IN a cold sweat, I was led away by the jackbooted and armed North Korean border guards to a bleak side room.
My crime was that I’d disobeyed strict orders and taken pictures of the Stalinist dictatorship’s long-suffering people and the ruthless military who keep them suppressed.
Rogue North Korea isn’t the greatest place to be detained by the army.
The “Axis Of Evil†member, described as the “most barbaric regime on the planetâ€, is ruled by oddball despot Kim Jong-il, whose finger hovers over the nuclear button.
The soldiers, in large khaki peaked hats bearing the red Communist badge, took me to the almost bare white room, their heels clicking on the stone floor.
On a large wooden desk was a flickering computer screen displaying a series of forbidden pictures I had obtained after spending all day playing cat and mouse with the North Korean secret police.
No one in the room was smiling – least of all me. Legs trembling, I lowered myself on to a leather sofa and remembered The Sun’s witty headline, “How Do You Solve A Problem Like Korea?†printed when Kim tested a nuclear device in 2006.
At that moment, it didn’t seem all that funny.
My day trip had begun with a strict set of rules provided by the South Korean tour company which has been running trips to the city of Kaesong, in the North, since December.
Sun photographer Phil Hannaford and I were given a sheet of paper headed Banned Items And Other Regulations.
On the list of nonos were mobile phones – taken from me at the border – and cameras with a telephoto lens.
One order said: “You must ALWAYS wear your ID around your neck.â€
We could talk to North Koreans but were told: “Do not talk about politics, diplomatic relations, economics and other sensitive issues.â€
The regulations also insisted: “You may not take random pictures of North Koreans, including from inside the bus.â€
So, along with hundreds of South Koreans on tourist coaches, we edged through the three-mile Demilitarized Zone – the most heavily-guarded border in the world.
Korea has been divided since the Second World War, when the then Soviet-ruled North split from the South.
Passing through the razor wire and watchtowers the South’s soldiers, dressed in US GI-style fatigues, were soon replaced by the darker, Soviet-type uniform of the North.
Passing over the North Korean border was a doddle. But soon security was put on the bus. One of the South Korean guides had placed themselves in the seat in front of me while in the seat behind photographer Phil, a North Korean plain-clothes security man had materialised.
As we passed through an industrial area of new factories – sponsored by South Korea – I thought I’d shoot some film of the apparently innocent view. I immediately felt the hand of the North Korean on my shoulder.
“No, no, no. Not allowed,†he barked.
Soon we hit Kaesong, once the capital of all Korea and one of the North’s major towns. It was like something from old newsreels.
People either slowly walked or cycled through the streets past grey tower blocks bearing Communist slogans and ramshackle Korean-style slate-roofed houses.
Cars were almost totally absent. Small children gawped and waved.
As we moved through the austere town and out into paddy fields, the paranoia of “Dear Leader†Kim became apparent. At every junction and path with the main road, an armed soldier stood guard. Sometimes local people cowered behind walls as the buses went by.
We then passed through desolate, dry fields and farmsteads next to pine-forested hills. Most of the work in the fields seemed to be done by hand, with the occasional cart pulled by cattle. Despite the apparently barren landscape, we passed a huge gaudy mural of Kim’s dead father, “Great Leader†Kim Il-sung, pictured in a field of flowing corn.
Driving 15 miles north of Kaesong, we reached the Pagyon waterfall and were escorted from the bus as if it were a school outing.
Phil and I were followed by a posse of security personnel wearing Kim badges. We were allowed to take pictures of the falls and kiosks serving snacks – but nothing else.
When one South Korean tourist took a step off the path a soldier from the North blew a shrill whistle and raised a red flag. The plain-clothes guys came rushing over.
When we took a couple of sneaky wide-angle pictures of our soldier guards we also got the red flag treatment.
On the way back from the falls we finally had a chance. The North Korean goon watching over us went to the front of the bus to sing a folk song on the mic and our South Korean watcher nodded off.
Phil and I immediately began clicking away, capturing bedraggled farm workers, Kim’s ever-present military guards and children playing in dustbowl fields.
In Kaesong we had lunch. It was served in a tourist-only block by pretty, smiling Party-approved waitresses in traditional outfits. Next was a gift shop. Although one pamphlet was entitled US – The Empire Of Terrorism, the only currency accepted was the American greenback.
Kim, 67, is just 5ft 3in and compensates with platform shoes, bouffant hair – and tyrannical rule. In his dictator-chic safari suits and dark-rimmed glasses, James Bond fan Kim is a classic Dr Evil-style despot.
He would be laughable but for his nuclear threats and staggering inhumanity shown to his people. Aid agencies estimate that up to two million people have died since the mid1990s because of food shortages.
While millions of North Koreans starved on a diet of seaweed, cabbage stalks and grass, Kim imported two Italian chefs to cook him pizzas as he guzzled brandy.
A US-based human rights group has estimated there are up to 200,000 political prisoners in North Korea.
Reports of torture, public executions, slave labour and forced abortions in prison camps have also emerged.
We were unable to talk to any non-approved North Koreans as the goons in suits kept us well away.
Back at the border Phil and I took different queues at security to increase the chances of getting through. But after a metal detector picked up my camera I was taken to the sparse room by the military and questioned about my pictures. I was then led outside to await my fate.
Meanwhile, Phil had passed by during the fuss and was back on the bus, his rare pictures from inside North Korea safe.
After 15 of the longest minutes of my life I was slapped with a 100-dollar fine and my pictures deleted.
I was free to go – but North Korea’s 23.8million brutalised people remain trapped inside the Dear Leader’s nightmare world.
http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/article979220.ecepictures at link
