By Alek Sigley (Continued from Part 2.) Chŏng Jin U then bumps into Ŭn Ok the next day in the on-campus botanical garden, where he was taking a morning stroll. It was a relaxing garden to walk in, with a variety of luscious trees, birds, and a serene atmosphere. Chŏng Jin U then sees Ŭn Ok sitting on a bench by the path, under an old oak tree. She’s absorbed in reading a book. Seeing him, she blushes, but he can see from her face that she is glad to see him. She clears away some fallen leaves for him to sit beside her on the bench. Eventually, Chŏng Jin U again asks Ŭn Ok for her thoughts on his thesis presentation. Finally, the serious look from the day before appears on her face and she tells him. It turns out that Ŭn Ok’s father is a judge, and that… [Read More]

By Alek Sigley. In the last instalment on the novel Friend by Paek Nam Ryong we looked at how Ri Sŏk Ch’un, the lathe operator, met his wife, the singer, Ch’ae Sun Hŭi. The story is told through a flashback to the past. Now they are married, have a young son, and are seeking divorce through the local People’s Court judge Chŏng Jin U. The narrative also contains a section where Chŏng Jin U recounts how he met his now-wife, Han Ŭn Ok. It provides many an insight into North Korean society, in particular, the outlook of North Korea’s educated class. In the section where Chŏng Jin U gives his thesis presentation, I have directly translated much of the text, rather than summarise it, as in the rest of the post. This is because it is a considerably unique look at North Korean historiography and social science, and therefore might be… [Read More]

By Alek Sigley I very recently finished reading the North Korean novel Friend (벗) by Paek Nam-Ryong (백남룡). The novel was published in the 1980s, and was apparently a best seller in North Korea. It was published in South Korea too where it garnered acclaim from literary critics. The story takes place in a city in the DPRK’s mountainous northern region. Part of what made it the subject of such interest in South Korea and overseas was that it dealt with the topic of divorce—which had been seldom if ever dealt with in North Korean fiction previously. The main characters are a married couple, the husband, Ri Sŏk Ch’un, and wife, Ch’ae Sun Hŭi, who have run up against the shoals of marital “disharmony”, and seek divorce through the local people’s court. The judge overseeing the case, Chŏng Jin U, becomes personally involved in both trying to discern the root… [Read More]

By Alek Sigley. In the past two instalments of this series we talked about the significance of the Pochonbo Electronic Ensemble first in terms of the stylistic innovations, and secondly in terms of the thematic innovations they brought to the North Korean music world. In this instalment we’ll look at some interesting bits of trivia relating to the group that are not very well known outside of North Korea. Pochonbo Electronic Ensemble on International Tour in Japan Given North Korea’s reputation for being isolated, the fact that the Pochonbo Electronic Ensemble went on an international tour in Japan in 1991 may surprise some out there. Not a whole lot is known about this performance, but live videos are available on Youtube, and clips from the performances feature in the music video for “Nice to Meet You” (반갑습니다). A reference to it is also made in this more recent Pochonbo Electronic… [Read More]

What was New about the Content of the Pochonbo Electronic Ensemble’s Music By Alek Sigley. In the last instalment of this blog post series we talked about the innovations Pochonbo Electronic Ensemble brought to the North Korean music world in terms of style. In summary, they made heavy use of electric guitars, synthesisers, and infused North Korean music style with elements of popular music from Japan, the West, and other members of the Communist Bloc such as China and the USSR. But it wasn’t only the style of their music that was a breath of fresh air in the North Korean music world, the content of their songs and music videos were also often markedly different to what had come before. Many of their songs, especially those composed when they started out in the mid-80s, and again towards the mid-90s when the Soviet Bloc was collapsing, were very ideological in… [Read More]

By Alek Sigley If you’ve ever been curious about North Korean music, you may have ended up on Youtube listening to the Pochonbo Electronic Ensemble’s songs. From its inception in 1985 and well into the 21st century, the band remained the biggest, most well-known, popular and influential group in the North Korean music world. Although since 2012 they have been superseded by the Moranbong Band as North Korea’s premiere pop act, the Ensemble’s songs are still very popular in North Korea and continue to be a karaoke staple North and even South of the DMZ. Not a whole lot is known about the group in general, and even less of that information is available in English. Here I’ve tried to fill in that knowledge gap with some interesting facts and context about the group that I’ve gathered mostly from Korean-language sources. For those of you who’ve never listened to Pochonbo,… [Read More]

By Tongil Tours partner Nikolai Johnsen who led, and took part in the program. In 2016, Tongil Tours organised the first ever open language program for Western students in the DPRK (North Korea), in which our founding partner Alek Sigley became the first Australian to ever study at a DPRK university. We successfully arranged another language program this year (2017), in which the author, Nikolai Johnsen, became the first Norwegian to study in the DPRK. We had a diverse and much larger group than last year, with participants from Australia, Germany, Switzerland, Poland, Canada, Britain and the USA. Overview: Classes at Kim Hyong Jik University of Education, Pyongyang This year we had 2.5 hours of Korean classes at Kim Hyong Jik University of Education every weekday (in 2018 it will be 3.5 hours a day). We had quite a packed itinerary, going around Pyongyang every day, but we stopped by… [Read More]

Below is an essay written by a young Australian tourist who came on one of our tours to North Korea in 2016. He wrote this as an assignment for a university journalism course that he took while completing his masters degree in international relations. We thought it was so eloquently written that we just had to share it here. Ever thought about travelling to North Korea? ‘I have made a terrible mistake.’ My acrophobic companion’s face was ashen, his hands clutching the safety bars of the strange, upside down roller coaster in Kaeson Youth Park, Pyongyang. Hanging alongside him, I couldn’t help but agree. Why was I here again? Eight days and nights in a country doesn’t seem like enough to change how you view it, but when you visit a place like North Korea (or, as our guides insisted we call it, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea) your… [Read More]

A Visit to the Independence Hall of Korea on Independence Day By Alek Sigley On a recent trip through the southwest of the Korean peninsula, I happened to end up at the “Independence Hall of Korea” (독립기념관; 獨立記念館) near the city of Cheonan in South Chungcheong Province. My travelling companion described it rather aptly as something that felt like the Disneyland of (South) Korean nationalism. Completely by chance (we did little pre-planning), the day we visited turned out to be the busiest of the year, it was none other than the 15th of August—“Liberation Day”, the only public holiday shared by both North and South Korea. Known by slightly different names in Korean between the North and South (광복절; 光復節 in the South and 조국해방의 날/조국해방기념일 in the North), it commemorates the liberation of Korea from Japanese colonial rule at the end of the Pacific War on the 15th of… [Read More]

With North Korea and the US trading threats in the spreadsheets these past few weeks, we would like to chip in and clarify how this recent round of sabre-rattling is impacting on tours on the ground in North Korea. First and foremost we want to emphasise that much of the hysteria is simply due to media hype and sensationalism. We have been monitoring the situation closely, including regularly checking in with our partners and associates on the ground, and can assure you that things are still completely relaxed and business-as-usual. Many of the articles that have come out recently are completely unsubstantiated. You might have read the one claiming that Pyongyang evacuated a large portion of its citizens in preparation for a potential war. There is absolutely no evidence for this. We have been regularly communicating with Pyongyang-based expatriates and journalists (a large group was visiting just recently for the 105th… [Read More]