For my entire adult life, North Korea has been viewed with a great deal of suspicion: Because most people are not allowed to enter, and because the country is run by a dictator with the most expensive Hennessey habit in the world, the country has always been viewed with a good deal of horror, with a dash of wonder thrown in for good measure.
No more.
Two European tourists recently took a trip on a section of train tourists have not been allowed to use since 1994. I have posted the intro to their trip below: You can read even more HERE.
OUR STORY
In september I made a trip to the Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea, better known as North Korea.
Not only that North Korea is quite an unusual touristic destination, my route to North Korea was even more unusual – I travelled the whole way from Vienna (Austria) to Pyongyang by train via Slovakia, Ukraine and Russia. And I used a route into North Korea, which is said to be impossible for tourists.
Together with a friend from Switzerland, who joined me in Irkutsk (Russia), we entered North Korea from Russia via the border at Hasan/Tumangan, whereas usually tourists can only use the railway line from the Chinese-Korean border at Dandong/Sinuiju to Pyongyang.
This route was open for tourist traffic only untill about 1994. It's likely that we were the first tourists who travelled this line since then.
Our trip was an experiment, we just wanted to try this route. Long planning and debates whether we should really try it or not preceeded the trip.
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.
But finally everything went well.
read even more HERE.
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