North Korea Journal by Michael Palin

Author:Michael Palin [Palin, Michael]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Random House of Canada
Published: 2019-11-05T00:00:00+00:00

Dinner is a curious affair, taken in a room almost empty except for a thousand small pots. My room turns out to be quite ample; a lot of bamboo – bamboo mat, bamboo blinds, bamboo hangings around the door. It has painted panels, trees and flowers and lovingly executed calligraphy in the Japanese style. Could it be a nod to the legacy of the Japanese occupation of Korea, such a dominating feature of the first half of the last century?

I SLEEP WELL ON A TATAMI MAT WARMED BY ONDOL, an underfloor heating system which, like the Roman hypocaust, uses hot air from wood fires beneath the tiles. Peeping through the side of my bamboo blind I see that the weather has turned infinitely more promising for today’s journey to the North Korean side of the Demilitarized Zone.

I’m told the man that I shall be speaking to – a North Korean military officer – will be there to answer questions about anything I care to ask, which promises to make our encounter very different from those I’ve been allowed so far. This could be a rare chance to talk politics.

We all gather at the hotel reception. Things are easier with our minders now. We eat with them in the evening. We see them on the bus. Though they don’t talk to us much while we’re working, they are beginning to emerge from their dark-suited uniformity. Mrs Kim is less stern than she first appeared. She’s a maternal lady with one son, and quite teasable. Like us, she and her team are learning as they go, trying their best to understand what we want, and calculating how much they can safely give us. It’s a simple equation. The more they trust us, the more we shall be able to see.

This morning the signs are promising. I’ve been seen openly writing these notes, and dictating into my voice recorder. So far no one has asked to look at, or listen to, anything.

It could be the Kaesong effect. This feels like a comfortable, relaxed town. It’s spring, the trees are in blossom, the place is well kept. The people seem happy, and among buildings that are centuries old, it’s easy to forget the trauma of the last seventy years. As we climb into the bus to leave, I’m aware that where we’re going next is the complete opposite.

The strip of land that divides Korea into communist North and capitalist South is known as the DMZ, the Demilitarized Zone. It was set up by the North Koreans, Chinese and the UN after the armistice in 1953, to replace the notorious 38th Parallel, the old border line, which had its roots in the ideological partition of Korea between the Soviet-backed North and the American-backed South at the end of the Second World War.

In 1950 fighting began in a bitter civil war which both sides blamed the other for starting. The North Koreans took Seoul but the United Nations forces under the command of US General Douglas MacArthur rallied, pushing the DPRK forces back across the border.

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