Moranbong Youth Park Walk – S**t Happens

While having lunch we were advised that our first post lunch activity would be a walk in the park – a ‘star attraction’ of our trip. We would be able to see ordinary people having a picnic and generally enjoying their day off. As it was Kim Il-sungs 102nd birthday bash there would be more people than normal in the park so we needed to ensure we didn’t get lost – read veer away from our guides.

Anywhere else this ‘star attraction’ would have been greeted with cries of indifference but Pyongyang isn’t anywhere else. We had been bused everywhere to this point and the opportunity to have a simple stroll (albeit under our guides surveillance) excited us immensely. Would we really be able to say hello to local people and get a reaction?

As we would be permitted to sit down with “ordinary people” and join in their picnic (see my next entry – Picnic in the Park) we gathered up some of our foreign goodies (snacks, chocolates and the like) and supplemented them with some local drinks, etc such that we could contribute to the food and drinks.

Then off to the park we went – on our bus, of course.

Moranbong Youth Park is a beautiful green oasis, typical of quality parks anywhere with ample green grass areas, trickling streams, and lots of trees and shrubbery for shade, in addition to numerous lovely eastern style pavilions. It certainly stands out in stark contract to the drab colourless streets and buildings of the remainder of the city.

This physical contrast to the rest of the city followed through to the people. Elsewhere in the city people are really only seen in the streets when they have business to attend to or they are moving to or from work. Generally their faces are expressionless and there is very little chatting. They seem not to notice tourists and certainly do not interact with them (unless they are getting married and seek to be photographed with these strange tourist types). Once we entered the park we found people running around, laughing, singing, playing musical instruments, dancing, taking photographs, eating and drinking and, of course, painting pictures as members of the proletariat do everywhere!

I had to pinch myself – was what I was witnessing some form of dream? Was the whole thing put on for us tourists – as is often alleged when anything good or positive (from a western perspective) is sighted in North Korea? No, this was real and (apart from one doubt which I refer to in my “Picnic in the Park” review) it was not stage managed. These were the people of Pyongyang out having fun and enjoying their day off – it didn’t really matter that most of the songs they were singing and the music they were playing were revolutionary and patriotic songs.

Of course, the people of Pyongyang to whom I refer are from the upper echelons of North Korean society and can thus afford artists materials, cameras and expansive spreads of food. The poor and impoverished millions were not in Moranbong Park when I visited nor, sadly, would they be any day.

The most amazing thing is that the people noticed us here, made eye contact, smiled at us and laughed with (or was it at!) us. They interacted and I didn’t get the feel that after our visit they would be shipped of to a re-education camp for their indiscretion or for fraternising with foreigners!

This was a wonderful day out for the people and a real treat for us to be able to join them.

As we made our way though the park one of our group dropped a plastic bag containing a couple of bottles of beer, which smashed. No big deal you say and I agree, but why I mention it is to share the reaction of our young male guide, who to this point had hardly smiled and had not uttered a word outside a few chats with individual members of our group. On hearing the crash he turned around and with a broad grin on his face exclaimed “S**t happens” and then continued on his way. Had this young man let his guard down? Had the excitement around Kim Il-sung’s birthday got to him? Most importantly, had he succumbed to imperialistic influences? Surely this was not really a North Korean expression or one approved by Kim Il-sung.

We all, in unison, uttered the same immortal words, the people of Pyongyang laughed, and we moved on to our Picnic in the Park. Do join me there.

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This blog entry is one of a group (loop) of entries on The Rambling Wombat’s trip to Pyongyang, North Korea which I recommend you read in a particular order.  I suggest you continue with my next entry – Picnic in the Park – Don’t get Lost. If necessary, go to my Pyongyang introduction entry –  Pyongyang – A Capital City Unlike any Other – to start this loop at the beginning.

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