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.

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.

If only we could get his personal email address so the President could contact him directly with his strongly worded message… maybe using ALL CAPS and perhaps even bolding some of the stronger words for emphasis. Then we might be able to get through to Kim Jong-Il, who, wanting to be a good neighbor to us all, will abandon the program.

If this doesn’t work, there is talk of pressuring China to encourage North Korea to put the brakes on their nuclear program. This is an excellent plan as our good friends the Chicoms have always been looking out for our well being and would be happy to help us out by easing world tensions. Some might say we don’t much leverage with China anymore, I’m not sure this is true. The United States has become such a huge customer for Chinese goods and they have bought so much of our debt, we need to approach them in terms of protecting their investment. We need to explain that if the crazy Korean starts lobbing nukes at the US, it would make it much more difficult for us to pay back the loans they have given us.

This pretty well sums up our options in dealing with North Korea… or any other bad actor on the international stage… if a bit facetiously. The country is already isolated. It would be hard to separate it any more from normal nations with goals of peacefully pursuing their own welfare and goals. They do not care what we say or think.

As far as depending on the Chinese – for all we know, they may behind these efforts to destabilize the international scene and show the ineffectiveness of our President through a client state. Washington is not the only capitol that values plausible deniability. They are already doing their best to destroy our economy… a little more pressure will make that job a little easier.

So what do we do? I don’t have access to all the security briefings and wisdom of Vice President Joe Biden, but I certainly hope the Obama brain trust does not come up brilliant plans like sending in the Marines or “surgical” air strikes. Even though it is run by a psychopated leader, North Korea is still a sovereign nation. They perceive the freedom loving people of the west… those of us that remain… as a threat and are arming themselves for a potential conflict. To them this is the truth and a nuclear North Korea may just be a fact of life in the twenty-first century.

Does this mean that the United States must roll over to petty dictators like this? Or even major dictators in China or Russia? With the technology and the finest military personnel in the world, this is not necessary. We can’t relax or become complacent in our international interactions. We can’t foolishly assume that everyone has our live and let live attitude. We need to let any nation that thinks we are a paper tiger understand, actions against us or our friends will have very negative consequences for them. Will this require a brain transplant in the occupant of the White House?

The United States has two destroyers that left from South Korea to move closer to North Korea to monitor the launch. South Korea also is sending it’s destroyer to more closely monitor the North Korea activities.

North Korea made warnings to Japan stating that an attempt to intercept the missile will be viewed as an act of war. They also stated that they will use all military force necessary to stop any interceptors from destroying the missile.

Japan state that it does not intend to shoot the missile down but rather to defend it’s territory. This is confirmed in the fact that the missile has the range to carry a nuclear warhead to Japan and North Korea has several nuclear warheads.

The idea that a missile with the capability of carrying a nuclear warhead is being launched by a communist country is troubling for all democratic countries. North Korea has a past of troubling activity and is currently still giving any disruptments to their extreme behavior an extreme reaction.

There is talk that the North has the ability to make a smaller version of nuclear warheads that could be attached to Rodong missiles giving the missiles a much broader range. This information is unconfirmed but troubling at that.

North Korea has claimed that the US has had over 100 flights over the missile area and their territory. Now the North is threatening to shoot down any spy planes that enter their airspace to monitor the rocket launch. This was in reaction to this increase in spy flights by the US.

The North still is planning the missile test between April 4 through the 8th in which the United States says they can do nothing to stop it unless for some reason it looks like it is headed for Hawaii or somewhere threatening. North Korea has already moved the missile onto a launch pad and is preparing for it’s launch.

The current presidential administration has already headed towards the direction of scaling down a missile defense system that was started by President George W. Bush. In addition their is talk of lowering plans for a defense against missiles in Europe.

North Korean typically refer to the Korean language as Chosnmal although it is also called urimal. The standard of North Korea is based on the way it is spoken in the capital P’yngyang while in the south the standard is the way it is spoken in Seoul. The differences between these two forms of the Korean language does not make it impossible for speakers of either group to communicate with each other because the differences are more or less equivalent to the Spanish spoken in Spain and the Spanish spoken in Latin America.

Since neither of these two views have been demonstrated decisively, those who do study the language prefer to refer to the Korean language as a language significantly distinct from the aforementioned groups. From a morphological point of view, the Korean language uses agglutination which is the process of adding affixes to the base of a word. Korean maintains a grammatical syntax whose base is Subject-Object-Verb. Japanese, Vietnamese, and the Korean languages are influenced heavily by the Chinese language.

Pyongyang: It is the largest and the capital city of North Korea. It is designed with imposing monuments, monolithic building and wide avenues in addition of some notable landmarks such as the Arch of triumph, Juche Tower, Pyongyang TV tower, Kumsusan Memorial Palace etc…

Namp’o: It is a city and seaport, which is designated as ”Special City” of North Korea. Lying on the Northern shore of Taedong River, it experience continental climate and low rainfall with lack of fresh water. It houses some famous tourists attractions such as sun bathing beach, pleasure ground and other recreational facilities.

Chongjin: It is the third largest city of North Korea. Originally a small fishing village, it is now the administrative centre of the North Hamgyong Province. There is a foreign consulate set up in Chongjin by the People Republic of China and Russia. It is the second largest market for good in the country. It also plays an important role in country’s economy as it is an important steel and fiber industry center.

South Korea, the southern half of the Korean Peninsula, is known as the ‘Land of Morning calm’. Bordered by China, Japan and North Korea, it is a major economic power and one of the wealthiest countries in Asia. Some main cities of South Korea:

Seoul: It is a major global city and the capital of South Korea. Not only this, but it is also the leading international financial centre and second largest metropolitan city in the world. Some of the major modern landmarks of the city are the world Trade center, Korea Finance Building, 63 Buildings and N Seoul Tower.

Incheon: It is a major seaport on the west coast of South Korea, near Seoul. It is regarded as a part of Seoul metropolitan area due to its close proximity to the capital and the fact that Incheon Subway and Seoul metropolitan Subway system are linked.

Kwangju: It is the sixth largest city in South Korea and is designated as one of the metropolitan cities. The city is famous for its rich and diverse cuisine.

Global issues need to be met by the global community. This does not mean that the United States can not lead the way. Obviously, there will always be the need for someone to take the initiative, but it has to be done in a way that does not isolate us from the other global players and delay effective resolution.

First, in a global economy, it is necessary for voters in the upcoming election to cast their votes to bring a more Democratic balance into the make-up of our current govenment. Democrats would be more effective in diplomacy and can speak the international tongue. Whether you agree with their policies and beliefs or not, they are more likely to restore trust and a sense of humanity to our foreign agenda.

Second, if the international community is the channel of tough sanctions, China is the key. The country of China is an emerging dominate player in the Asian region and is also responsible for trade that equates to roughly 50% of North Korea’s energy and food imports. If China does not accept its new international role in a responsible fashion, then the world will continue in its struggle to suppress renegade dictatorships.

Finally, North Korea has already been warned in their efforts to develop nuclear capabilities, but apparently decided not to listen. We should impose the toughest of sanctions and work with our allies to allow for massive refugee transportation out of North Korea. At this point, deadlines should be drawn up for an international force to work together in removing this dictator from power if president Kim Jong-il does not comply and agree to dismantle his nuclear program.

In regards to a potential North Korean attack on South Korea, we already know that underground tunnels have been discovered to be dug deep into South Korean territory. The scary thing to note is that millions of people live in the capital of Seoul, South Korea, which is not very from the border with the north. If it is already assumed that some tunnels have not yet been discovered, what is to stop North Korea from detonating a nuclear weapon right under the heels of a major South Korean city such as Seoul? This would cause millions of people to suffer a horrific death.

There is only one television channel in the country, and only 10% of the population own television sets. The Western world is effectively kept at bay.So an American orchestra being invited into North Korea had huge political implications. There is no doubt that for many people, this was their first experience of Western music. Kim Jong-il rules by an all-pervasive “cult of personality” in North Korea. As far as music is concerned, North Koreans love music, but the only music allowed is that which supports him and Communism. The implications of the symphony’s visit deepen.

North Koreans are forbidden to perform, sing, or listen to any other music, even in the privacy of their own homes. Those who were caught doing so in the past were arrested and, in some cases, tortured and imprisoned for years. Imagine what passed through these people’s minds as they watched the Philharmonic’s performance! Should they show emotion? Would their names be taken down? Defectors from North Korea to other countries watched in amazement.

Korean listeners heard the American National Anthem played. Orchestra members were amazed also. They didn’t know what to expect, and at first the audience was quiet and stone-faced. But soon smiles appeared, and after the finale of a popular Korean folk tune, the audience exploded into smiles, cheers and applause, with audience and orchestra waving to each other.