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Looking Down on North Korea

January 13th, 2008

There are only three ways for an American to experience North Korea… two of them won’t result in imprisonment. One way is to go to Beijing to get a NK tourist visa and fly into Pyongyang. When you land, expect the complete treatment. A friendly tour guide will take you to the grand, wide boulevards and monuments while keeping an eye on what you photograph and who you talk to. Other tours exist to limited resorts and trade zones near the South Korean border.

The other is through satellite photography. OneFreeKorea posted an interesting article analyzing an alleged labor camp based on what we can see from space pieced together with interviews of ex-guards. I’m convinced. See the area for yourself.

Satellite photos are far from experiencing a place. But with the interactive features of current map websites and stand-alone programs, there is an element of feeling like you’re there. At least there’s empathy combined with imagination for what it must be like. When I hear about the lives of North Koreans consigned to brutal labor, I try to imagine what it would be like to navigate through those narrow rows of huts on my way to a shift in the coal mine. I wonder what chances they might get to run into the woods or find some other ways to escape.

In an entirely different purpose, I use photos to plan out trips or explore new areas in my own backyard. I like to get a sense of the landscape of a place before I go there so that I can do unscripted exploring. I mentally take note of how towns are laid out: where the downtown might be, how it might be possible to get to a remote area, or where a good vista might be found. My imagination of an area is never as full of an experience as actually going there, but it is one way to take yourself there.

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