Friday, April 12, 2013

"Of borders and ball pits"; second installment of Pitt student's spring break in North Korea.

North Korea ballpit
Ball pit in North Korea, via Young Pioneers Tours Facebook Page.

Last week was the first installment by Evan Terwilliger on his trip to North Korea in March. Terwilliger is a Pitt student who spent spring break there and who is writing about it for the Citizen-Standard, which serves three eastern PA counties. Yesterday brought us the second of three installments. An excerpt:
[W]e traveled to the balcony of Panmungak (that big building you see in the pictures opposite South Korea's House of Freedom). We could wave, smile, laugh, point, and take pictures of whatever we wanted (including soldiers). We even got our picture with the First Lieutenant that was showing us around. When we arrived back at the outer perimeter again, I found some common ground with our KPA escort. We agreed that as normal people we would not want to hurt each other. He claimed that I was a nice guy and everything, but that I would be shooting at him if I was fighting for my country. I told him that I never hope it comes to that. Oh, and we also agreed that we love potatoes. Isn't that a start to peace?
It's always a treat to find such things in small, out of the way newspapers.

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