{"id":32920,"date":"2016-07-15T17:25:57","date_gmt":"2016-07-15T08:25:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/en.dailynk.com\/en\/?p=32920"},"modified":"2020-01-17T08:42:45","modified_gmt":"2020-01-16T23:42:45","slug":"the-songun-tour-through-the-eyes-o","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.dailynk.com\/english\/the-songun-tour-through-the-eyes-o\/","title":{"rendered":"The Songun tour through the eyes of defectors"},"content":{"rendered":"
Summer vacation is approaching, and many of us are trying to find somewhere beautiful with mountains and clear water to spend the summer. Places far from the city, with magnificent scenery, can always be counted as popular vacation spots.<\/div>\n

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In South Korea, one can simply leave for a trip, but North Koreans do not have such freedom of movement. In many cases, they hear about famous places from others, or see them in the media, but that\u2019s all they can do. However, North Korean authorities are utilizing systematic propaganda to advertise travel destinations that are unreachable to ordinary citizens. Amongst them are North Korea\u2019s so-called \u201cNine Songun Sights.\u201d<\/div>\n

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According to many North Korean defectors, citizens that see the “Nine Songun Sights\u201d– which the authorities are now advertising under the Songun (military first) campaign as exciting and beautiful places with magnificent views– on TV are surprised by the views, but they don\u2019t feel any sort of inspiration from them. This is because mixed into the programs\u2019 beautiful scenery are propaganda songs glorifying military commanders.<\/div>\n

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With this in mind, how is North Korea using propaganda to advertise these nine places? Daily NK spoke with several defectors, most of whom shared their views on condition of anonymity, to unpack the official narrative put forth by the regime. <\/div>\n

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Sight 1: Paektu Mountain Sunrise<\/b><\/div>\n
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North Korean authorities claim that Paektu Mountain is a fortuitous mountain for the North Korean people and the origin of the Korean independence movement. They have also claimed that it is the birthplace of Kim Jong Il, attaching symbolic meaning to the sun rising over the mountain. Because of this, North Korea is asserting that sunrise at Paektu Mountain, which might be said to have the most magnificent sunrise in the world, is an indication of the Songun campaign\u2019s bright future. They tout the location as a \u201csymbol of Juche-based North Korea\u201d overlaid with Kim Jong Il\u2019s spirit.<\/div>\n

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Sight 2: Snow at Dabaksol Checkpoint<\/b><\/div>\n
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North Korea advertises Dabaksol Checkpoint– stunningly lush even in the winter– and its pure white snow as a sight that gives inspiration befitting a tenacious struggle to checkpoint soldiers. It asserts that \u2018Songun\u2019 policy began on New Years Day in 1995 after Kim Jong Il visited Kumsu Mountain Memorial Palace, where the body of Kim Il Sung is interned, and then visited Dabaksol Checkpoint. It also advertises that there, Kim Jong Il created the slogan \u201cWe must arm the People\u2019s Army 100 times,\u201d which served as impetus to fully implement his Songun policy. However, the specific location of Dabaksol troops and what they are like is not known.<\/div>\n

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Sight 3: Cheollyeong Azaleas<\/b><\/div>\n
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In order to reach Cheollyeong, one must ascend Kangwon Province\u2019s high mountain passes, and the entirety of the 1st, 2nd, and 5th corps of the People\u2019s Army are said to be deployed here. The authorities advertise that during the famines of the 1990s, Kim Jong Il visited Cheollyeong and stressed that citizens must \u201covercome hardships\u201d and \u201csucceed.\u201d He is also said to have \u201cstrengthened his determination for Songun, stating that [citizens] must protect the country with real bullets, not those made of candy, and continue the succession of the People\u2019s Revolution.\u201d However, the roads are steep and treacherous, so people rarely go there. And as azaleas are readily seen elsewhere, North Koreans would not specifically go to Cheollyeong just to see them.<\/div>\n

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Sight 4: Changja River at Night<\/b><\/div>\n
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It\u2019s said that the stars in the night sky above the Changja River in Chagang Province are so bright, they appears so though they are falling, making for a fantastic view. North Korean authorities advertise that they visited the area for the benefit of the people of Chagang Province, who suffered most during the famines of the 1990s, and afterwards created power plants whose lights lit up just the area near the Changja River. But the Changa’s nights views are little more than a folk tale. The authorities uses the image of villages twinkling with lights as propaganda [despite the fact that there\u2019s no longer electricity in the area].<\/div>\n

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Sight 5: Echoes at Ullim Waterfall<\/b><\/div>\n
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North Korean authorities have long advertised that the Ullim waterfall, in the midst of a forest, has shown its natural beauty in the Songun era. Because Ullim Waterfall is located inside an unusually shaped valley surrounded by cliffs on three sides, tens of meters of water fall from a dizzying cliff each second, stirring up a mesmerizing fog of water droplets, and its echo is said to be audible up to 10 ri (approximately four kilometers) away. Ullim Waterfall briefly became known during the famines because of a visit by Kim Jong Il, but the absence of a proper path to the waterfall is a major deterrent. Most North Koreans do not make the trip as a result.<\/div>\n

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Sight 6: The Horizon at Handurebol<\/b><\/div>\n
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The land at Handurebol, located in Taechun Country in North Pyongan Province, is wide and fertile, but whatis rare here is water. It is so lacking in water that when travelers visit Handurebol, it is said that they can scarcely beg for a bucket of water. North Korean authorities state that Kim Jong Il said that \u201cif South Koreans visited this place, they would be surprised and jealous,\u201d asserting that a government system was implemented here to grant citizens\u2019 wishes to allow them to farm more easily. They laud Handurebol as if Kim Jong Il filled the place with water himself.<\/div>\n

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Sight 7: Taehongdan\u2019s Sea of Potato Flowers<\/b><\/div>\n
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North Korea asserts that the blooming image of Taehongdan, which carries out extensive potato farming, concretely reflects Kim Jong Il\u2019s grand plan to provide plenty for the people to eat. It advertises this main potato production spot as a fairyland, draped in white from the end of June to the end of July, that gives hope for North Korea\u2019s future as a prosperous and powerful country. While the authorities claim that potato farming in Taehongdan in Ryanggang Province is due to Kim Jong Il\u2019s achievements, this is obviously fiction. The people, not Kim Jong Il, tirelessly cultivated the land for farming.<\/div>\n

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Sight 8: The Enchanted Lands of Beomanri [aka”Beomanri’s Outskirts”]<\/b><\/div>\n
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North Korea authorities advertise Beomanri as the \u201cpride of a communist country,\u201d turned into a paradise during the Songun era under the leadership of Kim Jong Il. Beomanri was originally a small mountain village in Sohung County in North Hwanghae Province, but during the times of famine, Kim Jong Il tore down its disorderly old homes and built approximately 100 modern homes and 30 welfare facilities, as well as multiple fisheries. North Korean media states that in 2001, Kim Jong Il visited the village and upon seeing its scenery, stated that paradise was not somewhere else, but right in Beomanri, the paradise of the Workers\u2019 Party era and fairyland of socialism.<\/div>\n

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Sight 9: Unusual Nut Landscape<\/b><\/div>\n

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North Korean authorities assert that after Kim Jong Un came into power, he instructed [the military] to provide nuts for soldiers, causing a nut-farming sensation in the military. Kim Jong Un\u2019s orders for soldiers to eat food products made from nuts caused the entire military to engage in nut farming, resulting in propaganda stating that Kim Jon Un promoted nut farming. The North Korean state-run publication Rodong Sinmun also published an image of Kim Jong Un looking delighted as he entered a nut warehouse.<\/div>\n

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What started with eight Songun sights in the time of Kim Jong Il has continued under Kim Jong Un and is said to have recently expanded to 13 sights. It is unlikely, however, that this would have aroused any interest from the greater population.<\/div>\n

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So Jae Pyong, secretary-general of the North Korean Defectors Association, told Daily NK, \u201cThe people also know that the Nine Songun Sights are not so much beautiful scenery from nature but something for the sake of political \u2018systematic propaganda\u2019 and \u2018idolization,\u2019 so people are not really paying attention to them,\u201d also adding that \u201caverage citizens not only can\u2019t go to these places, they also don\u2019t want to.\u201d <\/div>\n

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Adding to this, So said, \u201cKim Jong Un inherited this type of systematic propaganda from his father, Kim Jong Il, and is now strengthening it\u201d and \u201cin order to strengthen the ideological thinking of citizens, he is continuously looking for beautiful scenery that he himself can discover.\u201d<\/div>\n

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One anonymous North Korean defector noted that \u201cthe worse the economy gets, the more North Korea authorities show the nine Songun sights on TV\u201d and that \u201cthe authorities are not looking for a way to help struggling citizens but instead just focusing on propaganda like this.\u201d<\/div>\n
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*All images credited to Korean Central News Agency [KCNA].<\/i><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Summer vacation is approaching, and many of us are trying to find somewhere beautiful with mountains and clear water to spend the summer. Places far from the city, with magnificent scenery, can always be counted as popular vacation spots. In South Korea, one can simply leave for a trip, but North Koreans do not have […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":122,"featured_media":32922,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wikipediapreview_detectlinks":true,"footnotes":""},"categories":[67],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-32920","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\nThe Songun tour through the eyes of defectors - North Korea News \u2014 Daily NK | Latest DPRK Updates 2026<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dailynk.com\/english\/the-songun-tour-through-the-eyes-o\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Songun tour through the eyes of defectors\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Summer vacation is approaching, and many of us are trying to find somewhere beautiful with mountains and clear water to spend the summer. 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