In a Nutshell: I was part of the first ever group of foreigners given access to all stations across both lines of the Pyongyang Metro. This may sound mundane, but the restricted Pyongyang Metro is surely among the most mysterious yet beautiful transit systems on earth. Each of its sixteen stations are unique yet ultra-nationalistic in theme, showcasing North Korea’s revolutionary history, goals and achievements to impressionable commuters through a series of mosaics, murals and monuments. It’s a lavish underground museum long shrouded by foreign conspiracy theory. Sensationalism aside, here is my journey in over sixty photos of the beating heart of Pyongyang, the Pyongyang Metro.
About: I’m Elliott. I’m the tour director at North Korea tour operator Uri Tours. I travel a lot myself, sometimes to the unusual, weird and wacky. Earth Nutshell is where I share my experiences. Interested in visiting North Korea for yourself? Shoot me an email at [email protected].
To set the scene, here’s a small video snippet descending to the platforms with the sound of revolutionary anthems booming from antique loudspeakers central to the escalator…
Bonus:
Want to visit North Korea for yourself? I can help. I’m the tour director at Uri Tours, a North Korea tour operator. For inquiries you can contact me directly at [email protected].
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This was a fascinating read of an absolutely fascinating place to visit!
Thanks Samina!
Loved the article Elliot, I worked on the Los Angeles Metro system back in 2004 so it is interesting to compare the socialist workers grandeur of the Pyongyang system to the relatively stark look and smell of concrete of the LA system which has a few pieces of art work just to break up the monotony. There aren’t even any murals depicting the the graft and corruption going on between the LA County officials and the greedy contractor, Tutor-Saliba, who built the system and bilked the public. ;D
What I wonder about is how many of the North Koreans who were in your photos were pulled aside later on by the police and questioned about what contact they might have had with you? Besides the death stare which I think may be a natural defense mechanism that North Koreans have developed to show that they aren’t somehow co-operating with the evil western outsiders I did notice a lot of people averting theirs eyes or turning their heads so as to avoid any contact, what a sad comment on that society.
Good stuff Elliot, keep it up!
Haha Paul, sounds like you have a controversial article to write for yourself there 🙂
As for your question, none would have been pulled aside. Tourism is more prevalent in Pyongyang than you may believe, China in particular has a handful of cheap operators that take curious Chinese tourists into Pyongyang (with restrictions, eg. no mausoleum), and there are a number of tour operators that have built great reputations in taking other foreign tourists — any nationality except for South Korean. As such, foreigners aren’t irregular or invisible, the Yanggadko Hotel where most foreigners stay (some in the Koryo Hotel) is often written-off as empty, but accounting for Chinese tourists, there’s always quite a bit going on inside at the morning and evening outside of itinerary timings, for most of the year. Many of the Pyongyang locals have gotten used to seeing the odd group of visitors taking selfies at the major sites including Arch of Triumph, Mansuedae Grand Monument and Kim Il-Sung Square, and as for conversing and directly interacting with North Koreans, this is also legal! But…consider the language barrier and the guides whisking you in and out of areas quite quickly. These were a convenient deterrent to initiating and holding a long conversation into juicy details with any North Koreans on the street.
ABSOLUTELY FASCINATING!
Thanks Bob!
Fantastic!! Thanks for sharing these amazing photos and your experiences in the DPRK. Fascinating and “disturbing” but I enjoyed putting a “human face” on ordinary citizens going about their commuting day. Thanks!!
Me too, Tony. It was good to visit and see life go by as normal, I didn’t speak to any locals inside the Pyongyang Metro itself but I had done throughout my trip, each time the insight went far and above the next news article we are destined to read about the ‘impending nuclear attack’ from North Korea. Even just to confirm the legitimacy of the entire system, rather than it being just a facade as it’s long been perpetuated (even by prior travellers) was great.
Thank you for the expressions of North Korea that I had no idea of.
Thanks Bob. Prior to entering North Korea, I felt visiting the Pyongyang Metro in its entirety may be unnecessary, possibly monotonous, and I couldn’t help but wonder how odd it must appear to our guides for us to request a guided look into not just one or two stations…but the entire lot of what is likely just a boring old transit system to the locals. I mean, imagine the looks you’d get if you demanded an organized tour across every station of the London Underground. But alas it was an incredibly fascinating look into North Korea. And as for the guides thinking it was odd, I quickly remembered I was in a country that had just taken me on sanctioned visitations to a supermarket, orphanage, university and a fertilizer factory, so that wonder dissipated quickly.
Wonderful article, thank you for the truly exceptional excursion! May your travels always bring you home safely. Godspeed.
Thanks for reading, Becky!
Good job man. It really shows how oppressive that regime is and how they have managed to keep the N. Koreans live in the past and too take pride in it. But, such pride is superficial when system collapses. But, even then don’t expect the N. Koreans to rush to democracy. They have no idea what that means. So, after the collapse of that regime and with the incompetence the West has recently shown in the Middle East affairs, there will be a period of chaos in the Korean peninsula too. Though, it will not be atomic.
Good job for doing the tour and coming out of it unscathed.
Mark
Thanks Mark. It’s easy to write off each mural as ‘just another dang picture of their crazed dictator, Kim Il-Sung’ but each of them has been crafted for a specific purpose as you mention — there’s an underlying nationalistic motive to the content and placement of every single mosaic in that metro system. Each fit in with North Korean versions of history, events and accomplishments and of course the fostered national pride (in particular war mongering). That fascinates me. The North Korean regime is anything but stupid, it’s all very well calculated and to see this ‘performance’ in the Pyongyang Metro, in all its intention, it gives a great yet saddening insight into the oppression of citizens at a governmental level.
In regards to your second part, I think recent history has established that democracy cannot be forced, it has to be understood and wanted by the majority — for a country that’s been anything but, it won’t happen overnight, just look at the situation in Egypt. I won’t speculate regarding a collapse of the regime or North Korea, but by all accounts if anything drastic was to occur it would spark an enormous humanitarian crisis. North Korean defectors living in South Korea, with all of their transitionary resources, struggle so much with the language barrier (yes, they both speak Korean, but the gap has gotten that big) that it’s already causing integration issues. That’s just a small number of defectors, the absolute tip-top of the iceberg, disregarding the wider populace or the economic or political effects on the region in the event of a collapse. It’s a crazy, unique situation over there.
Women are only wearing skirts or dresses. Are they forbidden to wear pants?
Hi Andrea, check above for the answer I gave R. Lynn, she was just 20 minutes quicker with the same question! 🙂
Great read. I noticed there are no blue jeans and the women wear skirts – no pants. Definitely a different world.
You’ve got a keen eye! Blue jeans are apparently illegal in North Korea, based on what was said by a Swedish source, coincidently a jeans manufacturer that had been given permission to operate and export from the DPRK, as blue jeans are a sign of American Imperialism. If this law is true, it’s not enforced on foreign visitors — I wore jeans most days and heard nothing of it. As for the women wearing all skirts, pants are now allowed but I think habit has continued, as the ‘ban’ was only lifted sometime in the last handful of years. Prior to that, women were only permitted to wear pants in the military, factory or fields. In saying that, I can’t remember seeing any women outside of those roles wearing pants, and I wasn’t there during winter.
Wow. Impressive indeed
Absolutely. I’m not much of a train fanatic, so it’s not every day I’d put together an article dedicated to a cities metro system — this one, however, I can make an exception!