"After visiting North Korea, do you still think your society is better than ours?" one of my North Korean guides asked me at the end of my trip there in 2011 for a story I was writing for a Chilean newspaper.
I remember giving him an ambiguous answer: "All societies have good and bad things, including this nation."
North Korean soldier Source: Claudio Vasquez / SBS Spanish
The restrictions placed on visitors also include showing the authorities all of the pictures you’ve taken in the country, giving them your passport, staying close to the designated guides at all times and not talking with any North Korean citizen without the authorisation of the government.
This was 7 years ago, long before this week’s meeting in Singapore where Kim Jong-Un met with United States President Donald Trump to discuss a denuclearisation plan for North Korea in exchange for security guarantees from the US.
The controversial agreement just might open the doors for North Koreans to establish diplomatic relations with countries that were previously considered enemies.
Despite this potential progress, there is still a huge gap in the way the 25 million people in North Korea see the world compared to how we in liberal democracies understand it.
My other North Korean guide had touted the various benefits they enjoyed thanks to the “goodness” of their leaders: he said everyone had a job, had free housing and was given generous subsidies for health, food, education, energy and tools.
"You foreigners believe that we are absolutely wrong in what we think and that there is nothing to learn from this society we have built without the help of other countries," he said.
I could have answered that in the West we feel proud of our freedom of expression and freedom to go where we want; told him about our freedom to disagree with our leaders and that we can even change them when we want in elections. We can visit other countries and buy their products – all things North Koreans cannot do.
But I shrugged, suggesting that I was not so convinced about the advantages they had over us living in a country that is so isolated from the rest of the world.
The North Koreans I met, mostly people linked in one way or another to the regime and therefore allowed to meet foreigners, all emphasised the core values of their society: cooperation, solidarity, organisation, autonomy, resistance, courage and effort.
Isolationism and economic hardship, which led to famine that reportedly took the lives of millions of people in the 1990s, forced North Koreans to work hard to simply survive. Overcoming hardship has become a large part of the pride they feel for their society.
Perhaps one of the concepts that best define North Koreans is the philosophy and system they invented called “Juche”, which could be defined as the ability of men and women to be in charge of their own destinies. It’s felt that North Korean people proudly embody this ideal. But to have ‘Juche’, North Koreans feel they need “Songun”- which means a military-first policy to guarantee their independence and autonomy. The North Korean I met seem to firmly believe that Songun advances their ‘revolution’ and protects them from the aggressions of other countries.
Kaechong city Source: Claudio Vasquez / SBS Spanish
But not everything is so grey and serious in North Korea. People try to have fun – like anywhere else. North Koreans like to sing a lot, although in public they usually only sing songs of praise for their leaders and the nation because most of the foreign music is forbidden.
They don't have access to the Internet or satellite TV, so they spend a lot of time outdoors: they dance, do sports and also have picnics. They enjoy their traditional food and culture. They say they feel satisfied with the lifestyle they have, although they show great curiosity about our societies.
Pyongyang view Source: Claudio Vasquez / SBS Spanish
North Koreans have been ruled by the same dynasty that has controlled the country for more than six decades, but its people are more than just the victims the world often portrays them as.
They want to be recognised for what they have achieved. They feel they have created a unique society that has followed an alternative path to the rest of the world despite hardship. It is not necessary to admire their political ideology to be able to appreciate that it has taken a lot of hard work and inventiveness to sustain. And that's why North Koreans believe they have as much to teach us as we can teach them.
"Don't you think it is more praiseworthy to follow a path of your own than to do what the great powers tell you, as you do?" a soldier asked me as he guided me through a museum of memories of the Kim family. "We have to thank our beloved leaders for this," he answered himself, just before asking me to kneel before a golden statue of Kim Il Sung, the founding father of North Korea.
Taedong river in Pyongyang Source: Claudio Vasquez / SBS Spanish
I hesitated a few seconds without knowing exactly what I should do. I'm not accustomed to kneeling in front of statues of other people, let alone when it’s of someone accused by Amnesty International and the United Nations of violent human rights abuses. I hesitate while my guide's eyes rest on me impatiently.
The images and testimonies of North Korean deserters I had researched and reported on ran through my mind. But finally I kneel slowly before the imposing statue, while I think of those who were sent to “re-education” camps for simply not wearing on their lapels the pins that displayed the images of their rulers.
I also think about the foreigners who have been imprisoned and accused of actions against the regime for similar non-compliance; So, in the end, I bow down.
Central square in Pyongyang Source: Claudio Vasquez / SBS Spanish
After the meeting between Donald Trump and Kim Jong-Un, I wonder if North Koreans hope that the enforced veneration of statues of the Kim family could one day become optional. Or whether in fact this week’s talks will reinforce the image of their infallible young leader and the system of values they have lived with their entire lives.
*This article represents the opinions of the writer and not SBS Spanish.
