Mr. Chan may be the last Malaysian who visited North Korea for a business trip. Below is his sharing.
What is the purpose to visit North Korea?
The company was invited by NK ambassador to meet up a North Korean (NK) trading boss, Mr. Oh who is very keen on our Soil Sealing Technology.
Share your experience
We transited from Beijing airport with two bottles of liquor as door gifts to NK counterparts, Mr Oh. Our first impression of Pyongyang airport was relatively shocking. It was very quiet with very low traffic. Most stunningly, our passport and smartphones were retained by the immigration officers.
Upon checking out from the immigration, we were received by our tour guide cum interpreter, Mr Tam. He accompanied us for a short city tour. Our first stop was to pay respect by offering flowers to the Memorial Statue of the founder cum the late President, Mr Kim. We bowed three times to this statue. As Mr Tam recited aloud “Our comrades of Malaysia are here to pay respect to the founder and the former president………..” we placed the flowers, followed by cross-holding our hands to each other and bowed three times. After that, we continued our city tour. We were allowed to take photos with our cameras. However, all the photos had to be censored by Mr Tam.
Our meeting up with the business counterpart, Mr Oh was disrupted because the ambassador met with a road accident. We wished to pay him a visit in the local hospital but was BANNED according to NK rules and regulation,” Foreigners are NOT ALLOWED to visit any patients in their hospital.”
Later we checked into the hotel and we were told to stay in the hotel room and not allowed to move freely. Mr Tam who accompanied us also missing in action after checking us in. We were left in the total darkness. We made enquiries from the hotel receptionist but receiving a blank look. Later, we discovered that he was not allowed to respond to any of our enquiry.
After two days ‘locked-in” the hotel, we were asked to deport from the country. It was indeed a great relief to us. However, our relief did not last long. The second nightmare began when we reached the immigration counter. We needed additional supporting documents from the ambassador before our passports were returned to us. We waited dilly for five hours and finally allowed to board our flight back to Beijing.
What have you’re learnt from this trip?
Freedom is priceless!
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