Contrary to popular belief, it is not illegal to go to North Korea, although the vetting process takes the idea of red tape to a ridiculous extreme
And “ridiculous” really is something to keep in mind with North Korea, although don’t you dare say the word aloud. If you thought your BF was narcissistic, just you wait until you’ve experienced the ego-state created by “Great Leader” Kim Il Sung in 1946.
Once you are on the ground, the entire weight of the North Korean propaganda machine is thrown at you in a carefully choreographed dance of happy faces. Everyone you see, everyone you meet, everyone you photograph will have been alerted beforehand so they can fall over themselves saying how wondrous North Korea is and how beneficent Kim Il Sung’s grandson, current president and “Dear Leader” Kim Jong Un, is. And you can’t miss him; his face is plastered on every billboard in the country. He looks like a scaled-up fat baby.
You cannot go out on your own — anywhere. When you do tour, chaperones follow you, and everything you see, from the monks in the temples to the dancing in the parks, is political fakery at its finest. Because they are all acting. For you. But it’s not as if this is just a massive joke a whole country happens to be in on, the people of North Korea, inculcated from birth that there is nothing but THE LEADER and THE STATE, really do believe every word they are saying. The North Koreans not only propagandize us, they propagandize themselves.
So what is there to do/see? North Korea is a functionary of Kim Jong Un, and Pyongyang, the capital, is the embodiment of political egotism on an unrestricted bender, in fact, no one can live in the city unless they are deemed loyal enough to Kim. Emphasis on the military is extreme and 24/7. It is fascinating to see it all in action, and you cannot help but think you’ve landed in the middle of a satire. Everything has to be the biggest, and in some cases, like the massive triumphal arch in the downtown section, it is. But if there was a country or heritage before “North Korea,” there is no clue. It has all been subsumed into the context of the Kim family mythology.
So if you want to see “truthiness” — the idea that if you say something enough, and put on a show of believing it, it becomes the truth — taken to a national level, start at korea-dpr.com.