Three years in North Korea as a foreigner (2021)
mydiplomaticlife.com
mydiplomaticlife.com
Some things have probably changed since then.
A fascinating read regardless.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Embassy_of_the_United_Kingdom,...
If you want to arrange something quickly between nations you go through their respective three letter agencies.
(Saying that, I remember reading once that high-flying UK diplomats might be offered something less desirable as a ‘test of nerve’ - to see whether they had enough confidence and self belief to hold out for something better. It’s a never-ending test of character and ability to know which way the wind is blowing, I suppose)
Personally I would have loved the job. Seems like they had lots of free time. Very secure country without much crime. Really not much to worry about, just a bit isolating. Plus some cool stories to tell when you are back home.
Sure, not the type of job for people with family.
What good is that in North Korea? The whole country is basically a prison, and after what happened to Otto, anyone with any sense of self-preservation should want to avoid the place.
Saudi Arabia isn't North Korea, but it's still a lot less free than most developed countries, especially for females like my mother, who were not allowed to drive or work, could not go out alone, and legally forced to wear a stupid black thing in insanely hot weather while all the males of the country wore comfy white clothing.
I don't know the full story of their financials, but all I know is we got free housing, 1 free trip to the US every year, and 3 free vacations per year anywhere in the world, flights, lodging, and all expenses covered. We did lots of things that I believe they wouldn't have been able to do on their own money at the time. They also rented out their house in the US for extra income.
I wouldn't be surprised if diplomats who voluntarily take posts in North Korea also get a shitton of compensation benefits like that.
Less prestigious jobs but also desirable to some are sailors, or worse, submariners, and people working in Antarctica and other remote, hostile places.
Speaking about countries, North Korea is an oppressive dictatorship, but at least, it is not at war, and crime is limited. There are countries where your freedoms are just as or even more limited because you risk getting killed, mugged, kidnapped, etc... if you leave your armored vehicle and armed escort.
The positives of living in North Korea includes getting familiar with one of the most secretive culture in the world. There are some reports about North Koreans being quite joyful. People can have really shitty lives: war, crippling diseases, etc... and still find joy, so that shouldn't be surprising. And also, the article mentions travels, so, not really a prison.
And of course, there is the obvious aspect of compensation, which is probably substantial.
> The World Food Programme (whose Head at the time was an American called Reagan!)
But I can't find him here or elsewhere:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Embassy_of_North_Korea,_London
Is that a flagpole in the front garden?
Clearly the days of spycraft aren't over.
Those kinds of embassies don't need to be in the fancy embassy district.
(its just that electronic warfare is a natural extension of long range, lets call it, interference)
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Space_Operation...
Open channels of communication and all that.
An alternate explanation to your point is that countries would like to have the appearance of being as shadowy and influential as what the CIA has going on. I'll quote (AFKA) mos def [0] and also link to the 99% invisible episode in number stations [1]. Some countries broadcast codes nonstop A in case they ever need to, no one can tell they just started and B to have the appearance they have covert agents behind enemy lines, just to be spooky.
Mentioned that he worked for the embassy
People seem to find that interesting
High status, intrigue and mystery
Special code name on the hotel registry
I love it when they say
"Enjoy your stay"
They say it how they mean it
'Cause that's the way they been trained
Show you to your room
A suite with a view
When, if anything at all
Do not hesitate to call
...
Salutations, congratulations
Reservations, exclusive arrangements
Dinner with the patrons, the scenery is amazing
It's so outrageous, they whisper when they say it
When it's really real it's even realer than "The Matrix"
Classic, modern, ancient, flagrant
Get a special thrill every time they get to say it
Peace! I work with the embassy
On behalf of imagination industry
I come visit, you come visit
Such a pleasure, official business
La, la, la, la...
(Boogey, boogey, man, man)
[1] https://99percentinvisible.org/episode/numbers-stations/
Every room had a picture of Kim, obviously.
There are quite a few in houses like this along Somerset Street if I'm remembering correctly.
In Dublin there are a few big embassy compounds (US, Russia, UK, Germany are the only ones I can think of). Everyone else, even big dogs like China and India, has a converted house or a floor in an office block. Lots of pictures on Wikipedia:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_diplomatic_missions_in...
How much have things changed there in terms of technology, food security etc?
Documentary about getting s haircut in North Korea
Which means any conversation on the internet about NK is likely to be polluted with propaganda, even if none of the participants themselves are operatives - all it takes is someone unwittingly ingesting a bad fact once for that bad fact to get circulated.
When I say dragons fly over the rainbows, I need to source the claim. When I say that the sky is blue, it's you who needs to look it up if you doubt it so much.
Anything said about north Korea that is not absolutely bonkers is propaganda?
that's the point, you poison the well once and everyone keeps drinking from it, forever.
Check "North Korea Confidential" by Daniel Tudor and James Pearson from 2015.
https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLpdYcy8JtiisXTMb4zug_oCIB...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kZgzAquCs-o&list=PLk70D7sV6Q...
There was a few playlist from central asian travellers and with Chinese business man exploring with more casual minders a few years back but I can't find them. I know a few PRC nationals who made the trip for business, TLDR is NK cities and towns feels like PRC in the 90s with energy of PRC in the 80s. Some of the villages/hamlets seem like PRC from the 70s (which I guess is what most ppl think of NK). Other era reference points probably not helpful for ppl without context of growing up in PRC. So it's worth scrubbing through some of the videos, a lot of it is city and keep in mind NK is 60% urbanized.
Educationally speaking, the DPRK would catch up pretty quickly if they were able to liberalize their economy as much as China, even without all the help they could get from ROK, Japan, USA. It isn't Afghanistan (where liberalization wouldn't stick), or even Laos where there is a lot of work to do on modernizing society, which makes its current state even more depressing.
Everything is perspective; If you're use to certain standards, and the readers are use to certain standards, expressing the travel to a country where such standards are known not to exist, then you might view the situation as something to overcome —survive (to carry on despite hardships).
I don't think having access to luxuries detracts from the danger he was in of being in a country where public executions take place for things as minor as 'fortune telling' or watching South Korean movies.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capital_punishment_in_North_Ko...
However, given the overwhelming consistency and volume of testimonies, supported by satellite imagery, investigations by international bodies and leaked internal documents, it's clear these types of acts do occur.
"some"
For frequencies https://shortwavedb.org/cgi-bin/shortwave.cgi? and search for Country North Korea
I do not know how they relate to what is broadcasted on AM/FM for the general population, though.
> When serving in Iraq or Iran, my biggest fear in those places was always the threat of physical harm, be it ambushes on our person or vehicles, being kidnapped, rocket or mortar attacks on our embassy or accommodation. There were close shaves and the threat and the fear never left you in all of these places. > But as far as life in North Korea was concerned, there were none of these fears. Serving in North Korea gave you this strange feeling of being cut off, isolated and very insular and perversely at the same time “safe.”
I wonder how this compares to living in e.g. Libya under Gaddafi vs. after?
A few days after said person had a meeting in the German equivalent of a scif, there was a meeting with North Korean officials. One official let something slip, which meant a bug had somehow gotten into the scif. He didn't say anything about what the consequences were, just that one should not underestimate the North Koreans.
A room that is supposed to be highly secure with secure communication channels where it is safe to handle or transmit secret information.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cone_of_Silence_%28Get_Smart%2...
I highly suspect that if the government of a host country didn’t let a guest country follow standard construction procedures like the use of high density construction materials, then the guest country would either not continue construction of the diplomatic outpost or at the very least they would not proceed with using their (now) vulnerable storage closet as a scif.
> Since anything could only be brought in through diplomatic pouches it created an attack vector of one.
Are you presenting that as a good or bad thing? If there is only one attack vector, that makes it easier to defend against, right?
> One official let something slip, which meant a bug had somehow gotten into the scif.
You mean the North Korean or German official?
And I'm guessing the diplomatic pouches aren't fully in the custody of the german gov at all times there? idk
I would almost automatically assume that any SCIF in a foreign country was compromised to some degree.
Also, it can be more about the emotions of the humans doing the attributing than about the real governments. Just look at all the bizarre, contradictory, and fridge-test-flunking attributes which humans have attributed to gods and related mythical beings.
If the US continues to aid Ukraine, then it's likely that Ukraine will be able to beat Russia eventually, due to the West's superior military equipment and tactics.
If the US stops aiding Ukraine, it will be much more difficult for Ukraine to beat Russia. If Russia achieves its goals and gains control of Ukraine, then yes, other NATO countries will be in danger.
Some of the "russia is loosing hard" news is propaganda of course, to raise the morale of people fighting for their homeland. I find it hard to get too mad about that.
If a modern government wants an $unpopular_group exterminated, they can probably do so with brutal efficiency, given the tools at their disposal and the overall balance of power between the state and individuals.
If a modern government wants to win a war, well, half of those governments lose, because the other side is usually way more powerful than a random $unpopular_group.
If a modern government wants to achieve some nebulous goal such as "defeat disinformation" or "root out racism", I would bet on a spectacular bumbling failure with a lot of graft every time.
Yes. But if you belong in there, nobody is going to second guess you.
That is ridiculous.
I've been to multiple embassies as a nobody and no electronics were allowed and this was strictly enforced.
They usually make a big deal out of it.
This in embassies between friendly nations!
Fun fact, those "pouches" don't have to be a pouch or even a bag. They can be boxes or even crates and have been used for smuggling in the past, including drugs, weapons, gold and even - allegedly - people.
I mean, not like sourcing materials locally alleviates things. Apparently the US embassy in Moscow was discovered to have listening devices mixed in the concrete used to construct it...
I think this was the main reason why they shipped construction materials in. And then it makes sense to use containers that are tamper-resistant enough to be able to trust its contents.
If you take opsec serious, you should never be too comfortable.
And as far as I know with embassies and alike, there is the compromise of at least one room, that is very surveillance proof and checked regulary.
> However, I soon found that a bottle of Johnie Walker Black Label handed out at particularly frustrating moments made things miraculously happen a lot quicker. Oh how the North Koreans loved their whiskey.
The US made special clear coke in nondescript bottles for Marshal of the Soviet Union Zhukov so he could look like he was drinking vodka instead of the illegal Western drink.
https://www.businessinsider.com/us-secret-clear-coca-cola-fo...
Bloody Commie soda!
Ah, yes, the famous Russian carbonated vodka.
“Whisky (no e) refers to Scottish, Canadian, or Japanese grain spirits. Whiskey (with an e) refers to grain spirits distilled in Ireland and the United States.”
Johnnie Walker Black Label is Scottish, hence no ‘e’.
E.g. "Colourize" is Canadian English (vs American "colorize" or UK "colourise")
I was trying to be light-hearted and playful - most people know Scotch is "whisky". If I was being anal I'd have corrected their misspelling of "Johnnie"
Those bottles of whiskey/whisky were NEVER drank, I bet you. They effectively circulate as currency, the only one that actually buys you things in a disfunctional economy: a visit to the doctor, exams, favors or just goods that theoretically can be bought with money but are not in stock. Suddenly found in stock for a bottle of whiskey.
Aren’t all of these fungible?
I tried for 5 years in a row to get into my country's service. It failed. Pivoted to information security, hey at least I am a millionaire now.
But I certainly can offer some advice:
1. Be hardcore and really interested in security. Read everything. Deep diving into networks, software, vulnerability, risk management.
2. Get a CISSP certifiaction, then maybe an ISO 27001 cert and then also something juicy from SANS (I have none of these).
3. Get an AWS or a public cloud of your choice certification
Also
* Cia triad
* Mitre attack framework
* Cis controls
* Nist framework
* Ise 62443
* Zero trust framework from NIST
Get work experience, projects, situations, grow and evolve
Yet if one takes them, they will certainly help.
I think we sometimes look past how valuable it is to just have two clearly stated, conflicting views on an issue, without a day long effort to unify or persuade them.
Sure they don't ;)
I told myself this about an important decision. I thought about it more and decided I didn't really believe in that (proof: what do you remember from your last life), so just did it in this one. No regrets!
> This kimchi supply would then hopefully get them and their families through the long, bitter winter months.
This reminds me that my parents (they live in the South-Eastern Romanian countryside) make excellent pickled cabbage, in fact eating pickled cabbage is one of my fondest food-related memories from the dreaded 1990s (when there wasn't that much food to go around on account of lack of money, and we had close to no money because of the infamous Shock Therapy).
Very interesting to see how pickled cabbage has been helping people go through rough times at the two opposing sides of Eurasia (on the Korean peninsula and on the European peninsula).
An easier way would be to copy&paste all the text to some other place, but there are some inline images that I thought might be worth seeing.
This stood out to me in the article, as most countries incentivize foreign visitors to use local currencies to boost its strength. However, NK seems to have long ago come to terms it's currency will never hold value, so perhaps they instill this rule to boost their counterfeit money operations, or reserves of foreign currency.
They have stolen $3B+ over the past several years alone.
https://therecord.media/north-korea-cryptocurrency-hacks-un-...
If foreigners can only own foreign currency, and normal citizens can only own local currency, then it makes it a lot harder to bribe the locals!
The three-tier model was a little but unusual, but the idea of a secondary currency for foreigners was not that uncommon.
One other reason for it is to ensure "minimum spend" -- some countries required you to buy a certain amount of the foreigner currency at the official exchange rate as part of the entry process, even though the black-market rate for "local" currency was far more competitive.
Plus, many products in the shops for local are probably heavily subsidized and have vastly lower prices.
You used to be able to get a set off eBay for like $25, and sometimes uncut sheets of the older series, but I haven't looked in years.
Fun fact: it's probably easier to collect a reasonable type set of North Korean notes than South Korean. The Southern collection has a lot of hard roadblock notes-- a lot of notes that were replaced by the end of the 1960s and 1970s, so quality examples are expensive and rare, and one famous type from 1962 that circulated for less than a month before being flash withdrawn.
They also had something called "subotnik", aka voluntary Saturday labor. This was a practice where citizens, including workers and students, participated in unpaid labor on Saturdays. These activities included various tasks like cleaning up the city (that's what I remember doing as a kid). There was nothing "voluntary" about it.
IE, in school we only had a superficial explanation of what communism is; it wasn't until I was in my 30s that I understood the whole "cult of personality" thing.
Artemy Lebedev, a known Russian web designer, visited North Korea and posted his notes with pictures (in Russian, should not be an obstacle these days).
There are three more sections with the selector below.
https://vienna-pyongyang.blogspot.com/2008/10/vienna-pyongya...
It blows my mind a tiny bit every time I translate something with GPT-4. It’s flawless!
Fascinating article, it explained a few things I didn’t get before. E.g.: the locals collect grass in bags to feed to rabbits.
Also feels very sad for north korean people under the worst dictator..
Having a channel of communication is important even if indirect.
I wonder what spy devices were installed inside the car...
He was another British Diplomat (I think he was ambassador even) and he often would go on unscheduled biking trips freaking out his security escort. Though this was in less tense times, I doubt this would be possible in the days of Kim Yung-Un. Anyway, highly recommended, really.
- they were actually economically ahead of South Korea after war, despite embargoes (granted they had USSR back then)
- they border with China, absolutely massive economy where you can sell/buy anything. China started embargoing them since 2017, long after the author was stationed there
- one example of a major fuckup that ruined them that is almost comical https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/13th_World_Festival_of_Youth_a...
Cuba is in much worse place embargo-wise because they don't border with anyone who can trade with, they are also horribly mismanaged as communist countries are but albeit being poor they are not starving level poor like DPRK
https://video.vice.com/en_us/video/vice-guide-to-north-korea...
Currently the country seems to experience an extraordinary construction boom (modern apartment buildings).
All we have are 20 years old pictures.
Anything positive would require some effort to spin it that way.
North Korea is on my bucket list, but hopefully after the state loosens up.
I know the mass games look cool and people like to go to weird places, please avoid North Korea
That’s most/all countries (or their embassies) you visit, no?
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assassination_of_Jamal_Khash...
Not the same thing. Anyone can be killed in North Korea. 99,99999999999% of people are not on the saudi familys enemy list.
Let's not mince words here, he stole government property in a country with some of the harshest laws on earth.
Did he deserve to die for it? No, but it was an incredibly stupid thing to do.
Not the same thing!!!
yes, a different perspective.
EDIT/ADD:
Witness one of the world’s most secretive states, firsthand experience of a communist regime, dynastic leadership, and a pervasive cult of personality.
Ironically, Iran is probably much more dangerous than North Korea is (not least because you apparently basically can't do anything in North Korea), at least for an American. But like, if you want Korean culture, fly to Seoul and rent a car. I don't know how you get Iran's culture without actually going there.
[1] https://www.zdf.de/nachrichten/politik/ausland/oesterreich-r...
(BTW, a good friend of mine told me he's been skiing in view of the DMZ, and they just laugh at the NK guards watching them ski with binoculars.)
Furthermore, I'd question the value of finding out for yourself what life is like under a famine-stricken, xenophobic, totalitarian, hereditary absolute monarchy. What is it you're hoping to get out of an experience like that?
In the case of North Korea: It's difficult to explain unless you're in a listening mode, but I'll try:
First: I would never go under the current government. Full stop. I won't go somewhere where I don't feel safe.
Second: I don't endorse their government in any way.
For me, the best analogy would be traveling to East Germany in the early 1990s after the fall of communism. IE, visit the Berlin Wall, and maybe listen to some locals tell their story.
So, assuming North Korea's government changes in my lifetime, I'd love to visit and "see it" before it gets torn down.
One of the things I like hearing is how people work around constraints and obstacles. These are the kinds of stories I'm interested in.
slightly unrelated to the post: does anyone know any similar blog posts as such about people writing about their life? especially in areas of the world that is less known of?
another one that i really like is https://brr.fyi/ where he posts life working at the antarctica
Kwangmyong has been around since the latter half of the 90s, and is famously 'home grown' as a deliberate security feature.
NK also has some access to the regular internet, but it's very limited and tightly controlled. Meaning it is a luxury reserved for a few members of the upper echelons of NK society, or certain entrusted to people who need it for work (intelligence agencies and whatnot).
> You were in a country that really was sealed off from the rest of the world. No internet or social media. All press and TV (one channel) dedicated not for news but solely for the glorification of the Leader. That is the Kim dynasty and the regime.
But if we go back 20 years (others have said this is written in the early 2000's), satellite communication was probably worse than 28.8k modems and really expensive, so yeah, it could've been there but only for official and not personal use.
I take it you are under 30 years old.
You've got all your timings wrong.
The context being of the author's experience, who back then came from life in the West with (most likely) a "dumb" phone and a home/work Internet for browsing/email/instant messaging, and was then brought to a regime where mobile phones were most likely not allowed, and Internet might not be available, and social contact changed from being able to go out and see friends to having only a few people in the diplomatic compound, and contact with locals being severely limited to the people sent by the regime to watch over you...