North
Korea's recent campaign of bluster and escalation seems to be , but visitors to
the reclusive country say there are few signs the capital is anywhere near a
war footing.
International
TV broadcasters have been repeatedly showing tanks trundling through
Pyongyang's Kim Il Sung Square in a demonstration of North Korean national
power.
But when
Patrick Thornquist, a Chicago teacher visiting the North Korean capital at the
end of last week, arrived in the square, he was surprised by what he saw. This
iconic square — Pyongyang's political, military and symbolic heart — was full
of children rollerblading and shouting with joy.
“ You try
to grasp what is real and what is not. You're trying to find that balance
between what your media tells you and what they're telling you because they're
very far off.
- Patrick
Thornquist, American tourist who visited Pyongyang
One of
leader Kim Jong Un's contributions to the nation has been building roller-skating
parks and promoting entertainment facilities. And Thornquist was struck by the
fact that, on watching the news later that day, it was still featuring footage
of tanks.
"It
was definitely interesting to see tanks on BBC in the hotel, as if that was
that day, when we'd been in that square a couple of hours earlier and nothing
like that was happening," he says.
Thornquist's
trip was full of such surprises: for example, visiting a brand new bar, whose
minimalist-but-cool decor wouldn't have looked out of place in Brooklyn. As a
first-time visitor, he hadn't known what to expect. But even the tour leader
was taken aback by how normal the mood is.
"I
did expect to see civilian drills or hear some air-raid sirens or the
camouflaged vehicles," says Amanda Carr of Koryo Tours. She has been to
North Korea about 40 times, and this visit, she says, was just like any other.
"To
be honest, I was quite surprised at just how calm everything seemed," she
says.
"In
terms of seeing military on the streets and propaganda, that's the same as I've
seen the last few months. A lot of military were doing the construction work
that's been going on for a good few months, also tree-planting, which goes on
every year," Carr says. "So I didn't really see any military doing anything
different from usual."
Patriotism
On Show
That view
has been backed up by other accounts, notably from an who had spotted the buses
covered with camouflage nets but concluded that any preparations were
"more comical than convincing — like a version of 'Dad's army' in
totalitarian drag."
More On North Korea
Thornquist,
the American tourist, had booked his ticket in October, before the current
crisis escalated. Otherwise, he says, he probably wouldn't have gone in current
circumstances because he was nervous about the rising tide of anti-American
rhetoric. But his first encounters with North Koreans put him at ease.
"At
the beginning, I was a little bit nervous," he says. "But one of the
guides said, 'Calm down, we're all people.' ...What surprised me most is how
there really wasn't any anti-American talk directly to me."
One of
his personal high points was visiting a gigantic bowling alley, with 40 lanes
and state-of-the art computerization. Footage he recorded there shows
well-heeled Pyongyang dwellers enjoying themselves.
Frequent
visitors comment on the relative prosperity on show: Mobile phones are much
more common, and the shops are full of goods. A new consumer class is visible,
which appears to have grown since April of last year — the government's
deadline for North Korea becoming a "Strong and Prosperous" country.
During
the bowling alley outing, Carr, the tour guide, noticed that this consumer
class seems firmly behind its leader, Kim Jong Un.
"There
was footage of leader Kim Jong Un visiting one of the front-line islands. It
was a surprise visit for the citizens there," Carr says. "And there
were a lot of people standing around [at the bowling alley] watching it, and
some people were getting quite emotional, as were people on the TV. A couple of
people were sort of wiping their eyes, perhaps tears had come to their
eyes."
What's
Real, And What's Not
That
Pyongyang's propaganda should trigger such a show of loyalty in the showcase
capital — home to the elite and politically reliable — is not surprising.
The
message to the domestic audience is that the outside world is bullying North
Korea, and its very existence is threatened. This has the effect of uniting its
citizens behind their young new leader, no matter how much hardship they're
facing.
The
dueling realities have left Thornquist completely baffled after his trip.
"You
try to grasp what is real and what is not. You're trying to find that balance
between what your media tells you and what they're telling you because they're
very far off," he says. "It's crazy."
It's a question
that foreign diplomats based in North Korea are having to address. They've been
warned to submit evacuation plans, with Pyongyang notifying them that it cannot
guarantee their safety after April 10.
So far,
the foreign embassies are continuing their operations as normal, judging this
to be another move from what one Korea-watcher, Sung-Yoon Lee at Tufts
University, calls the "Pyongyang playbook."
But the
big question now is whether Pyongyang really is bluffing or if this relative
normality in the capital is just the calm before the storm.
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