PYONGYANG • Visiting Westerners lined up yesterday before giant statues of North Korea’s founder Kim Il Sung and his son and successor Kim Jong Il and, on command from their guide, bowed deeply..
PYONGYANG • Visiting Westerners lined up yesterday before giant statues of North Korea’s founder Kim Il Sung and his son and successor Kim Jong Il and, on command from their guide, bowed deeply.
It is a ritual the Trump administration plans to stop United States tourists from performing, with Washington due to impose a ban this week on its citizens holidaying in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, as the North is officially known.
The move comes amid heightened tensions over Pyongyang’s missile and nuclear ambitions – it launched a missile earlier this month that specialists say could reach Alaska or Hawaii – and after the death of US student Otto Warmbier, who had been imprisoned for more than a year by Pyongyang.
He was convicted of crimes against the state and sentenced to 15 years’ hard labour for trying to steal a propaganda poster from a Pyongyang hotel. He was sent home last month in a mysterious coma that proved fatal soon after.
Most tourists going to North Korea are motivated by curiosity and the desire to experience a different destination.
The iconic 20m statues at Mansu Hill look out over Pyongyang, and groups of North Koreans in suits and ties arrive regularly to pay their respects. Passing traffic is obliged to slow down.
As the tourists reached the platform yesterday, speakers played « We miss our general, » referring to the late leader Kim Jong Il.
