These insights might not be revolutionary today, but they were years ahead of their time, at least by "Western" standards during the Cold War. If the world is belatedly realizing that "communist" is at best a flawed word to use to describe North Korea's regime, East Germany was adamant on this point as early as the s. East Germany's geopolitical goal, at least in the shorter term, was very much global recognition.
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It wanted an internationally accepted place as West Germany's opposite and equal, especially from West Germany itself. North Korea, meanwhile, never signed a formal peace accord with the South or the US after the Korean War and maintained the sole goal of Korean reunification under a socialist banner. He said the GDR held the strategic high ground and should really use this high ground before losing it. One should really oust the occupying forces in Berlin and drive out the Americans.
That would be the main task at hand. The imperialists wouldn't go to war over Berlin, he said. It would just be a matter of courageously exploiting the situation. The sudden fall of the Berlin Wall created a real problem for North Korea, especially given its young students sent there to study. The two dictators, at least according to East German subordinates and the odd glowing Korean correspondence to the GDR, hit it off on a personal level. North Korean media also reported keenly on the visit, though East German officials noted the censorship involved.
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Honecker's toast at the Korean reception was included in state newspaper Rodong Sinmun, but his references to European security and nuclear disarmament were cut out. North Korea's nuclear ambitions were beginning to crystallize by this point, while the GDR remained arguably the foremost socialist advocate of global disarmament. This too became a source of strain when some doctoral students were caught trying to steal industrial secrets during their internships at GDR businesses.
All the achievements of the Party and the Korean people are primarily attributed to the effect of Comrade Kim Il Sung Kim Il Sung, the first and "eternal" president of North Korea, took power in with the support of the Soviet Union. The official calendar in North Korea begins with his birth year, , designating it "Juche 1" after the state's Juche ideology. He was 41 when, as shown here, he signed the armistice that effectively ended the Korean War. In the years and decades after the war, Pyongyang's propaganda machine worked hard to weave a mythical narrative around Kim Il Sung. His childhood and the time he spent fighting Japanese troops in the s were embellished to portray him as an unrivaled military and political genius.
At the party congress, Kim announced he would be succeeded by his son, Kim Jong Il. The memoirs remained unfinished at Kim Il Sung's death in After spending years in the top tiers of the regime, Kim Jong Il took power after his father's death. Kim Jong Il's year rule was marked by famine and economic crisis in an already impoverished country.
However, the cult of personality surrounding him and his father, Kim Il Sung, grew even stronger.
Historians outside North Korea believe Kim Jong Il was born in a military camp in eastern Russia, most likely in However, the leader's official biography claims it happened on the sacred Korean mountain Paektu, exactly 30 years after his father, on April 15, A North Korean legend says the birth was blessed by a new star and a double rainbow. Kim Jong Il had three sons and two daughters with three different women. This photo shows Kim Jong Il sitting besides his son Kim Jong Nam, with his sister-in-law and her two children in the background.
Kim Jong Nam was eventually assassinated in The two appeared together at a military parade on , a year before Kim Jong Il passed away. According to Pyongyang, the death of Kim Jong Il in was marked by a series of mysterious events. State media reported that ice snapped loudly at a lake on the Paektu mountain during a sudden snowstorm, with a glowing message appearing on the rocks. After Kim Jong Il's death, a meter foot statue of him was erected next to the one of his father l.
The station looked like a concrete airport hangar, and was empty but for our train and our guards waiting on the platform. No ticket machines, no passengers, no trains, no whistles, no announcements. Just us. Within minutes we were racing through the countryside, fields ablaze with corn, the odd cyclist carrying a stack. A circle of jets in formation passed overhead, practising for the upcoming anniversary celebrations, and everyone had taken up spots at the windows, cameras in hand, absorbing the shiny newness of it all.
Hero worship
It was refreshing not to be in the constrained confines of Pyongyang, but in a more natural environment watching people go about their daily routine unhindered. However, the narrative is never as linear as it seems. It helped that we were travelling with Geoffrey Cain, a former journalist and author, now studying for a doctorate in Korean Studies.
The privileged also receive access to better education and infrastructure — which includes railway lines.
Democratic People’s Republic of Korea
So even though the towns we passed seemed lovely, the houses sturdy and the people even more so, these areas were significantly more prosperous than others. Scepticism was my default setting, but it became problematic when that seeped into paranoia and I struggled to shrug it off. The human instinct to interact was unavoidable, but I was mindful that there was a fine line to tread between wanting to engage with Koreans, and treating them like zoo animals, staring, waving desperately to eke out a reaction.
For the most part photography was restricted and our guides constantly reminded us not to use cameras at stations or to photograph passenger trains should we come face to face, which happened on one or two occasions. We would draw parallel and the Koreans would gather at the window, non-plussed, then most would break into smiles and wave before being reprimanded by elders — one even blew a kiss — but that couple of metres of separation between our windows felt more like a million miles.
The train tour was largely like a cruise on rails. During the day we boarded a coach and were driven around to various sights that included a fertiliser factory, a kindergarten, a department store — and to the mausoleum which houses both the late leaders in glass cases, a surreal experience.
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Otherwise we stayed on board, chatting, reading books on the Kims and eating fried eggs, steamed rice and soup, with heaps of kimchi and blood sausage. At night we would check into hotels, which certainly varied in livability.
Chongjin has only recently opened up for foreign visitors and is tangibly more sensitive than other regions. The Chongjin Tourist Hotel, like most other North Korean buildings, is a pigeon-grey with little more than coloured murals of the leaders alongside clumsily painted pictures of a purple orchid and a red begonia, known respectively as the Kimilsungia and the Kimjongilia. The hotel provides cold water for one hour in the evening and two hours in the morning, the curtains are grey, the wallpaper bubbles and the floor comprises yellow plastic rolled out in sheets.
Tanks and lorries with rockets and missiles passed through the streets as soldiers waved from behind the wheel and the crowd cheered through the rain, smoke and rumble of tyres. But for me the highlight of the trip was an evening on the square in Wonsan, where thousands of students were practising a group dance for the celebrations. Having watched from the sidelines, our guides indicated that we could join in if we wanted to, and the students broke their circle to take our hands, leading us and showing us how to dance.
It was an intimate, overwhelming moment, feeling the warm palms of Korean students, twirling and swaying to their music. For five minutes we were all the same.