International News. Patrick Chovanec. What's It Like to Be a Tourist in North Korea? - Interview by Christina Larson. On special guided trips, arranged for tourists and permitted by Pyongyang, Patrick Chovanec, a professor at Tsinghua University's School of Economics and Management in Beijing, has twice visited North Korea. On each trip, he and his fellow travelers were accompanied by official guides, only permitted in certain areas, and asked to delete "objectionable" photos from their digital cameras. Yet the visits afforded Chovanec a rare glimpse inside the Hermit Kingdom. FP recently caught up with Chovanec to share his experiences to take us, vicariously, inside Kim Il Sung's mausoleum, a North Korean classroom, and a gilded casino that has seen better days.
What we learned: North Korea is indeed a real place, where ordinary people must make due in extraordinary circumstances. Foreign Policy: When were you in North Korea -- and where did you visit? Patrick Chovanec: I've made two trips to North Korea. I just returned from my second trip in July. FP: What were your impressions of Pyongyang? New Internationalist.
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