At the end of July, I spent an incredible 8 days visiting the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. The trip was unquestionably the most interesting one I've ever been on and I hope these photographs give you an insight into what I experienced there.
Having been lucky enough to live and work in the former German Democratic Republic before the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, this trip effectively took me back in time to a hugely important part of my life. In so many different ways, it felt like I spent a week re-living my youth.
On the first day, we took the 2-hour flight from Beijing to Pyongyang with the North Korean carrier Air Koryo. I was travelling with my U.S. American friend Robert and having arrived, we were met by our wonderful guide Song, before we joined up with the rest of our tour group. There were ten of us in total, all from England apart from Robert and two others from Nigeria.
We travelled by bus to the city centre, where we visited the Arc de Triomphe and then checked in to our hotel. After dinner and briefly exploring our surroundings, we got an early night to prepare ourselves for our momentous visit to the DMZ the following day.
My North Korean visa
In-flight entertainment
In-flight meal
Arrival at Pyongyang airport, 15 miles from the city centre
Our first stop was the Arch of Triumph in the capital, built to honour Kim Il-Sung's role in Korean resistance to the Japanese occupation from 1925-45. The arch was inaugurated on his 70th birthday in 1982 and is composed of 25,500 white granite blocks, each representative of one day in the Great Leader's life. At 60 metres (almost 200 feet) high and 50 metres (165 feet) wide, it is considerably bigger than the one in Paris.
The roundabout encircling the Arch of Triumph
Checking into the Yanggakdo Hotel
Our waitress in the revolving restaurant on the 47th floor of the hotel
The entrance to the entertainment complex in the basement of the hotel. The date commemorates the 60th anniversary of the victory of the DPRK over the U.S. imperialist and puppet South Korean forces on July 27th, 1953.
A news bulletin on a large screen in the entertainment complex
Korean dresses on sale in the hotel shop
A souvenir doll
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