From Alan Bolon
Question: In my conversations with colleagues at work, I am often asked whether it is possible to travel to the DPRK on your own for tourist purposes and visit the villages and mountain rural areas of the DPRK while talking to ordinary people?
Firstly , when the borders are open you can visit the DPRK as a tourist and you may visit different areas outside of Pyongyang such as Samjiyon and Mt Paektu , also Nampho and Kaesong . Occasionally tourists may visit co-operative farms.
As for talking to ordinary people , it is far better to visit the DPRK as part of an official delegation either invited by the DPRK Committee for Cultural Relations with Foreign Countries or by the Korean Association of Social Scientists. If you visit as part of a delegation you are treated as a guest of the Korean people and as a friend . There may be the opportunities to negotiate your itinerary which you would not have as a tourist. If you visit the DPRK as a tourist it is seen as a commercial translation by the DPRK and there have been instances of tourists engaging in espionage or hostile acts against the DPRK .
I myself have visited farming families in the DPRK in 1993, 1996 and in April 2017 . When I visited the Sunan Co -Operative Farm in 1993 I recall having a long conversation with the ‘lady of the house ‘ about what they watched on TV . I also remember visiting a farmhouse on the Migok Co-Operative Farm near Sariwon city in 2017 and meeting a farmer .
From R Lyman
How are living standards in DPR Korea, how are they changing, and is the government working towards any goals in that regard?
Despite the sanctions , blockade and the global health pandemic, living standards in the DPRK are good because people have free housing , free health care and education and low cost food as well as cheap public transport .
Visiting the DPRK in April this year the people looked well fed and well dressed . I could not see anyone begging or poorly dressed . Moreover I witnessed huge new housing developments that were the size of small cities.
With regards to the goals for living standards the DPRK is pursuing the people-oriented policy .At the 8th Congress of the Workers Party of Korea held in January 2021 respected Marshal KIM JONG UN said that “The independent, planned and people-oriented characters of the national economy should be strengthened. To this end, it is necessary to raise the functions of the state that organizes economic affairs, and ensure unified management of products on the principle of making sure that the fruition of the economic activities is channelled into promoting the well-being of the people."
At the 4th Plenary Meeting of the 8th Central Committee of the Workers Party of Korea held at the end of December 2021 , a programme of comprehensive rural housing construction was put forward . Many homes have been built in the rural areas . Literally tens of thousands of new homes have been built with new housewarming ceremonies taking place almost every second day .
At the 9th Enlarged Plenum of the Central Committee of the Workers Party of Korea held in January 2024 the regional development 20×10 policy was put forward . This means 20 counties and cities of the DPRK building 10 local industry factories each .It envisages not just building new homes in the regions of the DPRK but also local industrial factories and general hospitals . The aim is not just to improve living standards but to make the regions of the DPRK self-sustaining .
In his recent speech on DPRK national day, titled “ "Let Us Further Strive for the Prosperity of Our Great State"respected Marshal KIM JONG UN said “Like the principles of architectural engineering and structural mechanics, which high-rise and super-high-rise buildings need firm foundations, if the socialist system is to be consolidated under any circumstances, the foundation of the people’s mind for its advantages should be solid, and all the people should actively sympathize with it through their actual life, and the social system should be based on the desire of all the people to share their destiny with socialism to the last and defend it through generations.”
He also stressed“It is very important for each city and county to create their reserves in translating the Regional Development 20×10 Policy into reality and making it substantially contribute to improving the living standard of the regional people.”
Thus People’s Korea under the leadership of respected Marshal KIM JONG UN is making great efforts to improve people’s living standards.
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