In first, Israeli races N. Korea marathon

The first Israeli participated in North Korea’s half-marathon two weeks ago along with 600 other foreign nationals, and upon his return described the experience in the mystery-shrouded country as surprisingly mundane.

Dr. Guy Podolor, a Haifa University lecturer who specializes in the history of South Korea, told Hebrew media Tuesday that the North Korean capital resembled a socialist Eastern European country in the 1960s, with a striking lack of advertisements or malls. He said the locals were friendly, and airport inspections went without a hitch.

“You land there, and we went to Pyongyang, and it looks like a socialist country, looks like Eastern Europe, gray buildings like from the 50s, 60s. Everything is very clean and very organized,” he told Army Radio on Tuesday. “There is no ‘consumer culture’ or things we are used to. You don’t see ads on the streets, restaurants, malls.”

Podolor said his Israeli citizenship did not pose a problem, both in the airport and in his interactions with the North Koreans.

“Before traveling, I looked into whether there would be some problem with my Israeli passport. Those arranging it told me there shouldn’t be a problem. I saw that in Israel there is no travel warning there, and everything went smoothly,” he said.

Podolor told Haaretz there was more interaction with the locals than he anticipated, but the conversations were restricted nonetheless by the guides accompanying their tour, who he said were “friendly” and were fluent in English.

While the foreign runners chatted with the locals and high-fived the kids, “My guess is that they [the guides] were watching to make sure we didn’t pass anything to them or any texts. They want there to be encounters,  but not fully. You can’t simply meet someone and talk to him all day,” he said.

The Israeli runner said that in the hotel, the TV stations were all government-run, but there was access to BBC and Al-Jazeera for those who requested. The tourists were also allowed to send emails from the hotel, if they insisted, but it “was very complicated, and you weren’t sure it would even get there.”

All in all, Podolor concluded that the citizens living under a notorious dictatorship with an abysmal human rights record were simply “living normal lives, getting up, going to work, entering the subway, going out to enjoy themselves.”

“You don’t feel like they’re living under some terror,” he told the radio station, adding that he didn’t believe it was staged.

“I would be very surprised if it turned out that all the parks they took us to, and the subway, is really thousands of people living in a staged ‘aquarium.’ That’s really not the impression, it looks like they’re living their lives. Of course it’s under the ideology and leadership there, which we aren’t used to, but I think there is a limit to the rumors and the demonization.”