Country of the day
Day 29 of 242October 13, 2026
The official calendar starts in 1912, Kim Il Sung's birth year.
Places
You come to read the state at street level: the deep Metro stations with mosaics, the vast central squares, the river embankment, and the monuments that set the scale of public life. Almost every first visit begins here, and nowhere else makes the country's official image feel so physical.
Tip: Give it more than a token stop; sites run on a guide's schedule, and opening access can change without much notice.
The old Goryeo capital gives you courtyard buildings, Songgyungwan turned into the Koryo Museum, and royal tombs in wooded hills. It is the clearest look inside a pre-division Korean city that most visitors to the country get.
Tip: Works best as a day trip from Pyongyang; start early so you have time for both the old center and a tomb site.
Here the armistice line turns into doors, tables and soldiers facing each other across a room. Few places make the unfinished Korean War feel as immediate or as controlled as this one.
Tip: Access depends on the political moment; dress plainly and expect strict rules on movement, speech and photography.
This mountain area gives you a different register altogether: valley walks, pine-covered slopes, Pohyon Temple and the cavernous International Friendship Exhibition. It is one of the few standard excursions where Buddhism, hiking and state theatre sit side by side.
Tip: Autumn is best for clear trails and colour; start early if you want both the temple and the exhibition without rushing.
The crater lake known as Heaven Lake matters twice over: as a real volcanic landscape and as the most charged mountain in Korean myth and North Korean state symbolism. Even if you know the politics, the draw is the rim, the weather and the sense of standing on the high edge of the peninsula.
Tip: Late summer and early autumn usually give the clearest chance of seeing the lake; weather can close the top quickly, so keep the day flexible.
Eat
Buckwheat noodles are served in a cold beef or pheasant broth with sliced meat, cucumber, Asian pear and often half a boiled egg.
Where: At noodle houses in Pyongyang, above all Okryu-gwan, which built much of the dish's modern reputation.
Rice is topped with shredded chicken or pheasant, mushrooms and pieces of mung-bean pancake, then covered with hot broth.
Where: In Pyongyang restaurants that keep older city dishes on the menu, especially in colder weather.
Rice is tucked into fried tofu and eaten with soy sauce, sometimes with vegetables or seasoning added inside.
Where: In Kaesong, where it is known as a regional quick bite as much as a sit-down dish.
Rice is stuffed into chewy sheets made from pressed soybean residue, then seasoned with sauce and sometimes vegetables.
Where: At jangmadang market snack stalls, where ready-made foods are sold to eat by hand.
Story
At dawn on the Taedong River, Pyongyang smells of coal smoke, river water and cabbage brine. The trams start early, the Metro escalators drop deep, and almost every visitor learns the city's rhythm through a guide's timing rather than their own. Stand in Kim Il Sung Square as the traffic police begin their hand signals, and the place stops being an argument and becomes a city.
Long before the present state, the north held royal cities. In 427, King Jangsu moved Goguryeo's court to Pyongyang, and tomb painters left wrestlers, dancers and kitchens on plaster walls outside the city. In 918, Wang Geon founded Goryeo at Songak, now Kaesong. Students in white robes filed into Songgyungwan, and the dynasty's name travelled west as 'Korea'.
In October 1945, Soviet officers introduced Kim Il Sung at a rally in Pyongyang, presenting a young guerrilla commander to a crowd that barely knew his face. Five years later war broke out across the peninsula. Cities were levelled, families split, and the map turned brutal. In July 1953, officers signed an armistice at Panmunjom, and a ceasefire village became one of the tightest borders on earth.
In the famine years of the 1990s, the ration system faltered and jangmadang markets spread. Women sat behind blankets of noodles, soap and Chinese batteries, selling what the planned system no longer supplied. Under Kim Jong Un, Pyongyang gained new towers, leisure projects and polished showcase streets while controls on speech, movement and information stayed severe. The result is a country of marble halls and improvisation, each explaining the other.
Say hello
안녕하십니까?
Hello; a very formal greeting
Say: an-nyong-ha-shim-ni-kka
고맙습니다
Thank you
Say: go-map-seum-ni-da
일없습니다
It's fine / no problem
Say: il-eop-seum-ni-da
사진 찍어도 되겠습니까?
May I take a photo?
Say: sa-jin jji-go-do doe-get-seum-ni-kka
동무
Comrade; an old-style or official form of address you may hear
Say: dong-moo
Surprises
A captured U.S. Navy ship is still moored in Pyongyang. USS Pueblo was seized in 1968, turned into a museum, and still remains on the U.S. Naval Vessel Register.
The giant-monster film Pulgasari was made in Pyongyang by a kidnapped South Korean director. Shin Sang-ok and actor Choi Eun-hee were abducted in 1978, made films there, and escaped during a trip to Vienna.
Some of Africa's biggest state monuments were designed and built from Pyongyang. Mansudae Overseas Projects produced works including Senegal's African Renaissance Monument and Namibia's Heroes' Acre.
Quiz
What is the Korean alphabet called officially in the North?
South Korea commonly says Hangul. In the North the script is called Chosŏn'gŭl, using Chosŏn, the state's own name for Korea; Hanja are Chinese characters, and Idu was an older writing system.
3 days
Day 1
Morning on the Pyongyang Metro and Kim Il Sung Square; afternoon along the Taedong River and through central Pyongyang; evening with Pyongyang naengmyeon and a walk on Moran Hill.
Day 2
Drive to Kaesong for the Koryo Museum and old streets; continue to Panmunjom if access is open; return to Pyongyang in the evening.
Day 3
Head to Myohyangsan for Pohyon Temple and a valley walk; spend the afternoon at the International Friendship Exhibition; return to Pyongyang for the night.
At a glance
At a glance
Member of
Neighbouring countries
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Listen
The song of the day
반갑습니다
Pochonbo Electronic Ensemble
It is one of the best-known modern North Korean songs, often performed for visitors and widely recognised for its polished, smiling light-music style.
Before you go, watch or read
Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea
Book
Barbara Demick's reporting follows lives from Chongjin and gives the country faces, voices and daily choices rather than slogans alone.
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