Unlike the diaries of my previous travels, the North Korea Journal was not easy to keep. I was in a country which tightly controlled all information and deliberately distanced itself from the rest of the world. I had to be careful when and where I got the notebook out. If I was writing too openly they might want to read what I was saying about the country. Worse still, they might want to confiscate it.
But North Korea was not as fierce as I expected. I didn’t flaunt my notebook, they didn’t ask to see it. I was able to keep a pretty full account of my time in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. The North Korea Journal is a record of two of the most unusual weeks I’ve ever spent abroad.
