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First British tourists allowed back into North Korea tell BBC what they saw
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Don’t insult the leaders. Don’t insult the ideology. And don’t judge.
These are the rules tour guides read out to Western tourists as they prepare to drive across the border into North Korea, arguably the most secretive and repressive country in the world.
Then there is the practical information. No phone signal, no internet, no cash machines.
“The North Koreans aren’t robots. They have opinions, goals, and a sense of humour. And in our briefing we encourage people to listen to and understand them,” says Rowan Beard, who runs Young Pioneer Tours, one of two Western companies which resumed trips to the country last week, after a five-year hiatus.
North Korea sealed its borders at the outset of the pandemic, shutting out diplomats, aid workers and travellers, and making it nearly impossible to know what was happening there.
Since then, it has further isolated itself from most of the world, relying on support from Russia and China. Many doubted whether Westerners would ever be allowed back.
But after years of cajoling and several false starts, Rowan and some other tour leaders were given the green light to restart operations. He pulled together a group of eager travellers in just five hours, desperate to not miss the opportunity. Most were vloggers and travel addicts, some wanting to tick the final country off their list, along with the odd North Korea enthusiast.
Last Thursday the tourists, from the UK, France, Germany and Australia, drove over the border from China into the remote area of Rason for a four-night trip.
Among them was 28-year-old British YouTuber Mike O’Kennedy. Even with its reputation, he was startled by the extreme level of control. As with all trips to North Korea, the tourists were escorted by local guides, who followed a strict, pre-approved schedule. It included carefully choreographed trips to a beer factory, a school, and a new, fully stocked pharmacy.
Ben Weston, one of the tour leaders from Suffolk, likened visiting North Korea to “being on a school trip”. “You can’t leave the hotel without the guides,” he said.
“A couple of times I even had to let them know when I wanted to use the bathroom,” said Mike. “I’ve never had to do that anywhere in the world.”
Despite the chaperoning, Mike was able to spot snippets of real life. “Everyone was working, it didn’t feel like anyone was just hanging out. That was kind of bleak to see.”
On his trip to the school, a group of eight-year-olds performed a dance to animations of ballistic missiles hitting targets. A video of the spectacle shows girls and boys with red neckties, singing, while explosions flare on a screen behind them.
For now, tourists are being kept well away from the capital Pyongyang. Greg Vaczi from Koryo Tours, the other tour company allowed back in, admits the current itinerary lacks the “big-hitting monuments” of Pyongyang. He suspects authorities have chosen Rason as their guinea pig because the area is relatively contained and easy to control.
Set up as a special economic zone, to trial new financial policies, it operates as a mini capitalist enclave inside an otherwise socialist state. Chinese businesspeople run joint enterprises with North Koreans, and can travel in and out fairly freely.
Joe Smith, a seasoned North Korea traveller and former writer for the specialist North Korea platform NK News, was there on his third trip. “I feel like the more times you visit the less you know. Each time you get a little peek behind the curtain, which just leaves you with more questions,” he said.
Joe’s highlight was a surprise off-agenda visit to a luxury goods market, where people were selling jeans and perfumes, along with fake Louis Vuitton handbags and Japanese washing machines, probably imported from China. Here, the tourists were not allowed to take photos – an attempt to hide this consumer bubble from the rest of the country, they suspected.
“This was the only place people weren’t expecting us,” Joe said. “It felt messy and real; a place North Koreans actually go. I loved it.”
But according to the experienced tour leaders, the group’s movements were more restricted than on previous trips, with fewer opportunities to wander the streets, pop into a barbershop or supermarket, and talk to locals.
Covid was often cited as the reason, said Greg from Koryo Tours. “On the surface they are still concerned. Our luggage was disinfected at the border, our temperatures were taken, and about 50% of people are still wearing masks.” Greg cannot work out whether the fear is genuine, or an excuse to control people.
It is thought Covid hit North Korea hard, though it is difficult to know the extent of the suffering.
Local guides repeated the government line that the virus entered the country in a balloon sent over from South Korea, and was swiftly eradicated in 90 days. But Rowan, who has been to North Korea more than 100 times, sensed that Rason had been impacted by the tough Covid regulations. A lot of Chinese businesses had closed, he said, and their workers had left.
Even Joe, the experienced North Korea traveller, commented on how dilapidated the buildings were. “Places were dimly lit and there was no heating, apart from in our hotel rooms,” he said, noting a trip to a cold, dark and deserted art gallery. “It felt like they opened the doors just for us.”
The regime’s photographs might make North Korea look clean and shiny, Joe said, but in person you realise “the roads are awful, the pavements are wobbly, and the buildings are weirdly constructed”. His hotel room was old-fashioned and filthy, he said, resembling “his grandma’s living room”. The whole window was cracked.
“They’ve had five years to fix things. North Koreans are so sensitive about what they show tourists. If this is the best they can show, I dread to think what else is out there”, he said. Most of the country is kept well hidden, with more than four in 10 people believed to be undernourished and needing help.
One of the few chances tourists in North Korea get to interact with local people is through their guides, who sometimes speak English. On these recent trips they were surprisingly well-informed, despite the regime’s intense propaganda machine and information blockade. This is probably because they speak to the Chinese businesspeople who come and go, said Greg.
They knew about Trump’s tariffs and the war in Ukraine – even that North Korean troops were involved. But when Joe showed a photo from Syria, his guide was unaware President Assad had been toppled. “I carefully explained that sometimes when people don’t like their leader, they rise up and force them out, and at first he didn’t believe me.”
Such conversations need to be delicately handled. Strict laws prevent North Koreans from speaking freely. Ask or reveal too much and the tourists might put their guide or themselves at risk.
Mike admits there were times this made him nervous. On a trip to a North Korea-Russia Friendship House, he was invited to write in the visitors’ book. “I went blank and wrote something like ‘I wish the world peace.’ Afterwards my guide told me that was an inappropriate thing to write. That made me paranoid,” he said.
“Generally, the guides did a great job of making us feel safe. There were just a couple of moments when I thought, this is bizarre.”
For Greg from Koryo Tours, these interactions bring a deeper purpose to North Korea tourism: “North Koreans get the chance to engage with foreigners. This allows them to come up with new ideas, which, in a country this closed, is so important.”
But tourism to North Korea is contentious, especially as travellers have been allowed back before aid workers and most Western diplomats, including the UK’s. Critics, including Joanna Hosaniak from the Citizens Alliance for North Korean Human Rights, argue these trips mainly benefit the regime.
“This is not like tourism in other poor countries, where local people benefit from the extra income. The vast majority of the population don’t know these tourists exist. Their money goes to the state and ultimately towards its military,” she said.
One conversation has stuck in YouTuber Mike’s head. During his trip to the school, he was surprised when a girl, after meeting him, said she hoped to visit the UK one day. “I didn’t have the heart to tell her that her chances were very, very slim,” he said.
Taken From BBC News
Paris ( Imran Y. CHOUDHRY):- The 221st session of the Executive Board of UNESCO started in UNESCO Headquarter in Paris. Composed of 58 Member States, the Executive Board meets twice a year and is the main policy-making body of the Organization.
Permanent Delegate of Pakistan to UNESCO, Ambassador Mumtaz Zahra Baloch addressed the plenary session of the 221st session of the Executive Board of UNESCO.
In the Executive Board meeting, Ambassador Madam Mumtaz Zahra Baloch speak some important points:
- Reaffirmed Pakistan’s commitment to a stronger and more effective UNESCO to meet today’s challenges.
- Emphasized the need for a realistic and sustainable budget to deliver on its strategic priorities in education, science, culture, and communication.
- Urged strategic rationalization in the structure and work of the organization; enhancing synergies, and reducing duplication and overlapping.
• Called on UNESCO to foster scientific collaboration to address common challenges; promote democratization of scientific progress and innovation; and insulate scientific advancement from artificial barriers and strategic competition.
- Appreciated the dedication and commitment of the UNESCO staff and underlined the need for transparency and accountability.
Office lights in some corners of Westminster were on much later than usual last night.
Why? Because ministers and officials, just like so many others, were watching the telly to see what President Trump would have to say, the Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds among them.
The president, brandishing a giant rectangular piece of card packed with the new tariff increases, unleashing waves of anxiety across factory floors, boardrooms and government ministries the world over.
Folk in government in the UK had picked up a sense of the mood music – a sense that the UK was “in the good camp rather than the bad camp” as one figure put it to me – but they had no idea in advance precisely what that would mean.
We now do know what it means.
I detect a sense of relief among ministers, but make no mistake they are not delighted – the tariffs imposed on the UK will have significant effects, and the tariffs on the UK’s trading partners will have a profound impact on jobs, industries and global trading flows in the weeks, months and years to come.
It will be “hugely disruptive,” as one government source put it.
There is an acute awareness in particular about the impact on the car industry.
- Live updates: Reaction to Trump’s tariffs announcements
- At a glance: What president’s new taxes mean for EU, China and others
- Global reaction: World leaders criticise Trump tariffs as ‘major blow’
- Explainer: What are tariffs, and why is Trump using them?
Negotiations with America over a trade deal continue.
I am told a team of four UK negotiators are in “pretty intensive” conversation with their American counterparts – talking remotely, but willing to head to Washington if signing a deal appears imminent.
Let’s see.
Those on the UK side characterise the discussions as “more like a corporate conversation than a trade negotiation”, putting that down to the personnel, outlook and biographies of plenty in the Trump administration.
The other point being seized upon at Westminster, in particular by the Conservatives, is the difference between how the UK is being treated compared to the European Union – with plenty pointing to it as a dividend of Brexit.
The Liberal Democrats, by contrast, think the UK should work with Commonwealth and European allies to stand up to President Trump and impose retaliatory tariffs “if necessary”.
The Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer is meeting affected businesses on Thursday and the business secretary will address the Commons.
The next chapter of this economic revolution begins now, with how the world reacts, in rhetoric and retaliation.
This in itself will have a huge impact.
Whether, how and when some choose to respond will have economic and political consequences at home and abroad.
The global story of Donald Trump’s tariffs is only just beginning.
Taken From BBC News
The government will keep pushing for a deal to avoid a “trade war” after US President Donald Trump imposed new tariffs globally, the Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds has said.
Trump announced fresh levies on goods coming into his country including 10% on all UK imports and 20% on those from the European Union.
The UK has spent weeks working on a trade deal with the US to avoid the full impact of the level of tariffs introduced on countries such as Canada and China.
A Downing Street source said the UK’s lower tariff “vindicates” the government’s plans, because “the difference between 10% and 20% is thousands of jobs”.
Responding to the new tariffs, Reynolds said the government remained “fully focused” on negotiating a deal with the US that would strengthen their “balanced trading relationship”.
“We have a range of tools at our disposal and we will not hesitate to act,” he said.
The US plan sets a baseline tariff on all imports of at least 10%, with items from countries that the White House described as the “worst offenders” facing far higher rates for what Trump said was payback for unfair trade policies.
His move breaks with decades of US policy embracing free trade. Analysts said it was likely to lead to higher prices in the US and slower growth around the world.
The government’s official forecaster estimates a worst-case scenario trade war could reduce UK economic growth by 1% and wipe out the £9.9bn of economic headroom Chancellor Rachel Reeves gave herself at last week’s Spring Statement.
A Downing Street source told the BBC: “We don’t want any tariffs at all, but a lower levy than others vindicates our approach. It matters because the difference between 10% and 20% is thousands of jobs.
“We will keep negotiating, keep cool and keep calm,” the source said, adding: “Tomorrow we will continue with that work.”
The government will hold a series of talks with affected businesses on Thursday to provide support and discuss a response.
Sebastian Gorka, an adviser to Trump, suggested the UK’s approach had seen it receive a “special rate” on tariffs.
“After Brexit, you have reaffirmed your independence and I think that is been proven today by the special rate that has been afforded to the UK,” he told the BBC’s Newsnight, adding that the “exempted rate” could be “improved” in the future.
Diplomatic efforts are still ongoing. As part of the efforts to get a deal, Lord Mandelson, the UK ambassador, has had meetings in the White House with Vice-President JD Vance and Susie Wiles, the president’s chief of staff.
For the moment, the UK will not be “jumping into a trade war” with retaliatory tariffs, Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said – a repeat of the response to Trump’s earlier tariffs on steel and aluminium.
Sir Keir told his cabinet this week he was “keeping all options on the table” to respond to the tariffs, which economists have warned could damage the UK economy and increase the cost of living.
Inside government officials hope that Wednesday’s announcement sets a “ceiling” on negotiations, not the final price, and can be talked down.
The government’s approach has been backed in some of the early responses from the UK business sector.
The Confederation of British Industry (CBI) has said the government “has rightfully tried to negotiate a carve-out” and that businesses need a “measured and proportionate approach”.
But Conservative shadow trade secretary Andrew Griffith accused Labour of “failing to negotiate with President Trump’s team” in time.
“Sadly, it is British businesses and workers who will pay the price for Labour’s failure,” he said.
“The silver lining is that Brexit – which Labour ministers voted against no less than 48 times – means that we face far lower tariffs than the EU: a Brexit dividend that will have protected thousands of British jobs and businesses.”
In contrast, the Lib Dems urged the government to consider using “retaliatory tariffs where necessary” and form a “coalition of the willing against Trump’s tariffs” with other countries.
Government sources believe talks between the US and the UK have made good progress, but have been derailed by Trump’s public comments.
At different times, statements by Trump about his tariffs are said to have differed from what his negotiating team had previously understood his position to be.
The deal would be broader than just reducing tariffs, focusing on technology, but also covering elements of trade in goods and services as well as agriculture – a controversial area in previous unsuccessful US-UK trade talks.
Chancellor Rachel Reeves has suggested the UK could change its taxes on big tech firms as part of a deal to overturn US tariffs.
The digital services tax, introduced in 2020, imposes a 2% levy on tech firms, including big US firms such as Amazon, bringing in about £800m in tax per year.
The UK motoring industry, also hit with an additional 25% tax on all car imports to the US announced this week, called the tariffs “deeply disappointing”.
Mike Hawes, chief executive of the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders, said the US announcement was “yet another challenge to a sector already facing multiple headwinds”.
Taken From BBC News
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