DPRK

Introduction

North Korea is both an enigma and an anachronism.
It represents a major obstacle to the stability of international relations in the Far East, accused of being a member of the Axis of Evil by George Bush.

To describe the Democratic People's Republic of Korea as a Stalinist theme park is probably not wide of the mark given that the characteristics of a 1950's Soviet satellite are more recognisable than contemporary twenty-first century influences. Whilst the world has moved on to globalisation North Korea remains a hermit state that preaches the virtues of self-reliance.

The country has the world's last remaining old style communist regime and in the minds of its rulers the Cold War lives on – North Korea remains in a technical state of war on the basis that no peace treaty was ever signed to formally end the Korean War of 1950-53. Reports of malnourishment and food shortages as well as allegations of torture are widespread. Industry and infrastructure is decrepit. However despite predictions of the impending collapse of the regime (since the loss of its protected markets in the socialist bloc after 1989) it remains in power, employing the same rituals and mantras that it has institutionalised since the end of the second world war (and liberation from the Japanese) in 1945.

I travelled widely in the Soviet bloc as a politics student twenty years ago but North Korea was always the country that outperformed the Soviet Union with the practice of good old fashioned communism and the dictatorship of the party. It was, and still is, a classic Stalinist state not far removed from George Orwell's 'Nineteen Eighty-Four'. The occasion of the 60th anniversary of the cold war division of Korea was a unique opportunity to find out more about the country and to experience the bizarre.

What better place to get away from it all? The mobile is guaranteed not to ring (mobiles are confiscated anyway for fear that they might find their way to border provinces and be used to speak with outside) and you can't receive emails. The following is a selection of photographs and observations from my trip in October, 2005.