North Korea: Pyongyang Metro
In September 2012, I led a group of 16 top CEOs from 9 countries to North Korea. We were seeking to get behind the headlines and garner a better understanding of a country often referred to as the ‘Hermit Kingdom’.
Before visiting North Korea, I believed that it was impossible for foreign tourists to enter the country and that it would be very dangerous to travel there. Friends and family members were concerned that I might be detained, imprisoned in a labor camp, brainwashed, or worse. Media accounts and documentaries portrayed North Koreans as goose-stepping caricatures, starving peasants, or enslaved masses, validating those stereotypes.
The Pyongyang Metro serves as a metaphor for North Korean experiences. Many international press and travel writers claim that the Metro is not really used by North Koreans and is just set up as a Potemkin village to showcase the regime’s power and sophistication. They have even alleged that only two stations are operational and that subway riders are paid to circulate through in order to create the appearance of use. Other press accounts focus on the stations’ depth and potential use as bomb shelters and cite the murals as militaristic propaganda.
We visited 6 Metro stations, all operational, and in contrast to these allegations, were exposed to people leading “normal” lives, albeit lives politically constrained and very different from our own. They were commuting to and from their jobs and other activities, rushing to catch the train, reading newspapers and waiting.
I learned that each station’s name is based on themes of the North Korean revolution, such as Prosperity, Reform, Glory and Triumph, rather than geography, and that a mural in each station represents those themes. The Pyongyang Metro is representative of
the larger issue of generalizations and overnsimplification distorting the reality of North Korea. We discovered that much of what we thought we knew was wrong. North Korea is neitherninaccessible nor dangerous to visit as a Westerner. And rather than depressed andnstarving, we met many North Koreans celebrating, eating, giggling and chatting on
cell phones.
Unfortunately, the stereotypes and mythology surrounding North Korea drive international policy. A nuanced understanding of the complexities involved would be beneficial for everyone.
