While driving home from work today I heard a fascinating story on NPR's All things Considered about a small but popular tourism business in North Korea. It seems that Asia Pacific Travel in Kenilworth, Illinois has been operating one of the only trips for U.S. citizens who want to go to this, ahem, unspoiled destination.
Why would anyone want to go to North Korea? Well, Asia Pacific Travel's tour guide, Walter Keats, said that he brought his daughter to the country so that she could see for herself that the world described in George Orwell's 1984 can in fact come to life. For example, Keats described his family's amazement as they saw everyday citizens in tears as they placed wreaths on the former ruler's grave. Similarly, a reporter for the BBC who visited the country called it a "Stalinist Theme Park", complete with a different set of historical events than the rest of the world.
I doubt that North Korea will emerge from its alternative reality in our lifetime, and I find it incredibly tragic that its citizens must continue to suffer. But perhaps this small slice of a peninsula can serve as a lesson to the rest of the world. Its citizens may be "taking one for the team" in showing us what dangerous systems lurk in the hearts of men in power. North Korea's success in bringing Orwell's nightmare to life challenges citizens in every other nation to retain and build a system of freedom and democracy.
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