Why Visit North Korea? It’s not a country that people know they can visit and for most people, it’s not a country they want to visit either. We however, at Visit North Korea, pride ourselves on being different. We are an open minded organisation who are not bound to the rigid thinking of everyday opinion. We think outside of the box and seek others who do as well. Based on this, here we make the case to you why you should visit North Korea. Ignore the media, it’s an experience which has so much to offer and so much you can learn from.
Open your mind and challenge your perceptions
When talking about travel to the country, one must wonder what North Korea’s Tourist attractions are. But it’s not really about it. It’s about how we think. We take the world we know for granted. We make assumptions about it every day, believing we understand things when we do not. As the late Stephen Hawking once said, “ignorance is not the absence of knowledge, it is the assumption of knowledge”. To learn is to ultimately recognize that we do not know everything and to remind ourselves regularly just how little we don’t know. What better learning experience is there than to Visit North Korea? It’s a country that so many people have things to say about, yet know so little about. Never has the depiction of any country been plagued by so much misinformation, hysteria and a failure to understand its political, historical and social context. To visit North Korea is to see things in a different light, to gain a new understanding in a way popular opinion cannot. It is the opportunity to learn, it is the opportunity to grow and it is the opportunity to expand your mind by realizing that in all contexts, things are not always as they seem. It is time to challenge what we know, it is time to visit North Korea
Be a chance for change: Build Bridges, Ties & Trust
The relationship between North Korea and the west has been plagued with mutual antagonism, hostility and distrust. Each side has unduly demonized the other without reservation. We comprehend all kinds of crude stereotypes about North Korean people and how they live. In our minds they are “distant” from us and “different to us”. Not quite. Alongside opening our minds to new experiences and challenging the way we think, visiting North Korea facilitates the opportunity to break down these age old hostilities and facilitate new ties between the country and the rest of the world. A visit teaches us a moral lesson that North Korean people are not evil and hellbent on our destruction and vice versa with them and us. We learn that North Korean people are human beings and regardless of the circumstances they live in, they have real lives, where they strive to enjoy themselves and have aspirations for the future. In our moralizing, stigmatizing and generalistic rhetoric, we forget this. By visiting North Korea we thus break down barriers and build bridges, it helps establish a better future.
Experience Korean culture at a unique, authentic angle
North Korea is not just a regime, a man, or a bomb, it is a country, a country part of a larger nation with over 5000 years of history. The politics of the DPRK does not weaken the position of Korean culture, lifestyle and tradition, but strengthens and preserves it in a way that the South has been unable to. Whilst some people claim South Korea offers a better “Korean experience”, its highly Americanized society dilutes this significantly. North Korea on the other hand as a regime which has isolated itself from the influence of the outside world, offers a much more authentic insight into traditional Korean life, society, arts and music. Take a break from the scenes of endless McDonald’s restaurants in Seoul and scenes of plastic surgery for a society relatively unscathed by globalization. It might not last forever, so don’t miss out!
Conclusion: A Whole New Experience, a priceless investment
As a whole, Visiting North Korea offers an experience which is unique, new and priceless. It is one which can change and influence your entire world view, opening your mind to new and more objective ways of speaking. It is bound to leave an impression on you, as well as the North Koreans themselves, enhancing your cultural understanding and experience of the world more than any trip possibly good. Above all, it is the chance to be different, not going with the crowd who strive for unoriginal drinking holidays at Anglified Spanish resorts. Visiting North Korea is for real thinkers, as well as people who want to make a difference in this world. We invite you to “take the red pill” and step outside of the world people are taught to believe in.