North Korea

This card took some effort to receive, and I have two people to thank for this one: Gisela for sending it, and dear Heather for forwarding it onto me after Gisela couldn't send any mail directly to Europe, so I could still get a written & stamped card from North Korea. :)

I have no idea what sort of train this is or anything else about it, there's no info on the back of the card at all. ...but it certainly adds to my collection of train postcards! ;)

North Korea

A couple more postcards that Stanley sent me of North Korea.



I have no idea what the places on these cards are, although the upper one could possibly be Pyongyang? I know it's pretty naive of me, but I thought all of North Korea was like that; I didn't even think there could be places like the latter card there. :p Being a tourist in North Korea must be one of the weirdest experiences you could possibly have. I mean, when you are going to be accompanied by someone at all times and are only allowed to communicate with carefully selected people and see what they deem suitable. I think even George Orwell would've been creeped out... :P





..another miniature sheet I received. Pretty!

North Korea

Something very different now.. I received a bunch of postcards of North Korea from a kind postcrosser earlier this week. They are beautiful, but I can't help thinking about the actual country..



I've always wondered why the official name of the country is the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) when it's not democratic AT ALL. Does anyone know? It's pretty freaky anyway, a country where everything is so totally and completely state-controlled. How do you live in a place like that? Due to the government's secretive nature and its reluctance to allow in foreigners, North Korea is today considered the world's most isolated country. North Korea is a self-described Juche (self-reliant) state, described by some observers as a "hereditary dictatorship" with a pronounced cult of personality organized around Kim Il-sung (the founder of North Korea and the country's only president) and his son and heir, Kim Jong-il. It made me wonder during the latest football World Cup, how closely guarded and watched the North Korean players must be. It's scary to think how screwed you must be if you don't agree with the system...





These cards were sent in an envelope from China, but the sender, Stanley, included some stamp sheets. It was such a surprise, I didn't expec them at all! They are great, though, certainly something you don't come across everyday.