Archives for April 2019

First published at NK News on the 15th of February, 2019. By Alek Sigley, founder of Tongil Tours and postgraduate student at Kim Il Sung University. From getting directions around town to playing music, here’s what to buy at a Pyongyang app store After introducing the North Korean app store in my last post, I’d like to now examine some of the apps I’ve purchased from it for my local tablet computer. The tablet came pre-installed with a range of apps, and I purchased about ten additional ones from one of the app stores near the Kim Il Sung University Foreign Student Dormitory. Here I take a look at four of the more interesting, locally developed ones that I purchased from the app store. “Kiltongmu”—North Korea’s Google Maps Kiltongmu (길동무; traveling companion) allows users to browse a map of Pyongyang. The map is extremely detailed, and when zoomed in to the maximum setting, one can… [Read More]

First published at NK News on the 1st of February, 2019. By Alek Sigley, founder of Tongil Tours and postgraduate student at Kim Il Sung University. From video games to language learning, Pyongyangites increasingly have plenty of choices Life as a foreign student in Pyongyang brings with it many unique perks and privileges. Like resident diplomatic staff and NGO workers, we can walk and cycle freely (with no need for a translator or guide to accompany us) around Pyongyang. We can spend our money in a wide selection of stores and restaurants that tourists and short-term guests are barred from even stepping foot inside. We are the only foreign residents who can ride the subway and use taxis to get about town by ourselves (diplomatic staff and NGO workers would require their Korean staff to be with them). Another area in which foreign long-term residents (both foreign students and other types of foreign… [Read More]

First published at NK News on the 25th of January, 2019. By Alek Sigley, founder of Tongil Tours and postgraduate student at Kim Il Sung University. Styles are getting more modern — though the streetwear of the South remains a long way off Last week I examined a North Korean women’s fashion magazine. This week I want to introduce NK News readers to a men’s fashion magazine which I recently obtained. The magazine is produced by the same “Clothing Research Center” (피복연구소) as the women’s fashion magazine from last week, and found for sale in the same generally “locals only” roadside book stalls. The women’s fashion magazine, which was printed in 2017, indicated that the “Clothing Research Center” was under the auspices of the “Ministry of Foodstuffs and Daily Necessities Manufacture” (식료일용공업성). But this men’s magazine, and a second women’s fashion magazine in my possession (the newest edition of the one in the last post),… [Read More]