In Pyongyang on Wednesday morning, December 28, a farewell ceremony began with the DPRK leader Kim Jong Il. According to ITAR-TASS, the first stage of the ceremony was held in the Kumsusan memorial complex, where the body of the late leader was placed shortly after his death. The last farewell to Kim Jong Il was to begin at 10.00 (05.00 Moscow time) local time, but the broadcast on central television and radio was from 14.00 (09.00) Moscow time.
The reasons for the delay in the ceremony are unknown. In turn, RBC reports that according to various information, the funeral of Kim Jong Il can last for two days. The final farewell ceremony will take place on Wednesday, and the next day the leader’s body will be placed in the memorial complex, and a minute of silence will be announced in the country. Chunan Ilbo also writes that almost all DPRK citizens working abroad returned home on the eve of Kim Jong Il’s funeral, following a special order from the North Korean authorities.
AFP also reports that the order in which the ceremony will take place has not been officially announced. Foreign delegations and journalists were not allowed to attend the funeral, and all information about the funeral ceremony could be obtained from the DPRK television broadcast, which can be viewed via satellite in South Korea, as well as in some countries of the Far East.
On television broadcasts, you can watch a limousine slowly carrying a coffin with the body of a leader on the roof along a snowy street (snowfall continues in Pyongyang). The action is accompanied by the construction of a large number of troops in the Soviet style. The coffin with the body of Kim Jong Il is mounted on a "pillow" of white flowers. Kim Jong Il’s son and his successor, Kim Jong-un, walks alongside and holds the limousine hood with his left hand. Tears are visible in his eyes.
The coffin was taken from the Kumsusan Palace past the statue of Kim Il Sung, making a circle along the central streets of Pyongyang. Ahead was a limousine with a huge portrait of Kim Jong Il, followed by a limousine with a wreath, then a limousine with a coffin. Judging by the television footage of the DPRK, hundreds of thousands of troops lined up at the palace. They bowed their bare heads when a motorcade with a coffin passed by Kim Jong Il. Television shows crowds of sobbing people near the palace. Law enforcement officers are holding back the pressure of the crowd trying to head for Kumsusan.
The BBC noted that the funeral procession, apparently, repeats what it was in 1994, when the father of Kim Jong Il, Kim Il Sung, was buried. As then, the funeral ceremony symbolizes the transition of the country's leadership to the new leader - the young son of Kim Jong Il, Kim Jong Un.
Meanwhile, many residents of Pyongyang, who came to say goodbye to Kim Jong Il, are so shocked by his death that they do not want to believe in it, reports INTERFAX.RU with reference to the North Korean news agency TsTAK. According to him, the DPRK citizens shout slogans: "Dear General, do not leave us," "Please return to us."
According to the South Korean agency Renhap, the body of Kim Jong Il will rest in a glass sarcophagus imperishable along with the body of his father in the palace of Kumsusan.
To embalm Kim Jong Il, according to RIA Novosti, Russian experts were invited to Pyongyang, led by Vladislav Kozeltsev from the Moscow Center for Biomedical Technologies, which is engaged in preserving the body of Lenin.
Together with the body of Kim Jong Il, in the tomb he will be exhibited, a special train car, clothes and a desk.
On December 19, news came from North Korea about the death of the head of the country, Kim Jong Il - he died at 70. The leader of the country died on Saturday, December 17, at 8:30 am local time (12.30 Moscow time), during a trip by rail. The official cause of death is called "mental and physical overwork."
The death of the head of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, the Secretary-General of the Labor Party of Korea, the Supreme Commander of the Korean People’s Army (the fourth largest army in the world), the chairman of the DPRK State Defense Committee, the son of the "great leader" Kim Il Sung caused a great public outcry in Seoul. Kim Jong-il has been a North Korean leader since 1994, after the death of his father. He had the title of "Great Leader." According to observers, the DPRK established a personality cult of Kim Jong Il like the cult of Stalin in the USSR: portraits of the North Korean leader adorn all public institutions, any criticism is punishable by imprisonment in a concentration camp, poems were written in honor of Kim Jong Il, fireworks were arranged. The leader’s birthday is North Korea’s second public holiday.
Since the 1980s Kim Jong Il’s biography, like his father’s biography, has become an official subject for study in schools. All books or articles begin with quotes from his work. The name of the head of the country in North Korean print media is typed in special bold type.
Kim Jong Il is considered in his country a wonderful composer, writer and architect. Six operas, the authorship of which is attributed to him, were written in two years. His works “On Juche Ideas”, “On Some Issues Arising in Studying the Juche Philosophy”, “On Cinema”, “On Juche-Based Literature” are considered classic. As an architect, Kim Jong Il is the author of the Juche Tower plan in Pyongyang.
In 2008, the leader suffered a stroke, after which he could not fulfill his duties for several months. Kim Jong Il's successor in place of the head of North Korea will be his youngest son, Kim Jong-un.
According to analysts, the new leader will have a hard time. The point is not only that the North Korean economy has been in a deplorable state for many years, surviving exclusively through assistance from South Korea. Kim Jong Il played the role of a “prince,” who inevitably must take the place of his father, over twenty years. Therefore, the people of the country were ready for the fact that he would become the head of state. And the rise of Kim Jong-un began only in 2009. Then, according to the South Korean agency Renhap, Kim Jong Il first called him his successor in a special secret directive for the country's governing bodies. The ideologists of North Korea will have to work hard in order to create the next Kim a heroic official biography. After all, his real biography is very prosaic. His mother is most often called the ballerina Ko Yong Hee, with whom Kim Jong Il cohabited for some time. Kim Jong-un spent most of his life abroad. He graduated from a business school in Switzerland and only seven years ago returned to North Korea, where he studied at a military university in Pyongyang. Behind him there is neither the glory of the partisan commander who fought with the Japanese, which his grandfather had, nor even a glimpse of the glory of the grandfather that his father had. For most North Koreans, he, although a representative of the ruling dynasty, is an absolutely unknown person.
In October 2011, the Daily NK newspaper reported that Kim Jong-un married in 2010 a native of Chongjin. The girl is a little younger than her husband, very attractive, comes from an intelligent family: her father is a professor, her mother is a gynecologist. She graduated from the prestigious University in Pyongyang and is working on her doctoral dissertation. There is also evidence that Kim Jong-un recently had a son. All this information is not advertised.
The head of the Center for Korean Studies at Moscow State University Pavel Leshanov believes that, despite the unexpected death of the country's leader, the ruling clan (the Kim Il Sung family) has long been preparing for this. That is why Kim Jong-un began to quickly move up the hierarchy. In 2006, leaders of the Korean People's Party were given badges with portraits of Kim Jong-un, which became the occasion for talk that he was being prepared for inheritance. In January 2009, Kim Jong Il issued a personal directive to the leaders of the Korean Labor Party, where he named Kim Jong-un as his successor. In January 2010, the DPRK government announced January 8, the birthday of Kim Jong-un, as the country's national holiday. On September 27, 2010, Kim Jong Il awarded his youngest son, Kim Jong Un, the title of General. On September 29, 2010, Kim Jong-un was introduced to the Central Committee of the ruling Labor Party of Korea (TPK) and was appointed vice chairman of the Central Military Commission.
According to South Korean intelligence services, Kim Jong-un inherited from his father both character and basic health problems - he is prone to overweight, suffering from diabetes and hypertension. Kim Jong-un loves pop culture and enjoys it. He enjoyed the greatest love of his father from all the heirs of the "beloved leader." It is also known that during the life of his mother, Kim Jong-un was called the "new star."
The first right to say goodbye to the late leader of the DPRK was his son and successor. In official communications, it was described as follows: "Comrade Kim Jong-un paid tribute to Comrade Kim Jong-il." The figure of Kim Jr. in the world is now focused on attention. However, it will not be possible to expect any serious political steps from him until the end of the mourning. Channel Five correspondent Elena Gorshenina will continue.
The second day, North Korea is drowning in tears. Footage of mass hysteria from morning to evening broadcasts Korean television. Tens of thousands of people mourn the “beloved leader,” and collectives come to say the goodbye to him at the Kimsuan Memorial Palace.
S Song Hee: “We will turn our sorrow into strength and courage. We will work even better under the leadership of our new leader, Kim Jong-un. ”
Today, the heir was one of the first to come to the glass sarcophagus of the leader of the nation and father. Kim the Third has not yet come up with the official title of the press. His grandfather was a "great leader", his father was a "beloved leader", and his grandson, at 28, was given a "young general." Kim Jong-un became the heir in 2009, over the next three years, his father introduced him to the party and military leadership of the country. Support for the main political force - the army - the successor,
According to unofficial data, provided the sinking of the South Korean ship Cheonan. And in this decisive leader of the nation, classmates Kim Jong-un do not recognize their own. In Switzerland, the future heir studied under the name Unpack and loved tracksuits and sneakers and films with Jackie Chan. And the young general, according to Russian experts, has no serious rivals - the father tried during his lifetime. Some of the party functionaries were sent to retirement, others died suddenly.
The only strong competitor is Kim Jong Il’s son-in-law and Chan Sung Taek, a member of the State Defense Committee, but he is, in fact, a regent with the heir. So there will be no coups during the change of power, we are confident in Russia. But North Korea’s neighbors are gearing up for the worst. Anti-crisis headquarters were created in Japan, and South Korea brought its troops on high alert.
Kim Kwan-jin, Minister of Defense of South Korea: “Now there are no movements of the North Korean troops. We are closely monitoring the situation in close cooperation with the United States. "We have strengthened our position on the border with the DPRK and brought our troops into combat readiness."
US new country leadership calls for peace in advance.
Hillary Clinton, US Secretary of State: “We are all interested in a peaceful and calm transfer of power to the DPRK. We hope to ensure stability in the region. We are striving to improve relations with the people of the DPRK. "
The only one who immediately extended a hand of friendship to the new leader is China. Hu Jin Tao personally came to the embassy of North Korea with condolences, and the Foreign Ministry has already invited Kim Jong-un to the Celestial Empire. And what will be the first move of Kim Jong-un remains a mystery. From each generation of Kims, North Korea got - from Kim Il Sung - Juche ideas, from Kim Che Il - nuclear weapons. The first is worshiped in mausoleums, the second - even on escalators (picture) What the third one thinks up is a big question.
Says Eduard Hawailer: This post is the first two pages of a series of photo stories about a trip to one of the most controversial and one of the most interesting countries in the world - the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.
Visiting this country, mixed feelings arise. Due to a distorted view imposed by Western media and propaganda against the Kim regime, internal stereotypes and ideas about the country are breaking down. For the most part, from ignorance, Western society is afraid of North Koreans, trying to convey and tell incredible stories from things taken out of context. Everywhere has its own truth and its own untruth. Someone says that in North Korea there is total hell, someone refrains from harsh comments and sees the positive aspects. In my posts on North Korea, I will not go into politics, consider the "West" as the "aggressor of imperialism" or consider Kim Jong-un's indisputable socialist system as a rotting regime with the absence of the most basic human rights. I just show and tell what I saw with my own eyes, share my impressions, thoughts and observations.
My journey began from the main railway station in Beijing. After lunch, I arrived at the appointed place where our group was to meet.
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A trip to North Korea was purchased through one British travel company. In addition to me, at the appointed hour, about 30 people approached the station. Another dozen who wanted to visit one of the most closed countries in the world had to join a group in the city of Dandong. This Chinese city is located on the border with the DPRK and it was he who was our first destination, where we had to get by train.
On the train to Dandong we had to put a representative of a travel agency, who also approached the appointed place on time. He collected his passports, and we all went to the ticket office, where we were supposed to get train tickets according to a pre-reserved list of passengers.
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At the box office several people, including myself, had problems getting tickets. The station employee was unable to find our names in the list of armor and simply returned several passports, saying that she could not issue tickets. As it turned out later, when booking with several people the names were spelled incorrectly. For example, in my German passport they apparently confused "D" with "O" (EDUARD). The train was about to leave, there were still no tickets on hand, most of the group had already left for boarding. The thought flickered: "Is the trip to be completed without even starting?" The representative of the travel agency was a Chinese, he ran back and forth, resented, looked for a solution to the problem. As a result, he managed to buy several new tickets for this train (we had to pay the money on the spot, then they were returned to us by another company representative already in Dandong). Looking ahead, I’ll say that I didn’t have any more shocks with tickets and passports on the Chinese railway. Everyone in the group boarded the train.
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In the compartment of the Chinese reserved seat car - 6 seats. They are located on 3 floors, and by a "happy" accident I got a place on the third shelf. Usually on trains I have nothing against the seats above, but here on the third shelf it was just not possible to turn around. It’s good that the train had a restaurant car, where our multinational group spent the whole evening. There was a time to get to know and chat with the group. By the way, all are very interesting. Still, not everyone decides to go on such a trip, and, as a rule, most have already achieved something in life, many have visited dozens of other countries.
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According to the schedule, we were supposed to arrive in Dandong early in the morning the next day.
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And here he is the city of Dandong. It is located in the Chinese province of Liaoning on the banks of the Yalu River, which separates China and North Korea.
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Here we had the opportunity to have breakfast, the last time to catch the Internet in the lobby of a nearby hotel and buy something on the road and get a lunch ration.
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Group selfie before leaving for DPRK.
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Here, another representative of the travel agency gave out visas issued in advance. More precisely, the passport inserts, which then remain with the Korean border guards. Unfortunately, a visa to a passport or a seal could not be obtained. All documents for entry into the country were submitted a few months before the trip.
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Liner cover.
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So, the plan for the coming day was as follows: cross the Chinese border, arrive by train at Siniyiju Station on the Korean side, go through all border formalities, including searching for personal belongings and equipment, on the same train get to Pyongyang in the evening, have dinner and check into a hotel .
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Korean train ticket.
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Boarded the train. This time I had a second regiment. Including all border procedures, the train takes about 6 hours to Pyongyang (by the way, the distance from the border with China to the capital of North Korea is just a little over 200 km).
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Crossing the bridge over the Yalu River (Amnokkan Cor.).
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The railway station on the Korean side is 1 km from the river.
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The train stopped, Korean border guards with very strict faces entered it and began to inspect passenger luggage. One by one. About what can and cannot be imported into the country, I will tell in one of the following entries.
Forbidden photo on the platform and photo of the border guard in the car:
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It so happened that my main backpack, stuffed with appliances, was not noticed and not checked. And in general, no one had any problems with luggage. However, this is not surprising, because the travel agency before the trip gave a fairly clear briefing on what is possible and what cannot be taken with you.
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I will show you many travel photos in the following entries.
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Toward evening, we reached Pyongyang.
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On the platform of Pyongyang Railway Station, we were met by local guides who were supposed to spend the next 4 days with us.
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Our group of 40 people was divided into 2 parts and placed in 2 buses. No border guards were put to us. In each group there were 3 accompanying persons: a driver, a local guide and a representative of a travel agency.
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Local guides spoke excellent English. On the way to the restaurant we had a short tour, talked about the schedule for the next days and some rules.
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One day in North Korea
The night before, our group arrived by train in the North Korean capital - Pyongyang. We had dinner at the restaurant, we were dedicated to the daily routine and plans for the next 3-4 days, and already late at night we were brought to the hotel by two buses. The hotel itself, its position, the provided service are incredibly interesting, I will talk about it in one of the following parts. In this post I will tell you how my first day went in North Korea.
The day was supposed to start with a wake-up stake at 6:20 a.m. We (we lived in two in our rooms) woke up at 6 in the morning and first of all joined the windows.
Within 10 minutes it was impossible to break away. We lived either on the seventeenth or on the eighteenth floor, I don’t remember, and the whole city was in full view. All these houses in rich pastel colors - just like a toy! A Juche Idea Monument was even visible from our window. It is likely that foreign tourists are accommodated as much as possible so that they have a beautiful view from their room. I will show even more viewing and viewing species in one of the following entries.
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Juche is a North Korean state ideology based on socialism and considered an adapted version of Marxism-Leninism to the needs of the leaders of the DPRK. At some point, music began to be heard in the city and people went out to morning exercises, because collectivism and hard work are some of the most important virtues in North Korea.
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So, already being impressed and in anticipation of the coming day, we left the room, went into the elevator and went down, paying attention to the large number of cars parked at the main entrance to the hotel.
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It is forbidden to leave the hotel without a guide, but you can walk along the square at the entrance.
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Half of the cars for some reason did not have state numbers. Are they standing for beauty and extras?
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Breakfast was from 7 hours to 7:30. According to the plan, at 7:40 everyone should already be on the bus. Looking ahead, I must say that all 4 days went by in this way: early in the morning we left the hotel and returned only in the evening, when it was already dark.
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The food is very simple, as in the Soviet dining room, only with an oriental character and of course kimchi. About food, there will also be a separate entry.
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The hotel has a communication corner through which you can get in touch with the outside world: you can call your relatives by phone, send a fax or news by e-mail. The pleasure will cost 2 euros per 100kb, 5.5 euros per minute of conversation with the United States, 2.5 euros per minute of telephone conversation with other countries and 18 dollars for sending one page by fax.
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There are shops in the hotel where I bought postcards to send to relatives and readers (by the way, to receive a postcard from my trip, you need to be subscribed to my email newsletter). To send a postcard, you need to buy postage stamps in the amount of 10 Chinese yuan (about 90 rubles). Sending a postcard to the United States will again cost a little more.
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Immediately on the first day we were taken 160 kilometers from Pyongyang to the International Friendship Exhibition. This is a museum complex located on Mount Myohansan. In the halls of the museum are collections of gifts from the Kim dynasty from foreign delegations, including an airplane donated by Kim Il Sung to Stalin.
On the way through the windows of the bus you could see Pyongyang.
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You can shoot almost everything. I calmly sat in the front seat and shot with different lenses, including a telephoto lens.
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Guides ask you not to remove three things: military, roadblocks from / to the city, as well as "people doing hard work." However, the third is a vague concept.
One of the forbidden photos:
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We leave Pyongyang at 8:25. There are practically no cars on the roads outside the capital: somewhere the old Volga will pass, somewhere UAZ. Every now and then there are workers who repair the road surface (without the use of equipment) or just people from villages who pour grass on the road. The roads themselves are in a deplorable state, however, along the road everywhere everything is neat and clean.
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Hydroelectric power station.
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Arriving at the museum, we were informed that shooting inside the complex is strictly prohibited. Moreover, the whole group had to turn in phones and cameras. Here, being safe, I pulled out a memory card and put it in my wallet, but it was found during the search and I had to turn it in. For a second, I already said goodbye to all the photographs taken. However, after visiting the museum, they returned everything to us and it became clear that no one was even interested in our things for a second. In general, the face of the baseless paranoia of tourists who came to North Korea. By the way, every day I saved photos on a laptop in 2 different parts of the disk.
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Museum guide in national dress.
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Beautiful places.
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According to North Koreans, the museum has more than 200 thousand exhibits. In general, giving gifts from official delegations is a standard procedure of the diplomatic protocol, but this is served to the people of North Korea as an over respect for the leaders of the nation from the whole world.
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View from the balcony.
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Time: 12:36.
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Our guides leave feedback from visiting the museum complex. For them it is always a special event. At about one in the afternoon we leave the museum.
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Next to the international friendship exhibition is the only Buddhist temple in North Korea.
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Local guide in a Buddhist temple.
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Selfie on the background of the temple.
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At 13:45 we leave the temple and go to the town of Myohyansan for lunch. The driver does not buckle up.
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The roads are old and broken, sometimes completely without asphalt.
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The food in the restaurant was ready, the tables were set. At the entrance is a picture of the leaders: Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il.
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For lunch they gave only 30-40 minutes. At 14:45 already left the restaurant.
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Guides asked not to remove the local "hard working" residents.
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Ahead was a 3-hour road back to Pyongyang, where according to the plan, we were supposed to attend a concert of children in high school and go to the place where supposedly the eternal president of the DPRK Kim Il Sung was born.
The guide without a break spoke about the life and life of people in Korea.
Another power station.
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North Korean peasant. Tractors are very rare, in most cases, the cultivation of crops is carried out manually.
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We returned to Pyongyang.
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A woman just sits on the lawn and manually leveles the grass.
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At 17:30 we arrived in the village of Mangyeongde near Pyongyang, in which Kim Il Sung was born and spent the first 8 years of his life.
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Mangyeongde is a place of pilgrimage and worship.
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The house-museum of Kim Il Sung.
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Pyongyang has an amazing amount of unexpected detail. For example, solar panels on the balconies of houses.
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Who would have thought.
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Tray of food.
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At 18:30 we arrived at a concert in Pyongyang High School, where children were already waiting for us.
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The concert lasted 30 minutes.
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The children tried hard, it was great! After the presentation, there was time for joint photographs.
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In the evening we were taken to a restaurant for dinner. Around 9 pm we returned to the hotel. In the issue I managed to sign postcards to relatives and readers.
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We went to the pool.
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At twelve in the morning, I went to bed. There were several more interesting days ahead, which I will talk about in other entries.
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Informative travel and stay in touch!
Wednesday, April 12, 2017As reported by Reuters, the DPRK official authorities warned foreign journalists in the country - urging them to "be prepared for a big and important event." According to the news agency, now in North Korea "there are about 200 journalists from other states."
"The authorities did not disclose details about the important event. It is emphasized that the previous time, when the authorities of North Korea made such statements, the event concerned local, minor issues," Reuters reported.
"Yes, we were warned that there would be an important event, very important, as they say. Only it can be a statement from their Great Leader and all that Kim Jong-un, or a public holiday, or maybe a nuclear test or a missile launch. Although we [ colleagues] discuss that Kim can give orders to attack US Navy ships when they come to the peninsula or even bomb Seoul, "said Pravda.ru a journalist who is in the DPRK and, for obvious reasons, asked not to give his name and nationality.
"And the people here are already ready for war, everyone is so proudly inflated, the propaganda on TV is colossal that Trump threatened that the imperialists are already close and you need to be ready for a great war and a great victory," he added.
The media also said that at least one modified Ohio missile carrier carrying 154 Tomahawk missiles joined the US Navy, deployed off the coast of Korea.
Note that according to the South Korean publication, a pre-war farewell began in North Korea. The inhabitants of the DPRK say goodbye "to each other, to their home, to their native factory or enterprise, to the forest, field, sky, river and sea, mountains." But to say goodbye to employees of law enforcement agencies, parties or mention the leadership of the country is prohibited in the words of farewell.
In turn, over the weekend, reports were circulating through Chinese social media that auxiliary troops and doctors were sent to the North Korean border - however, information about the transfer of 150,000 PLA \u200b\u200bmilitary personnel was not officially confirmed, although it was not refuted.
Recall that the Russian orientalist, professor Andrei Lankov, who has been working in Seoul for many years, warns: if the United States strikes a military target in North Korea, then Pyongyang’s retaliatory strike could pose a direct threat to the lives of 25 million residents of Seoul, which is located on the very border of the North and South. "In this case, a new Korean war is inevitable," the scientist warns.
“I’m sure of one thing: the risk of a military-political confrontation is very strong. The world is simply really on the brink of a third world war. It’s important to understand that even with a massive cruise missile strike on North Korea, it’s impossible to destroy all its military potential. North Korea can deploy land offensive operations. That is, there may be a large land war on the territory of the Korean Peninsula, "- said Pravda.ru editor-in-chief of the National Defense magazine Igor Korotchenko.
"The factor of nuclear weapons also needs to be taken into account. Maybe they have a hidden warhead, which a certain special team, personally subordinate to Kim Jong-un, after the first strike of the Americans will be able to somehow activate, possibly penetrating into South Korean territory. The special forces of North Korea are well trained for sabotage and terrorist acts, "he added.
We add that according to world media reports, "the elite squad Navy SEALS Team 6 arrived on the Korean Peninsula amid growing tensions with the DPRK." Now the US special forces are "working out actions to eliminate the DPRK leader Kim Jong-un." The Sun, which reported this, also recalls that it was the fighters of this detachment who "destroyed the terrorist Osama Bin Laden."
Mourning for the leader of the nation has been going on for the 10th day, and the funeral can last another two. But how exactly everything will pass is not known for certain. Aliens are not allowed into the most closed country on the planet - no foreign delegations. But all the citizens of the DPRK who are abroad were ordered to return home.
Morning shots from Pyongyang - a snowy square in front of the Kumsuang Palace and hundreds of wreaths with white flowers - this is a symbol of mourning in North Korea. The DPRK authorities classified the details of the farewell ceremony in such a way that embarrassment came out. It was reported that it would begin at noon local time. Then there was information that it was postponed to 10 in the morning. However, even earlier North Korean central television began to show footage of Kim Jong Il of the party and military elites of the DPRK - as it turned out, two days ago. What confused foreign television companies is whether this is a live broadcast or is it still a recording. Some news agencies marked "lightning" hurried to report that the funeral had begun.
It is known that the ceremony will last two days. For its organization, a special commission of two hundred thirty-two people was created, headed by Kim Jong-un - the youngest son of Kim Jong Il, who has already been named the new leader of North Korea. A glass coffin with the body of his father was taken along the streets of Pyongyang so that the residents of the city could say goodbye to the leader who ruled the country for 17 years. Then, a funeral rally will be held in the central square of Pyongyang, which is expected to be attended by hundreds of thousands of people. For mourning people, free distribution of hot drinks has been established, there are medical aid points. Artillery volleys will be sounded, after which there will be three minutes of silence, and all trains, ships and automobiles will simultaneously give a beep.
However, the funeral as such will not be. The body of the "iron all-conquering commander" will not be interred. He is being embalmed - for this, Russian experts from the center of biomedical technologies were invited to the DPRK - and they will be placed incorruptly in the Kimsuansky memorial complex, where his father, Kim Il Sung, rests. Together with the body of Kim Jong Il, his car, an armored train for special trains, clothes and a desk will be exhibited in the tomb.
Many observers even before the start of the mourning events suggested that Kim Jong Il’s funeral would take place according to the script of his father’s last departure, Kim Il Sung, and the DPRK authorities would try to use them to rally the people. In recent days, the DPRK Central Television has been convincing residents of the country that nature itself is mourning over the death of the "bright sun of Juche" - as Kim Jong Il is called - and even supernatural phenomena occur - supposedly owls mourn the death of the leader, and some saw it was completely unbelievable: white the bird whisked snow off the monument to the North Korean leader.
Foreign delegations are not invited to the farewell ceremony. However, given the specifics of the North Korean regime, one could hardly expect a large influx of guests. Last week, a minute of silence in memory of Kim Jong Il at the UN General Assembly, the delegations of the United States, Japan and European Union countries completely boycotted, leaving the hall. As an exception, North Korea was visited by a delegation from South Korea led by the widow of ex-President Kim Dae-jung, who pursued a policy of "solar heat" in relation to the DPRK and came to Pyongyang.
In Seoul, meanwhile, not only the citizens were forbidden to talk about Kim Jong Il, but all sorts of attempts to honor him were thwarted. Here is what the British Daily Telegraph reports: “The police gave clear warnings: anyone who is caught trying to honor Kim Jong Il will violate the law. According to the law, anyone who finds characters praising the North Korean regime, or everyone whoever tries to create them will be punished as a supporter of South Korea’s national enemy. "
What is happening today in the DPRK with its nuclear weapons and the fourth largest army in the world are closely monitored abroad in order to understand the future political alignment of forces in the country. In the official press, Kim Jong-un is the leader of the state, party and armed forces. And his name and surname now appears on television and in newspapers in a special bold type - a privilege that only his father, Kim Jong Il, and his grandfather, Kim Il Sung, were awarded.