North Korea (Panmunyom Border)

01.09.2006 - 01.09.2006

Looks like the stereotypical North Korean Border Guard, but is actually from the "occupied" South.

North Korea, Panmunyom Border

There are currently 3 ways of visiting North Korea:

1. With Koryo Tours

http://www.koryogroup.com/

2. Visiting the Special Tourist Zone in Kaesong

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tourism_in_North_Korea

Quote:
In July 2005, the South Korean company Hyundai Group came to an agreement with the North Korean government to open up more areas to tourism, including Baekdu Mountain (백두산) and Kaesong (개성). Kaesong was finally opened to daily tours for South Korean and foreign tourists in December 2007; North Korea charged US $180 for a one-day trip. The city received several hundred tourists each week, mostly South Koreans.[4]

The tours to Kaesong were suspended in December 2008 due to a political conflict between North and South Korean relating to propaganda balloons. The balloons, filled with information critical of Kim Jong Il and the North Korean regime, are sent into North Korea from just south of the border in South Korea. The purpose is to provide North Koreans with the South Korean view of the situation in North Korea. After failing to convince South Korea to put a stop to the propaganda balloons, North Korea took the decision to suspend the Kaesong tours to express their serious misgivings.[6] The tours to Kaesong resumed in April 2010.

3. Stepping over the border line in Panmunjom through an organised day-trip from Seoul

http://wikitravel.org/en/Panmunjom

Having visited all the "evil" countries in this thread I would like to point out that they are all positively different from what we see about them in our Western propaganda (with the possible exception of Venezuela).

No comment on US "journalists" or "hikers" caught at their borders ...