| We visited two farms in DPRK: Taesongsan combined fruit farm and Chongsan-ri vegetable co-operative farm. Each time, the guides emphasized the active role Kim Il-sung had in establishing and leading the farms. |
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| We also had the chance to visit the village attached to the vegetable farm, including a leading villager’s house. Third picture shows the traditional kitchen, with the cooking place at ground level. Again, every available patch of land was used for growing. They explained that, DPRK being a mountaneous country, agricultural land is scarce. |
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| This is the store selling the products derived from the apples grown locally. |
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| They produly presented us the Nampo West Sea Barage, used to regulate inland salt water flow. |
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| The industry was represented by Kangso mineral water factory. The production line was made in Italy. |
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Agricultural visit and industry briefing
A trip to the countryside
There were two trips outside of the capital. One was towards Nampo (West) and the other one towards Kaesong (South). Other tours have different trips available, such as Eastern litoral and the North Eastern mountains.
The roads were pretty much empty and bumpy but very clean and neat. On the side of the road, every single patch of usable land was being used for agriculture.
Last picture shows the Pakyon waterfall, newly introduced in the foreign tourists’ schedules.
Education
The guides emphasized how the revolution improved the education in DPRK, increasing literacy rate by providing free compulsory school. We visited a middle school where, in the end, we attended a short musical performance. Then we moved to the Pyongyang public library. We visited some reading and lecturing rooms. Nice views from the balcony. In the book lending section I was able to find numerous foreign science books, including some from Romania.
Last picture is a display of books written by Kim Il-sung.
Film studio
This is the Pyongyang movie studio. Opened just after the founding of the country in 1949 to create patriotic features. Today there are several outdoor sets, resembling Korean, Chinese and Japanese towns.
DPRK Art
| The guides showed us many different forms of art from the DPRK. We even visited the main art studio in Pyongyang, the place that builds the impressive statues and murals of the Kims. We talked to some of the artists and they explained about the importance of their work. |
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| We also saw a circus program, but I had no camera with me. It was mainly about acrobatics.
At some point we visited the Children’s Palace of Pyongyang. This is the place where the school children go for extra curricular activities. There was one such palace in Bucharest too and I am very familiar with it because I attended some activities there too. The palace in Pyongyang brought me many memories from the childhood. So much resemblance with the building in Bucharest… same marble, same cold rooms, same decorations. We visited some of the classrooms, where the children were rehearsing dances, sewing, playing instruments and so on. Last thing we were invited to attend a show. It was such a great performance. So well they sang, so well they danced. I’ve seen professional artists in commercial shows doing so much worse than these little children! The show started with a song named “I am grateful to hug General Kim Jong-il” |
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. There were many patriotic songs but also something from the folklore. Amazing performance!
