from what i've read in recent years nk has opened its doors to wider tourism partly because they really need US cash. previously it was harder to get in but not impossible as suggested in the vice video.

in the future anything can change. their current leader is getting old, and there could be a regime change that might destabalize things. a lot of their policies are sort of arbitrary and bureaucratic so one day they may just "decide" to not allow tourism, for whatever the reason (some party figurehead decides that all of these white people are weakening the juche ideal, or whatever). there is also the possibility that the entire nation could collapse financially and turn into a humanitarian crisis; they had a famine in the 90s that had their army eating grass and bark from trees. and then there's the fact that they're still sort of at war with the south/usa...

re: the last thing i obviously wouldn't want to do that if it could be avoided.

The video series was fascinating, yet I still have no motivation to spend time and money in such a dreary and depressing place such as North Korear..

The video series was incredible. Thanks for the link.

There is obviously a huge difference in getting you passport stamped in Colombia or in a country like NK.

I went several times to Colombia, sometimes they are a bit supicious and you have to open your bags and sometimes they don't even ask questions about your stay in Colombia.

you are coming from columbia lol

They do not dislike Americans or South Koreans (the people). They just dislike the idea of imperialism and the fact that, in their mind, South Korea is largely listening to US' imperialistic commands.

I've seen a ton of european and korean documentaries where they interview North Koreans and they all say the same thing. They all agree that they have zero reason to hate their own blood but just hate the fact that south koreans are/becoming too imperialistic. LOLCJUCHEIDEOLOGIES

NK stamp will cause no problems vast majority of times. But, as we all know, many countries have all sorts of squabbles and tensions with other countries - usually their neighbors. So if you plan to go to S Korea afterwords, you should check if this is a problem (from what I heard, it is not a problem). There is a lot of this going on in the world. The most famous example being an Israel stamp, but there are many other examples like DRC/Uganda/Rwanda stamps, Cuba, etc.

Obviously, if you go to a country that is prohibited by your own country, you will have problems. That is why Cuba will not stamp American passports if the person doesn't want it. It is against US law for Americans to go there.

But the person that said his Colombia stamp was a problem is wrong. I've been to Colombia and it is not a problem and a lot of Americans travel there. Heck, we don't even need a Visa to go there. You have to realize that Immigration and Customs are there to interrogate and question - so they will latch on to anything and everything to do their thing and they may have latched on to your Colombia stamp but that is just a tactic. The stamp itself is no problem at all.

Also, I looked into NK trip as well. (side trip as I'm doing other countries in Asia.)

Basically, there is no such thing as travel around North Korea. The only way is to take an organized tour into NK that will be highly structured and monitored. Many people have done these tours and there are many writeups online about them and they are all the same. Your experience will be exactly the same as every other previous tour. This turned me off. IMO, these tours don't really seem to be worth the money.

Now... if you can figure out how to actually do this without being part of a tour group - that would be something.

http://www.reddit.com/comments/frizo...a_in_2008_ama/

AMA on Reddit. In the thread itself, someone addresses the visa issue.

Looks great to me altough i hate guided tours personaly because i like to explore it like i want.I think i would sneak out of the tour from time to time and most prob end up with some problems in a country like this if not for this reason i defintily join you guy's.

waw this a great link this viceguide simply cant sneak out of it.

Also, if you figure out how to make this trip a bit better than the generic tour with the govt minders you can probably count me in. (I'm very serious.)

I've heard of people getting a Visa but taking the train into NK instead of flying - and crossing the country without any minders or government oversight and that seemed like a much richer and interesting experience... but at the same time, it seems like they just got lucky?

fyp

^^^^^^

didnt i say that in my post that it would get me in trouble?

But if the only hotel they let you stay is on an island there is not much sneaking out anyway.

A friend of mine has been to NK.
He kept on hitting on his guide. Eventually, he had her hooked. He even managed to spent some time with her on his own.
However, before he could start anything, governmental employees knocked on the door, took the guide away and talked to her.
Some minutes later, she came back into the room, made some excuses and left.

I have just been to the DPRK and I had a blast. Sometimes it was much like traveling back in time - a lot of the propaganda artwork looks at least half a century old. Life in the countryside is primitive, while Pyongyang (or at least the areas we've seen) actually looks like a modern city.

We had more freedom than I expected when it comes to wandering around and taking pictures. Of course there were restrictions and the guides were always near, but we could shop in a department store among the Koreans for example. There were more opportunities like that to interact with the common people. Maybe we were just lucky to have relaxed tour guides, I don't know.

The chances that those Koreans weren't fully aware of what their role was in that scenario are fairly low.