As North Korea grabs the headlines again for all the wrong reasons, we take time to look beyond the saber rattling and consider life inside the hermit kingdom. Few tourists or businessmen have ever been. But what is North Korea really like? Two partners of Dezan Shira & Associates visited recently: Chris Devonshire-Ellis, the firm’s principal, and Olaf Griese, the Shanghai regional partner, who just returned from Pyongyang. In this article, they provide a snapshot of life inside the world’s most reclusive, difficult to enter, and potentially dangerous country.

The first sight many visitors will see is the Sunan International Airport – the main airport serving Pyongyang. Air China has service from Sunan to Beijing three days per week and there is a weekly service from Dalian. Korean Air and Asiana Airlines also provide chartered flight services to Incheon, the international airport serving Seoul, and Yangyang on the east coast of South Korea from Pyongyang. The airport is also the main hub of North Korea’s national airline Air Koryo.

Air Koryo mainly flies Russian-built Tupolev and Ilyushin aircraft, and has regular daily service to Beijing. Flights to Dalian have been added to the Air Koryo schedule with a twice-weekly Tu-134 flight from Pyongyang. Direct services from Pyongyang to Shanghai Pudong have also been inaugurated with a twice-weekly service. On March 30, 2010 Air Koryo had two Tu-204 aircraft lifted from the European blacklist allowing the airline to recommence flights to Europe. Flights are also undertaken between Moscow and Berlin.

Upon arrival at Sunan International Airport, mobile phones are routinely collected from those who had them. Foreigners are not allowed to possess either these or computers in North Korea. However, North Korean travel guides do have mobile phones, use them frequently and often, and decorate them in the typical bling fashion as everywhere else in Asia. Immigration and customs clearance is tedious and thorough, with all luggage being x-rayed and then hand inspected.

The drive to Pyongyang, along the main highway to the city, is a 24 kilometer motor, typically in a large Mercedes coach. The main highway is deserted with maybe the exception of one or two vehicles. The surrounding countryside looks green and fertile, and occasional glimpses of farmers and agriculture can be seen. It certainly doesn’t appear poor.

The traffic police in Pyongyang are smart young women who stand astride platforms, yet can only see a handful of vehicles a day, even in the city center. These girls have become a cultural phenomenon in their own right, and even have a web site dedicated to their beauty.

Pyongyang has an abundance of memorials, and early in the morning and in the late afternoon one will see schoolchildren sweep the steps and clean the podiums of fallen leaves and dust. North Korean children are taught from a young age to respect and honor their leaders and memorials to them.

One monument all visitors are taken to see to pay respects to is the Statue of Kim Il-sung, in the heart of the city. Standing some seven stories tall and flanked by a museum dedicated to his life, visitors are taken here to bow before the Great Leader before being taken to their hotel. A small ceremony, including the laying of a wreath of flowers at the base is also conducted to demonstrate the role he had in both freeing North Korea from Japanese occupation but also leading the country through the Korean War with the United States.

North Korea is located in north Asia and shares a border with the People’s Republic of China and Republic of Korea. The two Koreas have ended inside a cease fire for the duration of the Korean War inside the 50s, therefore technically leaving both countries inside a state of war. Though the armed conflict may be an item of the past, tension inside the two Koreas periodically rise because of border incidents. The two countries have spent considerable efforts in reconciliation and unification inside the past decade. North Korea yet, is less developed than South Korea.

Western visits to North Korea have recently been allowed and state sponsored tourism has begun. Despite the internal propaganda of North Korea against western nations from the past several decades the opening of North Korea to tourism is a clear change in their policy.

Tourist visits to North Korea are distinctive inside a sense that all visitors have to be followed by a North Korean guide at all times. There is markedly little or no interaction with locals in any with the destinations. Despite these oddities North Korea continues to be a favorite destination for Chinese and Russian vacationers. North Korean vacations are specifically well-liked from the Russian market attributable to the warm temperature in North Korea.

Even though the economic disparity from the two Koreas is extensive, the differences in natural beauty are nearly the exact same if not skewed in preference to North Korea. North Korea has maintained most of the historical internet sites situated in their country. North Korea is also house to splendid mountain vistas like in Mount Kumgang. Specific areas near the South Korean border like Kaesong have been opened for tourism.