mingling with locals in North Korea

by Brian

Can you hire a private guide in North Korea and make your own itinerary, and stay longer then 4 days?

And what are the policies on filming? (places and people)
Do guides speak English?

And is it really illegal to mingle with the locals in North Korea, and shop at certain stores?

Are the guides North Korean natives? What about food? Is it provided for you? Can you eat at restaurants?

Comments for mingling with locals in North Korea

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Jul 16, 2014

mingling with locals in DPRK
by: Admin

Hi Brian,

Thanks for your message. It is not illegal to mingle with locals in North Korea. We encourage as much contact as possible with locals.

Our group sizes tend to be small which allows for this, though it is possible too to have a private itinerary and fully customise it (with in reason) based on your requests.

It is true though that if you do not speak Korean it may be hard to communicate with locals but you will see that interacting with them is by no means forbidden. Especially if you go on special national holidays when people are outside you can join in the games, singing and dancing. If you check several of our pictures taken from previous tours you can see travellers interacting with locals.

You can of course stay longer than 4 nights in DPRK. Back in the days US citizens could only stay a maximum of 4 nights and visit when the Mass Games where on but that policy was changed several years ago.

You can eat in restaurants in fact we arrange most meals in restaurants, though breakfast is at the hotel.

We tend to send in a western staff member on our group departures, but like with all tours the guides are local North Koreans. This is actually the country's policy towards tourism; even if we send in a western staff member to accompany the travellers the tour guides and driver will be local Koreans, it is not, as of now, possible for a travel agency to wonder around the country without having local guides accompany their group and we will always be accompanied by the local guides.

Hope this message is of help!

Best wishes,

Rayco

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