Cruising North Korean Style (18 Photos)

A rusty cargo ship festooned with welcome banners has arrived at North Korea’s Diamond Mountain resort to mark the launch of new tours from China that snub Seoul and aim to replace suspended South Korean trips. For a decade, the two Koreas jointly operated a golf resort ringed by Mount Kumgang’s seaside vistas and jagged peaks just north of their border, but Seoul halted the reconciliation project in 2008 after a North Korean guard shot and killed a South Korean tourist

With relations at a low point, the two sides have been unable to agree on terms for restarting the project. Instead, the cash-strapped North has turned to China, seizing South Korea’s assets at the site known familiarly abroad as Diamond Mountain (above) and evicting its workers over Seoul’s objections

Now, North Korea is opening the site to other investors and welcoming tourists of all nationalities who will meet in the Chinese city of Yanji, drive three hours by road to the North Korean port city of Rason, and then go by cruise down the east coast by ship to Kumgang

The maiden voyage carried dozens of Chinese travel agents, international media and North Korean officials

A North Korean man waits as workers put up a banner with the words “Rason to Mount Kumgang trial international tour” on the side of the Mangyongbong cruise liner before the sendoff ceremony at the port in Rason

About 500 North Koreans lined up with military precision at the Rason port for a red carpet send-off, waving small flags and plastic flowers while revolutionary marches such as “Marshal Rides a White Horse” blared over the loudspeakers

Streamers swirled and balloons spiraled skyward

Local residents attend the departure ceremony

The Mangyongbong, a refurbished Japanese-built cargo ship with rusty portholes and musty cabins, was used for the 21-hour overnight cruise tracing the length of North Korea’s east coast

Some passengers slept on wooden bunkbeds while others were assigned mattresses on the floor

Simple meals were served cafeteria-style on metal trays

“People from any country – Jamaica, Japan, Singapore, people from various countries – can come to Rason and don’t require a visa,” said Rason’s vice mayor, Hwang Chol Nam. “That’s the reality”

North Korea remains far off the beaten track for tourists – especially those from the U.S. and South Korea, whose nations fought against North Korea and China during the 1950-53 Korean War

A North Korean waitress dances as a North Korean man sings karaoke during the cruise

For years, foreigners could visit scenic Diamond Mountain through tours run by South Korea’s Hyundai Asan Corp., which opened a spa and golf resort there in 1998. All but a sliver of the 2 million visitors were South Koreans who saw it as a symbol of inter-Korean cooperation following decades of animosity

After the 2008 shooting death, Seoul demanded that Pyongyang formally apologize and allow a joint investigation before resuming the tours that brought North Korea an estimated tens of millions in hard revenue

The earnings have been sorely missed in a country that suffers chronic food shortages and where the annual gross domestic product is an estimated $1,800 per person. Pyongyang suffered an even further drop in outside income after a widely condemned rocket launch and nuclear test in 2009, which drew strengthened sanctions and a suspension in aid linked to disarmament

It remains to be seen how many Chinese tourists will be interested in the new tours. With incomes rising, Chinese are traveling abroad in rising numbers, thronging tour groups to Europe, Thailand, Japan and South Korea, with a small but growing number making the short trip to neighboring North Korea

Posted on September 6, 2011 | Filed Under Travel

Celeb Gurlz Says:

Ah yes, sleeping in a room full of other people on mattresses on the floor and eating cafeteria food slopped onto metal trays – cruising just doesn’t get any better than that does it? I’m sure the tourists of the world are just lining up in droves.