North Korea Day 2 - Part 1

After resting up in our hotel, and going around inside it and eating breakfast, we hopped on the bus and headed to Kim il Sun's Old House (Manyongdae Native House).

This is the house in which supposedly, Kim Il Sung was born. Whether this is the real house, a replica, or if it was moved, is unclear. The lady guide attached to the house was quite passionnate as she expounded the details of how the Great Leader had been born into a poor but patriotic family, his brother died fighting against the Japanese invasion, and he supposedly left home at a young age to participate in the anti-japanese movement.

The story spun by the tour guide attached to the house was a bit over-the-top, depicting poot, but perfectly patriotic people and parents sacrificing their well-being in order to give their son a chance and the son vowing to purge Korea of Japanese and return to help his family. He also apparently learned to read and write at a ridiculously young age, and the house is rife with anecdotes demonstrating the wisdom and foresight of the future great Leader.

After visiting the house and hearing the talk, we headed out and walked through the beautiful park surrounding it. The trees and ponds were well-tended and it was without a doubt the most meticulously groomed park in North Korea. it is, after all, the park surrounding the house where their godlike Eternal President was born.

After the house visit, we hopped back on our tour bus and headed to the Pyongyang National Gift Museum, where gifts to the regime from North Korean nationals are displayed. The gifts are from Korean expatriates all over the world and are usually something linked to the country where they are living, but sent with a prayer for reunification. Some gifts are really preposterous, like a big tiger carved out of marble-like stone, weighting a few tons or an intricately ornate wooden vase made from tens of thousands of pieces of wood glued together. Some other gifts are an autographed basketball, tea sets, paintings, etc.

Some of the gifts came from Canada, from Korean expats or Korean communities abroad, many came from the founder of Hyundai, who is himself originally from North Korea. I saw some gifts from various ITF headmasters as well. unfortunately we were not allowed to bring our cameras inside, so no photos there :(