I dunno about you guys, but I’m extreemly envious of my friend (and co-worker of sorts) Katie Leitch, who got to go to North Korea somehow. She mentioned she was going, but I thought she meant “northern South Korea” not “DPRK.”
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34 Comments
Katie Leitch is a very good photographer — artful composition and her photos (the outdoor ones at least) are very well-saturated. This is worth taking a look at. (Finally, Shelton writes a worthwhile blog entry here! Good for you, Shelton.) Not all of her photos are of the “North Korea” trip — she only visited Kumgangsan, it appears — but all are interesting.
for those interested in great pictures, here is a frenchman in seoul who does some fantastic work.
I’m sorry but Katie’s pictures are boring and would be a waste of film if it were not digital.
This thread seems f***** up as well. Part of the posting link to some flickr.com site (nicointhebus)!?
Just my own personal opinion but even if I could I would never visit North Korea as long as Kim Jong-il is in charge. I wouldn’t want my money going to prop up a vicious dictator.
Holy crap, Shelton. I was wondering where all the flickr traffic was coming from.
Brendon: Thanks dude!
R.Elgin: You’re a real sweetheart!
GI Korea: I thought about that,too; I guess if spending your money is ever a political statement, then this tour was definitely it. I know most of my money went to Adventure Korea, Hyundai Asan and DPRK, but maybe a little of it got into the hands of somebody who needed it. Or maybe by pumping money into the resort, I made it easier for the employees to keep up the black market they run out of the gift shop (so I hear), and helped somebody make a living that way. Or maybe just being in close proximity to North Koreans and not acting like an ass made a difference to somebody’s opinion of Americans. And the North Koreans who work at the resort wouldn’t have those jobs if it weren’t for tour groups like ours.
So, I don’t know. I made my peace with it, through the little things.
R Elgin
You are a bit too harsh.
Show us what you’ve got.
Well, she will go on a pre-made PyongYang tour and get to know next to nothing about NK.
She takes some pictures of “theater troup” who man the PyongYang streets. But, she will be strictly forbidden to go anywhere outside what KJI allows her to see. Basically, distorted view on NK.
Too many amateur journalists go to NK and write NK is not different from any other country. It is sad that journalists who suppose to find “facts” are playing the roles of propaganda sources.
Am I going to hear another “Kim Jongil is a very reasonable man” bull shit. Or, “NK is surprising open and free” bull shit.
Send somebody who will tell it like it is. People starving. And, soldiers preparing war with SK.
We need real journalists, attention-seeking Spin doctors.
in one of the tours, if you shouted out “down with KJI” I wonder what would happen to you.. or your tour group. or the tour itself.
or you can wear a t-shirt that says “KJI SSSUCKS”. they’s probably shoot you on the spot.. it would be nice if a busload of tourists went with that..idea. Another incident waiting to happen.
This just in. A group of tourists from south korea were visciously machine-gunned to death by a north korean death squad. Apparently, the tourists were all wearing a t-shirt that said “KIM JONGIL SSUCKS”.. I wonder how they were able to understand english in the first place. this is cnn.
all the photos are nice and all, but, in my opinion, having your picture taken next to the statues of kim il sung, would only reinforce the idea to the n.k citizens that, kim il sung and n.k regime is admired and adored by all these tourists… outsiders. no?
sewing, oh no. i’ve caught your disease.. arghhh
Astonishing.
Every shot framed as if to say “Although I am an amateur, I once read a book that told me that photography is an art form. Anyway, I think it is, and I really think that… umm, hrrrr…, well, I thought I thought something!!!!…….. (one time, my boyfriend said I had nice tits, but I know it isn’t true
) Hey! Isn’t this MySpace???”
Nothing about North Korea…
Ms. Leitch’s rationale for her visit wasn’t very convincing, in fact it sounded quite naive, and I agree with GI Korea that I wouldn’t want to fund KJI, even indirectly (or even Hyundai for that matter). To each their own I guess.
Katie, welcome to my world.
Kushibora, er Pyotr, it’s so nice to see you again. I hear Russia is lovely this time of year.
Some of you guys are being real dickheads to Katie. Lay off her, she doesn’t deserve this abuse. (Hell, *I* don’t deserve this abuse.)
Gee, wouldn’t it be great to live in a world where your actions had no consequences? Shrug.
Hell, everybody’s a critic, but let’s seperate the camerawork from the visit for a moment–along with GI Korea and some others I think it’s preferable not to give one won to KJI, or provide an indirect confirmation of nork propoganda by posing in front of monuments to the dictator. Whether your friend is Ansel Adams or not is irrelevant to that point.
Wow, she’s hot!
So the verdict is out. Ms. Leitch is gulity by association it would seem. Pyotr, way too harsh mate. By your rationale one should not even point a camera with out coming out of school with a degree in Photography. There would be a lot of people that might not find giving won to KJI a whole lot different than bucks to Bush. Let’s not mention tobacco giants and distillerys. In fact don’t even drive your car or use anything made from petrochemicals.
Separting forms of lesser or more evil aside. I’d be very much interested in a review of a Geumgangsan trip. From the quality of food, rooms compared with price, convenience of itinerary and how much more spectacular the mountain is to what is available in the South.
BTW, you can buy NK beer freely at most JJoki JJoki Hofs here. IT’s quite good, taste much better than C(r)ass and (S)hite.
Woah.
baduk — Who said anything about being a journalist, or being an “attention-seeking spin doctor,” or getting an undistorted view of North Korea? I’m just a person who took a tour to a mountain resort.
Michael — What naivete, exactly? You, ghola and GIKorea don’t want your money going anywhere near Kim Jong Il; that’s fine. But we all pick our battles, and I think I made it clear why I didn’t choose this one.
pyotr — Nice to meet you, too. I know they’re pretty fantastic, but how about we leave my tits out of this? Cool.
Also, despite the jugs, I do have a pretty good grasp of English grammar and punctuation. But thanks for the vote of confidence, and good luck getting laid, ever.
you go girl.
fighting!
By naivety I meant your presence as a Western tourist in some respects validates the regime–and your money does indeed go to the regime, and not the average Korean. In the grand scheme of things your visit is no big deal; I’d just rather put my money toward helping N.K. refugees than go on a sanitized tour of Mr. Kim’s Haunted House.
Mike,
Something tells me Ms Leitch doesnt give a crap about that. Neither do I, for that matter. If the Norks didnt have that fucked up policy forbidding jaemi-kyopos from the tours, I’d go to just to be able to see Paekdu-san with my own eyes.
Bluejives, to each their own–it’s just hard for me to reconcile paying to see Stalinist kitsch when this is going on in the same country:
http://www.korealiberator.org/.....n-129824e/
Click me
Kinda catchy I admit….
Katie, I’m not condemning you for going to North Korea, I just said in my opinion even if I could go on the tour, because I can’t because I’m US military, I would not because I don’t want my money going to Kim Jong-il and the tour money is providing a source of revenue for the regime.
If it wasn’t these tours wouldn’t be going on. The regime has been trying to get the contract changed from Hyundai Asan to Lotte because they think Lotte would pay them even more money.
So if you want to go on the tour that’s your choice, I’m just saying it is not for me.
Yup, everybody has to make that kind of choice for themselves, for several nations besides North Korea too — Burma, Zimbabwe, Iran, Sudan… even China, including for the 2008 Olympics i guess… Some tourists these days have announced that they decline to visit to the USA due to its behavior in the Middle East, you know…
I have faced that kind of evaluation and decision several times. Everybody prioritizes their own values and reasons for these kinds of trips, and needn’t feel defensive about it. I was even a tour-guide for a promotional trip for diplomats to Geumgang-san just after it first got going, felt OK with that. I’ve been trying for more than a decade to get into the DPRK for some serious research-hiking on a few of their mountains, haven’t been granted a visa yet (due to my American citizenship); if they give me one, i’ll go. But i have decided not to vacation in Burma, although it’s almost the last major place in SE Asia i haven’t been…
Sanshinseon, could you explain what would prevent you from visiting Burma but not North Korea?
Because visiting Burma would be mostly just as a tourist, for my own pleasure and pure interest, but my trip to North Korea would be as a scholar, part of my career — supposedly, in the service of something of broader value. I’ve had the chance to visit Pyeongyang only, but turned it down because there’s nothing there of value for my research.
These judgments are pretty complex. For Burma there’s the additional factor that the globally recognized leader of their democracy movement, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, who has my full respect, has specifically asked international tourists to not come to Burma as a way of putting pressure on the regime — other dissidents and democracy leaders in other countries have said “please come to our country because it will help us to open up” — there’s no definitive statement really comparable regarding North Korea that i’ve heard of…
The worst such dilemma I ever faced was going to China in January 1990 — just seven months after the Tiananmen Massacre. I consulted with my friends and some activists on Chinese democracy before making my decision. I went — to the southernmost provinces for nine weeks of backpacking — and distributed some international press articles about the massacre to those local people who seemed trustworthy…
I wouldn’t try anything like that in North Korea.
Katie Leitch, on your photo page you expressed curiosity about the myth behind that tourist-photo-posing thing of the Mountain-Spirit with two axes — you can find a brief retelling of that story on my page here — my wife and i posed for the same stupid picture
Ghola (#12): You mean posting multiple successive comments to get to a point? Heh heh, yep, looks like you’ve succumbed! Was great for my stats when the Marmot was posting a list of top commenters, though!
Personally, I have no intention of travelling to NK either while the status quo remains up there. One day when I’m 80 and the country is a liberal democracy and I can feel comfortable going there, it’ll make the journey that much more special anyhow. …But I’m not going to directly confront someone over it—at least not if their trip isn’t an exercise in apologetics—and at least Ms. Leitch seems to have thought the whole issue through and weighed the ethical pros and cons before deciding to travel there (comment #6).
I mean, not directly confront a complete stranger online about it. If I personally knew someone who was planning to go there, I’d probably try to dissuade him/her from going.
Whoops, multiple comments again….
“One day when I’m 80 and the country is a liberal democracy”
I’m not sure we can count on that happening, Sewing. I think it’s also possible that the Chinese might make their move on the North to prevent reunification and to keep the North as a puppet buffer state. Especially if the South ditches the US as an ally and tries to cozy up to China. Then China will feel it has a relatively free hand to do what it wants, despite South Korean objections.
China fully intends to absorb N.K. and maybe S.K. while they’re at it:
http://english.chosun.com/w21d.....50028.html
But in the upside-down world of Korean “leftists” it’s the U.S. that Korea must push away….