A trip to the North Korean embassy in Mongolia

I traveled again to Mongolia on a work trip, a fortnight after my previous visit in the second week of June. Despite returning here after two weeks, Mongolia always presents me with new sights everytime I’m there. Ulaanbaatar, the capital of Mongolia, is developing day by day. Mongolia’s development path after transitioning to a democratic system in 1992 has sufficient implications for North Korea’s regime change in the future. Whenever I’m in Mongolia on business, this place will always serve as my first stop. That is, the North Korean embassy in Mongolia. Looking upon the embassy building where the flag and emblem of North Korea hangs conspicuously, I make an earnest plea for change in the country. 

However, there was something exceptional about my trip this time around. When I last visited Mongolia in the second week of June, I reported that the embassy had set up a garden on its front lawn. Judging from the sizable facilities installed in the garden, such as a greenhouse, it appeared that this was not purely done out of interest. The headline of the column back then was ‘Even the North Korean embassy is self-reliant?’

I was shocked when I revisited the embassy this time – the greenhouse and garden I saw previously had been completely demolished. Was it shameful for a so-called embassy to quietly erect a garden and greenhouse on its lawn? Perhaps someone (from the embassy) had seen my column and decided to take action. 

North Korea represses its residents through propagandistic slogans such as ‘Let’s support the Workers’ Party through rice’. Amidst the suffering from food shortages, North Koreans are, in reality, deprived of even a fistful of rice, which is taken away from them due to competition to display loyalty to the party. Although food shortages can be blamed for this phenomenon, it is actually an unequal distribution structure that threatens North Koreans’ right to food. Members of North Korean embassies abroad also face the same predicament. How tough it must be to fulfill the quotas for loyalty funds allocated to overseas North Korean embassies? I fully understand their situation. 

Moreover, North Koreans who manage to venture overseas and gain access to outside information will realize, more acutely than anyone else, their country’s regime is not a paradise to the extent of proclaiming that ‘We[North Koreans] have nothing to envy in this world’. They will also become well aware of how unreasonable the party’s instructions and tasks are, which orders them to show loyalty by giving up their lives. And yet, they have no choice but to obey the regime for the sake of their families back in Pyongyang who have been held hostage, a feeling of helplessness which I understand far too well. Well, I implore you to think long and hard about what it truly means to do something for your family – whether it refers to subjecting them to an existence in that hellish place for the rest of their lives. And what about your children in particular? Are you not worried for the future of your beloved children? 

Let me urge you once again. There is certainly little time left. Word is going around that the reopening of North Korea, which had sealed off its borders, is imminent. You will soon have to board a plane headed for Pyongyang. South Korea welcomes you anytime and anywhere. Try imagining the future of that adorable little daughter who is asleep in your embrace, and you will understand what must be done now.

Translated by Marc Yeo Yi Fei.