Madness North Korea Film (Documentary | Part 1/3)
When I found myself in one of the most isolated countries and mysterious planet of course the first thing I noticed was the deep assortment of vehicles in the parking lot of the airport behind the wall mines and propaganda North Korea are still people, and many people still like cars.
There was a G-wagon with white United Nations with a manual transmission and rubberized interior; a prehistoric unidentifiable team in search of military vehicles, I had never seen before or even read and to top it off a row of three blackened Porsche Cayenne was sitting in the corner of the small lot.
I was quickly informed that I was not to take pictures anywhere near the airport.
There are a few years, I worked for a luxury tour operator focused exclusively on Asia They make otherwise impossible things happen for very wealthy clients my former boss once persuaded an official of the Burmese junta to issue permits landing of private aircraft of a customer the company also occasionally organizes private tours to North Korea for customers who want a more intimate experience than the standard group tours.
It was my old boss third time in the Hermit Kingdom and my first there was to foster business relationships and build routes for future customers; I had to see with my own eyes that this controversial nation is all about and specifically check what kind of cars were on the roads of this nation that scares the Western world.
Before this trip, I had the impression that, in addition to eating grass, everybody is mounted bikes and around by Ox carts drawn, but the cars of North Korea sing the car geek interior in me and I had hit the ground 20 minutes ago the craziest part about the ruling is not put everything in the old cars, they have a certain taste.
Luxury sedans are a fairly common sight in Pyongyang It is an ideal place for a carspotter because it's such a variety What I learned from my trip to North Korea is that it is a dream destination for a car type of the West that has a sense of adventure Yes, there are new exotic species in Monaco, but the cars you see in North Korea aren t something you see on Jalopnik.
The capital is changing the highways open Pyongyang devoid of any car gives way to the level of traffic you might find in an average American city, which is to say it is just enough traffic to be noticeable.
It was recently that traffic lights have been installed at major intersections before this traffic almost nonexistent was controlled by a legion of robotic traffic still attractive ladies remember this viral video, but their presence is down in 2014 due to recent wave of modernization sweeping the city.
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The average distribution exactly what's on the road to Pyongyang goes something like 30 vehicles are jeeps olive drab; 20 are new 2008 or newer luxury sedans and trucks like the Hummer H2 and the Audi A5; 30 are older Russian, Swedish and German sedans from the 50s through the 80s; and the other 20 are econoboxes with funny nameplates locally manufactured in North Korea and China imported.
As my guide, aptly named Kim explained, no one buys a car in North Korea, they're given to people by the party, which explains the profusion of UAZ-469 omnipresent, a Russian 4x4 produced by Ulyanovsky Avtomobilny zavod has been used by countries classless around Asia since the 1970s the city is dotted with these trucks, almost like toy in appearance.
Despite its green olive coating, it is de facto grocery getter for the citizens of the Hermit Kingdom, although a trip to the grocery store business involves coupons issued by the portion of goods that are produced locally by work units specialized in food or product.
You will find the robust UAZ yanking youth in leisure park, outside the lined library, and even in school parking lots.
The UAZ might be the most common truck in Pyongyang a kind of Ford F-150 for the repressed series, but the presence of military vehicles did not stop inside there is North Korea is mountainous and can be dangerous to cross, because the roads are in a terrible state and there is virtually no supplies.
Kim explained that since the fuel is hard to find, the supreme leader used his deep knowledge of combustion engines to develop a proprietary technology that allows these large commercial trucks to run on fuel made from what looks like a heating stove mounted on the bed of the truck the stove burns continuously wood and coal producing carbon and hydrogen monoxide which is introduced into the diesel engine.
These trucks seem to serve any purpose For one, they ferry raw materials of the two ports and the capital of dozens of cities in the developing satellite Furthermore, they carry people back and forth to the mountainous interior acting as a makeshift bus .
Every forty minutes or so a strong smell of gas and ash fill our van driving on empty roads, and after being informed by the insight of Kim on wooden truck I realized that this strange smell was the cloud vagrancy biomass past these trucks had left behind.
In some ways, it's a good thing there aren t many of these on the road The head of a nation with a controlled number of car units is less overall pollution, but is a small price to pay for 'Odour.
It wouldn t be North Korea without a little absurd, and in the automotive world that presents itself as a car company called Pyeonghwa engines This manufacturer is a joint venture between South and North Korea, they re products in North Korea, but curiously the amount of Chinese BYD Create your econo-car dream seem more numerous than many copycat domestic Pyeonghwa drawings during my week stay, I noticed three of those mysterious cars.
It seems that imports are heavily favored over vehicles manufactured in the country.
A good amount of cars on the road look like they have landed in the 1970s and were taken daily for a common view is Russian workhorse of the Volga sedan as boat about as much character as you expect from a luxury vehicle produced in Soviet Russia.
It's generally used as a taxi in the former bloc countries, but North Korea has a bit of a luxury status Oddly, there are plenty of taxis that roam the streets of Pyongyang, but they're rarely occupied paying passengers yellow and green taxis could be just a show for foreign visitors that very few citizens have the means to pay for services or travel freely.
While some things spins CNN about the DPRK are true, the idea that it is a land with zero car culture certainly is not.
The Juche philosophy of self-sufficiency is an Orwellian euphemism for lack of money means that the hermit nation manages to maximize the utility provided by their vehicle fleet by keeping cars alive and on the road rather than in the junkyard.
Although it seems strange, sometimes political totalitarian regimes that offer some type of car perquisites While wrenching on cars is a necessity for most, as it is with the Cubans, it is also an obvious pride people shall have and maintain a vehicle, regardless of this vehicle is.
Cuba is more than just old cars, but the contradictory history of the island nation makes the car Read more Read more.
There are some pictures of my trip below all interesting reviews.
The Hermit Kingdom An interior view of North Korea hidden car culture, hermit kingdom, north.