It is the most isolated country on the planet about which very little is known. Few Americans have ever been inside as it's closed off to foreigners. For those reasons, it was the one country I wanted to visit most. Never in my wildest dreams did I ever think I'd get the opportunity to ever go. It's a country totally shut off to the world, even though it shares the same peninsula as South Korea, which is considered one of the most technically advanced countries in the world.
In March 2005, I got a call from one of my heroes Dr. Sanduik Ruit, a world-renowned Nepalese cataract surgeon. Dr. Ruit's objective in life is to cure third world blindness. His foundation, the Himalayan Cataract Foundation: www.cureblindness.org , sets up surgery camps in the remotest and poorest parts of the world. On any given trip, his team might perform a thousand operations to give people their vision back, and hence, their lives. Dr. Ruit was invited by the North Korean government to set up some eye camps in three cities over the course of twelve days. He asked me if I would like to join. YES!!!
The only caveat was that I wouldn't be able to go in as a journalist as they are not permitted in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, DPRK. I would have to say that I was part of Dr. Ruit's medical team. I agreed. It was the only way.
So in August 2005, I accompanied Dr. Ruit's team from Nepal to Beijing to Pyongyang. A dozen government escorts met us upon arrival and six of them would be with us for the entire trip. They even stayed in the guesthouses where we lodged. Our cell-phones were taken away from us-no one in the country is allowed to have one-and our every word and move was monitored. Though my escorts knew I was American, they believed I was part of the medical team. They told me, however, that I was the only American in the country. There's no internet and there are only two television stations that only show government propaganda. The feeling of utter isolation hit me a couple days into the trip. Something catastrophic could have happened to my family or in the U.S. and I would have had no way of knowing until I got out. Similarly, something could have happened to me while there in the DPRK and no one would have known. People always ask me things like, "aren't they curious about how the rest of the world lives?"
From the second they breathe life, the North Korean people are indoctrinated to believe that theirs is the only way of life. They are incapable of ever knowing otherwise. It's hard to be curious when one has no possible frame of reference or inkling of how others live. It's a place where every citizen is obligated to work in the fields during rice harvest season. Families-parents, kids, grandparents, aunts and uncles-live in a one or two bedroom apartment. They all sleep on heated floors. It's a country ruled by an iron fist, dissent is not tolerated. It is alleged that millions are living in destitute poverty. When I asked people about the dire economic conditions the response from everyone was something to the effect of, "we are at war (with the U.S.), and must therefore, make sacrifices for our country."
It was by all means the strangest trip of my life and while it was the country I wanted to visit most, it was the one I wanted to leave the most as well.
