•
as well as two or three small restaurants in the same area, were controlled
by expatriate Japanese. They appeared to be private enterprises, which were
allowed to operate as long as the proprietors catered only to foreigners and
made a suitable “donation” to Kim Il Sung. We went to two of these, ac-
companied by a friend of the Czech ambassador, a Russian who had been
in Pyongyang for six years working as a “press attaché” for the Soviet Em-
bassy. Since at the time the local Pyongyang Pravda office had already closed,
and since six years is a very long time for a press attaché to stay in one place,
I assumed this man was in reality the KGB chief. At any rate, he was very
helpful, knowledgeable, and a good source of information as to the current
situation and events in the area. Some people may think it strange that a
Soviet KGB agent and a former American military-intelligence officer would
be openly discussing such matters of mutual interest in a bar in Pyongyang,
but by June, , the Cold War was over and it was not unusual for such
cooperation to take place, especially in relation to North Korea, a country
with few remaining friends.
Television in the North, as with the other electronic and print media, was
essentially just another forum for propaganda. Every program, even the
“entertainment” shows, had a political or nationalistic message. News clips
always had a political slant and usually featured as the highlight some vis-
iting dignitary paying a call on Kim Il Sung. During our visit, the president
of the Maldives was visiting Pyongyang, and there was news footage of him
paying a visit to Kim Il Sung and later inspecting some vegetables at a col-
lective farm. The footage of the Great Leader I found to be very interesting—
although he seemed to walk slowly with the short “shuffle-step” of an older
man, he seemed very alert. The growth on his neck was usually shielded by
the camera angle, but from later film that I viewed, this growth was really
enormous, much larger than I had expected.
People often ask about food shortages in North Korea. As a VIP group,
we were guests of the state and treated well, but my impression was that,
even in the capital city, there were some food shortages. Once while walk-
ing down a side street a short distance from the hotel, I came upon an older
woman who was displaying some very poor-quality fruit, apparently for sale,
on a blanket. As I stopped to talk to her, a security man suddenly appeared
and ordered her to leave the area immediately. This was the only fresh pro-
duce I saw available for purchase, although there must have been some sort
of market somewhere in the area.
Much of the food served to our group was processed food rather than
fresh, and it was of modest quality. The menu at the hotel dining room was