Coming out of North Korea I want to write a little about all the beauty I saw in the country. I have read quite a few books about the country, told from its own people, and I've talked to several that have lived there. I have heard childhood stories of kids going to swim in the river after school, and when I was in China in 1998 we could look directly into the country and see the beautiful mountains and the green scenery. I knew it was more than the media told me. I knew there was so much more.
But all the beauty I saw still surprised me. It was more than I had imagined - and deeper - it touched my heart many times. And I've only been to Pyongyang, the main city, and Kaesong, the border. What if I traveled around the whole country, saw the infamous mount Paektu, or biked along the gravel roads across the country? What if I joined the few people that just learned to surf the waves in the long shore line? How much more beauty would I find?
Part of being in North Korea reminds me of stories my Dad used to tell me. Yes, he's dead, and he was a child in the 40's and 50's, and it is a long time ago. It is almost the same amount of time since the Korean war ended in 1953. My Dad also used to tell me stories of swimming in the river, diving from huge cliffs, catching fish without the right equipment and the long days surrounded by nature, at his grandparents farm or by the ocean, almost always the ocean. I think that's why he loved it so much.
And we know all things weren't all happy and blissful in Norway in the 40's and 50's. It was after the war, a lot of people were poor and living was simple and hard. But my Dad told me stories that touched my heart about a life without internet and commercials on every corner, about trying to sneak a free ride jumping on the wagon of the the milk man and doing pranks on the teacher. He told me about toys they made themselves and played with until you didn't know what it once resembled and the community between him and his fellow peers.
I thought a lot about this when in North Korea. There were beautiful impressive buildings, large squares with thousands gathered together and luscious and green nature many places. I saw a military leader bowing down to pick up a little child that came by and play with him, and I experienced a lot of warmth, surprisingly much sense of humor and joy. Since the weather was hot, and it was almost the perfect summer temperature, even for me that don't usually like it that hot, there were always people outside in the streets, even late at night. I saw little boots where you could buy drinks and snacks and young and old gathered around them, and many times families and friends enjoying ice cream. Since there still are few cars even in the capital Pyongyang (though it has increased a lot the last few years) we joked about it being more dangerous on the sidewalks full of people and bikers than in the middle of the streets.
I felt like all my pictures couldn't really convey how touched I was to see all the beauty, so I asked one of the guys I traveled with, a man of the great France, now living and working in South Korea, Valentin, if I could use some of his pictures added to mine.
Photo credit: Valentin Janiaut
Photo credit: Valentin Janiaut
Photo credit: Valentin Janiaut
Photo credit: Valentin Janiaut
Photo credit: Valentin Janiaut
Photo credit: Valentin Janiaut
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