North Korean women love their high heels
by Tina Cheung High-heeled ankle boots, stilettos, kitten heels, wedges and platforms cover the streets of Pyongyang. Nearly every woman in Pyongyang wears high heels. A young female tour guide said the rumour that heels are required on the main roads that tourist buses travel on is untrue. “We think wearing heels are beautiful, so we all do,” she said. High-heeled shoes either made in Korea or imported from China are in supermarkets...
Agriculture up but still not enough
By Siqi Tian On the 175 kilometer Reunification Highway from Pyongyang to Kaesong, the bus passes empty fields with the occasional scarecrow. There is no modern farm machinery or equipment, no sign of mechanization at all. A few scrawny cows roam near the road and in the distance small herds of goats pass. Mostly mountainous, only about 18 percent of North Korea’s landmass is arable. And much of that is what the Chinese call cinnamon...
Entertainment exists in Pyongyang
By Cheung Man Huen At two entertainment spots in Pyongyang, locals seemed to be enjoying themselves. At the Ryugyong Health Complex, including the People’s Open Air Ice Rink and the Pyongyang Skate Park, which opened last year, the ice rink was busy on a Sunday at 6pm. Along the sides, people played table tennis. Men mostly wore hockey skates and women figure skates. Some were clearly advanced and practiced in the corners. Another...
North Korea sells different version of history
By Nathaniel Suen Nok-heng In Pyongyang’s Victorious Fatherland Liberation War Museum – North Korea’s name for the Korean War — life-size mannequins of dead American soldiers are shown being pecked by crows. The depiction of the U.S. military defeat takes up a considerable proportion of the museum exhibition, which teaches that the United States invaded the North in an attempt to take over Asia. Outside of North Korea, the...
North Koreans visit statues, memorials on wedding day
By Tingyu Chen Catherine A man and a woman wearing traditional Korean dress wait, looking nervous, at the shrine of Mangyeongdae, the house where the Great Leader Kim Il-sung was supposedly born. At the countdown, the couple bow in unison to the small straw house as a camera man films everything. In Pyongyang, newly married couples visit places like Mangyeongdae, the Korean War museum and Mansudae Hill, with huge bronze statues of the...
Fashion tied to loyalty
By Yupina Ng North Korean women in Pyongyang wear fitted suits and high heels daily, even at the amusement park and ice rink. Jeans and sneakers are rare. “Who would love a woman dressed like a westerner?” a local tour guide, who is in his 40s, said. Neatly pressed skirts, shirts and trousers are dark colored. A dress code gives a sense of belonging to the country, one North Korean said. But when a women wears the often brightly...
