Pat Dollard

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From an article in The Sun by Oliver Harvey…

In a cold sweat, I was led away by the jackbooted and armed North Korean border guards to a bleak side room.

My crime was that I’d disobeyed strict orders and taken pictures of the Stalinist dictatorship’s long-suffering people and the ruthless military who keep them suppressed.

Rogue North Korea isn’t the greatest place to be detained by the army.

The “Axis Of Evil” member, described as the “most barbaric regime on the planet”, is ruled by oddball despot Kim Jong-il, whose finger hovers over the nuclear button.

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Check out Oliver Harvey’s video report.

The soldiers, in large khaki peaked hats bearing the red Communist badge, took me to the almost bare white room, their heels clicking on the stone floor.

On a large wooden desk was a flickering computer screen displaying a series of forbidden pictures I had obtained after spending all day playing cat and mouse with the North Korean secret police.

No one in the room was smiling – least of all me. Legs trembling, I lowered myself on to a leather sofa and remembered The Sun’s witty headline, “How Do You Solve A Problem Like Korea?” printed when Kim tested a nuclear device in 2006.

At that moment, it didn’t seem all that funny.

My day trip had begun with a strict set of rules provided by the South Korean tour company which has been running trips to the city of Kaesong, in the North, since December.

Sun photographer Phil Hannaford and I were given a sheet of paper headed Banned Items And Other Regulations.

On the list of nonos were mobile phones – taken from me at the border – and cameras with a telephoto lens.

One order said: “You must ALWAYS wear your ID around your neck.”

We could talk to North Koreans but were told: “Do not talk about politics, diplomatic relations, economics and other sensitive issues.”

The regulations also insisted: “You may not take random pictures of North Koreans, including from inside the bus.”

So, along with hundreds of South Koreans on tourist coaches, we edged through the three-mile Demilitarized Zone – the most heavily-guarded border in the world.

Korea has been divided since the Second World War, when the then Soviet-ruled North split from the South.

Passing through the razor wire and watchtowers the South’s soldiers, dressed in US GI-style fatigues, were soon replaced by the darker, Soviet-type uniform of the North.

Passing over the North Korean border was a doddle. But soon security was put on the bus. One of the South Korean guides had placed themselves in the seat in front of me while in the seat behind photographer Phil, a North Korean plain-clothes security man had materialised.

As we passed through an industrial area of new factories – sponsored by South Korea – I thought I’d shoot some film of the apparently innocent view. I immediately felt the hand of the North Korean on my shoulder.

“No, no, no. Not allowed,” he barked.

Soon we hit Kaesong, once the capital of all Korea and one of the North’s major towns. It was like something from old newsreels.

People either slowly walked or cycled through the streets past grey tower blocks bearing Communist slogans and ramshackle Korean-style slate-roofed houses.

Cars were almost totally absent.

(…)

A US-based human rights group has estimated there are up to 200,000 political prisoners in North Korea.

Reports of torture, public executions, slave labour and forced abortions in prison camps have also emerged.

We were unable to talk to any non-approved North Koreans as the goons in suits kept us well away.

Back at the border Phil and I took different queues at security to increase the chances of getting through. But after a metal detector picked up my camera I was taken to the sparse room by the military and questioned about my pictures. I was then led outside to await my fate.

Meanwhile, Phil had passed by during the fuss and was back on the bus, his rare pictures from inside North Korea safe.

After 15 of the longest minutes of my life I was slapped with a 100-dollar fine and my pictures deleted.

I was free to go – but North Korea’s 23.8million brutalised people remain trapped inside the Dear Leader’s nightmare world.

Click here to read the full article.

(Sun)