Shut up, there are South Koreans in the room!

Saturday February 18, 2012

Paul, Jim and I are geeks. Specifically we are North Korea geeks. We're fascinated by everything about the most reclusive country in the world. We read voraciously about it, we dine at North Korean restaurants, we speak the language - the more they try to keep us out the more we crave her.

In fact we all met in North Korea. Paul, who is Canadian; Jim, an American; and I were all on the same tour on a visit in 2010 and have kept in touch since then.

Paul and Jim are westerners-living-in-Beijing so they kept abreast of my whereabouts in China and eventually joined me for a weekender in the north-eastern Chinese city of Shenyang. And it was only natural that we headed to a North Korean restaurant for dinner on our first night together.

Rainbow Restaurant - Shenyang, China

As the three of us entered Rainbow Restaurant we were amazed to find that it was packed with North Koreans. This may not sound like an extraordinary observation at first, but consider that the North Korean government does not allow freedom of movement for its citizens within the country, let alone allowing them an overseas holiday. Jim and Paul are veterans of the DPRK eateries in Beijing but even they were awestruck by this unusual sight.

And of course all eyes were on us too. It is very rare for westerners to be walking into a North Korean restaurant in Shenyang. They had one eye on us and we had one eye on them - it was just like visiting the DPRK all over again.

Kim Il Sung badge

We knew that the customers were North Koreans as they all wore the red Kim Il Sung badge. In North Korea all citizens receive this badge upon turning eighteen and adults wear it on a daily basis, at least in public, lest they be perceived as disloyal to the country.

We sat at a back table mesmerised by this sight of North Koreans outside of North Korea. It was just us ("the foreigners"), one table of three South Koreans next to us, and the rest were Badge Wearers. We guessed that they were one big tour group, all members of the very elite - how else could they afford an overseas trip from a starving country, let alone be allowed out?

All three of us ordered in Korean as the waitress stood in amazement. She wasn't expecting that out of the foreigners (well at least not from the white fellas sitting next to me)! And the staff were now curious about what we were about. They were delighted to hear that we had all visited North Korea and that Jim and I could speak Korean fluently. Paul's Korean is more basic, although he now holds the distinction that he has been to North Korea TWICE (lucky man!).

The band at the Rainbow, all North Korean staff.

In North Korean restaurants in China there is usually a musical show put on by the staff. It must be a requirement from the DPRK government when it licenses these venues that they show off North Korean talent to the outside world. The Rainbow was no different, as the live band and the singers started their set of Korean and foreign songs.

The show was very well appreciated by the "home crowd": There was much clapping along and appreciative applause after every number. Throughout the performance one North Korean man was particularly enthusiastic. I'm not sure if it was inebriation or nationalistic zeal (perhaps both?) but he was standing out front with the singers at every opportunity singing and dancing along with them. He was having a terrific vacation, good for him!

But when the set ended controversy reigned. The final song was a gentle number on how lovely "our home" North Korea is. After getting caught up in the emotion of that, upon its conclusion our Enthusiastic Man spontaneously started a rendition of a more brash nationalistic anthem (i.e. praising the Dear Leader and all that). He began inciting the North Koreans to stand and sing with their hands on their hearts. And the crowd obliged - it was an extraordinary scene as almost the entire restaurant began to rise in unison.

Singers at the Rainbow;
Audience in foreground are all North Korean customers

The staff realised what was happening and decided diplomacy was more important in the outside world than blind patriotism. They quickly stopped the Enthusiastic Man, and quietly advised that this was inappropriate. The restaurant management obviously did not want to offend or make anyone uncomfortable.

But the trouble didn't end there! As the North Korean diners had the wind taken out of their sails and began to sit down, another man took the microphone and started speaking in broken English. He too was immediately stopped by the staff, but from what we could gather he was trying to welcome the foreigners and perhaps explain the song that they wanted to sing.

From the to-ing and fro-ing between the customers and the staff we surmised that the restaurant management were not worried about our "foreigners" table, but the restraint was exercised for the sake of the table of three South Koreans. They understood it would be inappropriate to sing patriotic North Korean songs in front of the Southerners. Fair enough.

As Jim, Paul and I finished our meals we shared our mutual delight at witnessing what we had that evening. Sitting alongside North Koreans outside of their country is wild enough, but to have micro-diplomacy played out before us was even more extraordinary. It was an excellent night out for the North Korea geeks.

Intersection of China, Russia, and North Korea

Saturday February 11, 2012

In an earlier blog post I ranted on about how cosmopolitan Harbin was. But I now regret that description.

While Harbin is genuinely proud of its multicultural roots, it is exactly that - a legacy. Current day Harbin is dominated by the Chinese Han population, and there are literally no Russian or Jewish people living there. The buildings and museums are all that remains of their contribution.

Then this week I discovered Hunchun.

Hunchun is the major city in the narrow wedge of China squeezed in between Russia and North Korea. As I type this I'm just 20km from the former and 10km from the latter. We're about 100km as the crow flies from Vladivostok, the remote Siberian port city made famous in Australia by a Tim Tam advertisement.

Hunchun: Trilingual signs illuminate an avenue of karaoke joints.

Being in such a strategic location Hunchun is cosmopolitan right here right now. While it lacks the obvious architectural icons of Harbin there are actual European Russian people living here, alongside ethnic Koreans, and the Han Chinese. There are old Babushka ladies eating toffee fruit on sticks! All the shop signs are trilingual - Cyrillic, Korean, Chinese.

The hotel that I'm staying at seems to be especially popular with Russians - at breakfast I was the only oriental customer in the dining room. On the streets there are Eastern European ladies strutting around, and burly Russian blokes being all burly.

South of the city is a village named Fangchuan, which is where China stops (!). The place is set on a hill and on a clear day from the same spot you can face west and see North Korea then swivel to the east to see Russian territory. On a very good day one can even enjoy a vista of the Sea Of Japan off the Russian coast.

Terrific, I'd love to visit! In fact that's what most tourists come to Hunchun for. My guide Mr Urm and I made the drive towards this geopolitical wonder.

Checkpoint near Hunchun on the road leading
out to Russia.

We reached an ominous looking military checkpoint about 20km short of Fangchuan. Mr Urm had to show his identification but the trouble began when they asked for my papers. When they saw from my Australian passport that I was a foreigner, my guide and the soldier began a vigorous debate.

We were denied entry. Or specifically I was denied entry.

The story is that when Kim Jong Il passed away in December, South Korean television news vans camped in Fangchuan to point their cameras into North Korea to record the reaction.

Who knew the North Korean authorities would be sensitive about that sort of thing?! They immediately requested Fangchuan be closed to foreigners and the Chinese authorities duly obliged.

Far from Kim Jong Un's warm palace

Note: An edited version of this blog post was published in the newspaper The Periscope Post.

Thursday February 9, 2012

"I remember as a kid regularly seeing dead bodies float down the river here." my guide Mr Urm quipped casually. On the banks of the River Tumen near Hunchun I had just asked whether many North Korean asylum seekers try to cross into China in this area. "They were all swollen - you know how corpses bloat after a little while?"

No, I didn't know. I'll take his word for it.

The Tumen River - which acts as the border between China, North Korea, and Russia further downstream - used to have more water and was a deadly hurdle for any North Korean wanting to escape their desperate situation. The strong current claimed bad and proficient swimmers alike, and those drowning victims are the ones a young Mr Urm and his mates saw.

Tumen River - North Korea on the left, China to the right (just outside Hunchun, China).

These days the depth of water is much lower in the Tumen, but fleeing from North Korea is no less dangerous. Even if you're fortunate enough to conquer the river without being detected by border patrol soldiers, China does not recognise North Korean escapees as refugees. If you're caught here then repatriation is immediate, and a long and painful "reprogramming" prison term back "home" is a certainty.

Like many countries China encourages the prosecution of "illegal" aliens with a RMB500 (AU$75) public reward. That's a week's wage for the average Chinese townsfolk.

"There are stories of refugees setting up a new life here in China for years - getting married, having kids - then some neighbour dobs them in and they're sent back." my guide told me. He then proceeded to gesture what sorts of torture they could expect.

In Tumen (the city) there is a detention centre on the Chinese side to hold asylum seekers before repatriation. However I couldn't pluck up enough courage to ask a local for directions, lest they thought I was a weirdo or a spy. Apparently even I have limits in seeking morbid "tourist" sites.

Being interested in North Korean affairs for many years I had decent prior knowledge of what a typical escapee endures. But seeing the sites where it all happens, in windy -10C degree weather, aroused a new level of consciousness of the oppressed folk across the river. I'm not reading about their plight from a book anymore, I'm on the banks of the freezing river where the perilous journey for refuge actually begins.

The North Korean asylum seeker demographic is different to other refugee streams in the world in that the majority are women. Once in China they're vulnerable to exploitation - many have been sold to Chinese farmers (as wives), bound as "hostesses" in seedy karaoke bars or even forced to concede their dignity for webcast on South Korean adult Internet sites. Yet like so many of the voiceless around the world they're forgotten.

A broken bridge over the Tumen River.
The guide commented the corn on the
Chinese side must be a cruel tease to the hungry.

There are those who have tried to publicise the awful situation faced by female North Korean asylum seekers. The two American journalists who were imprisoned by North Korea in 2009, pardoned only after a rescue mission from former President Bill Clinton, were inspecting this very same river, in the same area of China. They were working for a progressive television channel led by Al Gore, and were compiling reports on the exploitation of female asylum seekers. They also had a guide, and there is speculation the guide collaborated with the North Korean soldiers to setup the journalists as a diplomatic "prize". My contact who arranged the guide did ask me whether I was a writer or a reporter.

I mentioned the book Nothing To Envy in my North Korean trip blog in 2010. I have, and still do, recommend all to read it - Barbara Demick has written a wonderful account of the personal stories of six North Korean refugees. I have three copies floating around the world - let me know if you would like to borrow one!