Battle of Korea Introduction

  "Woooo..." The long whistle of the train brought me back to reality, and a sweet Korean female voice echoed in my ears: "Comrades, the train has arrived at Pyongyang. Welcome aboard the 191st train again. Long live the great leader Kim Jong-il and his family."

  Through the dusty car window, I cast my gaze outside, as the train slows down, the scenery outside also becomes clearer. What is different from all the cities I have seen is that there are banners with slogans such as "Long live Kim Il-sung" and "Wishes to Kim's family". If I didn't keep telling myself: "I am now in Pyongyang, the capital of North Korea", I would almost think I was in the Cultural Revolution era.

  I am a journalist, and this time I have the opportunity to come to North Korea alone for an interview. It's not because of my seniority or excellence. I'm very clear that if it weren't for my understanding of Korean, there would be no way for me, with only one year of work experience, to come to this mysterious land for an interview.

  I pushed up the glasses on my nose, and people around me started taking down their luggage from the racks, forming an orderly queue in the aisle. I also stood up, shouldered my bag and joined the flow of people...

  As soon as I got on the bus, I remembered my laptop and mobile phone. They had been "confiscated" when we went through customs in Sinuiju, North Korea does not allow us to carry things like laptops that might contain state secrets out of the country. It was uncomfortable not having something I was used to carrying with me all the time, it felt like my girlfriend who I had been dating for two months suddenly breaking up with me.

  Following the crowd out of the station, the first thing that came into view was a tall and majestic bronze statue - the bronze statue of Kim Il-sung. The great leader stood with one hand on his waist and the other raised high, gazing far into the distance as if he had seen the future, steadfastly guiding the North Korean people forward behind him.

  "Comrade, hand over your camera." A fully armed North Korean soldier stood stiffly in front of me, snapping a salute. Seeing I didn't react, he stretched out his hand and repeated in a heavier tone: "Comrade, surrender your camera!"

  "Oh..." I was a bit at a loss, still not used to the Korean language, and it took me a while to realize that he was asking for my camera. With a nervous heart, I handed over the camera, thinking to myself: "Did I do something wrong just now?" As soon as I got off the train, I saw Kim Jong-il's bronze statue and instinctively raised my camera to take a few shots. Could it be that taking pictures is also not allowed? I looked around and didn't see any signs saying "no photography", and secretly breathed a sigh of relief.

  "Comrade!" The soldier took the camera without saying a word, and skillfully removed the film from the camera. Then he said seriously: "Take pictures of Chairman's full body, otherwise it is disrespect to our great leader Chairman Kim, I must confiscate this film!"

  "Ah……” I mechanically took the camera, watching the soldier turn and leave. My mouth was agape for a long time before I could close it. It turned out that we had made a mistake in this place. Taking pictures of the Chairman could only be done with full-body shots. I looked around with some trepidation, only then noticing many fully armed soldiers staring at tourists' cameras.

  I gazed at the camera in my hand with the film removed, and then looked at those fully armed soldiers. The atmosphere around me suddenly became tense.