Sophie In North Korea

Re:Sophie In North Korea by travisp on Saturday January 19, 2013 @03:04PM (#5084561)

You might have been able to do that in Burma. I know people who have travelled to Burma, Cuba, and other places and made similar arguments that I sympathize with. But you can't do that in North Korea: you can't go stay in small family establishments or choose where to eat. The entire trip is managed by the government and even trying to give money or talk to anyone about politics is probably risking the life of the person you talk to.

That leaves your first reason, which seems like a very self-focused reason -- I could learn the same thing from visiting other countries (or spending time reading up on the many accounts of North Korea, particularly those who have escapes).

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Re:Sophie In North Korea by Dav3xor on Saturday January 19, 2013 @04:42PM (#5084885)

It's difficult to do, but these guys did it -- http://vienna-pyongyang.blogspot.com/

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Re:Sophie In North Korea by kapsel on Saturday January 19, 2013 @04:52PM (#5084924)

No, they did not. Their NK part were arranged by KITC, the governmental travel agency of the DPRK.

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Re:Sophie In North Korea by pyre on Saturday January 19, 2013 @10:08PM (#5085830)

  | The state North Korean tourist company KITC did
  | not know in advance about our route. And we did
  | not know what would really happen to us after
  | arrival at Tumangan.

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Re:Sophie In North Korea by jlgreco on Sunday January 20, 2013 @03:44AM (#5086402)

Right, what they saw and experience while on the train was uncensored. Everything afterwards was planned.

I do love that story though. It is a great testament to the effectiveness of the "Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't know I couldn't do that." excuse.

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Re:Sophie In North Korea by seanmcdirmid on Saturday January 19, 2013 @07:32PM (#5085438)

Burma was never really clamped down like NK, heck, even Cuba isn't really clamped down. NK is probably the harshest state in the world with respect to freedom, and that alone probably makes it an interesting and unique visit. Ya, you are giving Kim Jong Un some money, but...if it would be an eye opening experience neh? If NK ever opens up, you won't have the oppurtunity every again!

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Re:Sophie In North Korea by lilsunnybee on Monday January 21, 2013 @01:31AM (#5090240)

> If NK ever opens up, you won't have the oppurtunity every again!

Thank goodness for that. The sooner the better.

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Re:Sophie In North Korea by mynegation on Sunday January 20, 2013 @02:28PM (#5087838)

I agree with your arguments about North Korea. I was specifically answering the statement about Burma. And I agree that the first reason is very self-focused, because I believe that every change to the world around you starts with a change to yourself (corny, but still true).

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