People

While all of the people working in the hotels, in the restaurants, and the stores in the main tourist areas, are South Koreans, or ethnically Korean Chinese, in the mountains, most of the staff and guides are North Korean.  Look for the lapel pins of the Great Leader to tell who is who. Guides are helpful, friendly and surprisingly talkative. Some of them speak English quite well, and are eager to explain the importance of certain sights along the way.

North Korean made candies, soju cups, and postcards are on sale by women with powder white skin, and bright red lips along the mountains paths.

Between tourist sites, the town of Onjong-ri, as well as some small villages can be seen from the fenced roadway. People working the fields with oxen, a pair of guards marching in unison for your sake, manned guard posts, chlildren in sailor school uniforms, adults on bicycles, are all a small glimspe into North Korean life, and are just as interesting as the mountains.