Journalists, With Philharmonic, Get Rare Tour of North Korea

By: E&P Staff While the focus so far has been on the "violin diplomacy" of the New York Philharmonic trip to North Korea -- their landmark concert took place Tuesday morning U.S. time -- several dozen journalists have also been on board and are now describing their experience.

Daniel J. Wakin has been filing many stories, and blogging, for The New York Times. Here is an excerpt from his latest report, available with much else from him at www.nytimes.com.
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Journalists in town for the New York Philharmonic?s historic concert on Tuesday received a grand tour of Pyongyang?s sites by North Korean officials eager to show off the glories of the revolution.

The spots are typical of most tourist itineraries here, but the large number of media workers made it a different experience, because the ever present minders had a tougher time keeping close tabs. And while it was possible that many of the scenes were scripted, given the tight controls the government maintains over society, there appeared to be spontaneous moments.

The tour was part of the highly regimented schedule for the Philharmonic?s 48-hour visit, which ends on Wednesday....

At the massive Grand People?s Study House, a library used for worker education and university students, an area of several dozen computer terminals was filled with well-dressed people poring over screens. No one was waiting; no one came, and no one left.

One woman said she was looking for books about food. In Reading Room No. 3, devoted to the ?social sciences,? people sat at school desks reading and studying, facing the ever-present portraits of the Great Leader and the Dear Leader, Kim Il-sung and his son Kim Jong-il. Officials said they were workers, scientists and students.

A librarian said the library had the capacity for 30 million volumes and was 95 percent full. Two-thirds were said to be foreign-language books. The librarian summoned up some books on a conveyor belt and spread them out for the visitors to see. They were mostly computer books: ?Electronic Packaging, Microelectronics and Interconnection Dictionary,? and a Windows 95 guide.

In another room, a girl in braces searched for mathematical formulas while listening to perky Korean orchestral numbers with earphones plugged in the computer. She tersely answered questions, squeezing her hands and seeming nervous. The government-provided interpreter said the girl, who appeared to be in her late teens, had never met a foreigner before.

When journalists wandered into rooms off the itinerary ? at least one of which seemed to be unheated ? they were shooed away by minders. Many public buildings here are cold.

The media contingent was taken to an English language class, where about 50 students popped up and down in cubicles to answer rapid-fire questions from a teacher about a story they had read. It was a lively scene.