to go. Because their father always knows what needs to happen, where their direction is, where the country is moving. I thought it was an interesting comparison with young children. It really seemed to me that they perceive everything as small children,” said the girl ...
Tourists are settled on a separate island, and in the rooms there are wiretapsOn one of the excursions, during the ascent to the Monument of Juche ideas, which rises high above Pyongyang, the girl noticed the poor areas. She saw an area with one-story barracks, surrounded by a high fence and similar to a ghetto. However, the guides were not allowed to look in that direction and all the time tried to distract the attention of tourists ... Also in the hotel rooms there were huge cabinets, disguised as the radio, but they do not catch any waves. If you look at this "radio receiver" from the other side, you can see that there is a lot of wires sticking out. Experts believe that this is one of the tools of wiretapping ...
The country is very poor, but cleanValentina was also struck by the fact that apartments in North Korea are issued only by the state. There are no loans or mortgages in the country. People get them when they get married or if they build a career. At the same time, all education in the country is free. However, if a student learns poorly, then the party chooses the profession for him, and if he studies well, he can choose where to work ...
In general, according to Valentine's observations, the country lives very poorly, but due to the fact that all sprees and specks are cleaned in cities, it seems that the cities are very well-groomed and tidy ... “Many friends asked me why I went to North Korea, not Thailand or Vietnam. It seems to me that people who ask such questions simply do not understand the value and uniqueness of this experience.
Everyone should see this, because it is a real open-air museum!” – describes the impressions of the trip Russian.
https://lenta.ru/news/2025/06/03/korea/
