I was curious about North Korea and ran across this article regarding rules for touring in North Korea.

The article was titled "what can tourists expect in North Korea". You'll have to do a Google search on it as I cannot copy and paste from my smartphone. It is published through CNN.

I was amazed at the similarities that tourists feel in North Korea, and the feelings I get as an ex Mormon going on Temple Square.

Read it, and see if you agree. If anyone is capable of posting the link I would appreciate it.

Here you go.

What can tourists expect when visiting North Korea?

http://www.cnn.com/2013/12/02/travel/north-korea-tourist-protocol/index.html

why would anyone want to visit north korea when they can visit temple square for a lot less money.

..esp for fear of being arrested. Oh wait, you also fear of being arrested on temple square too if your gay.

There's not even a comparison to be made there.

Whatever evils you feel the LDS church has inflicted on the world pale in comparison to the horror that the Kims inflict on their own people.

Yeah, there's some comparison value there.

I wasn't comparing the torture that the North Korean people have. I was more drawn to the way the tour guides were acting in response to the questions being asked.

I go to North Korea annually. I am an exmo and a BYU alum (1971-73). I notice people posting but do you really know what it is like in North Korea or a totalitarian state? What is it like in rural China? Have you seen central Asian poverty?

I know that it is easy to compare the totalitarian state to the Church and many compare the DPRK to a cult like state. I think it is too simplistic.

The DPRK is a stillborn nation state emerging from the oppression of the Japanese in 1945. The entire peninsula was for decades an authoritarian nightmare. The ROK emerged from the Park military dictatorship in the 1980s and look who they elect - Ms. Park (daughter). I think you have to understand Korean culture before you peel back the enigma of the North. It is not that simple and it would take more than a few paragraphs to explain it.

I condone nothing of what I have seen and because I have been all over the country and for a long time I have seen more than any tourist would. I also have seen grinding poverty in countries you do not condemn. North Korea is easy to point to but what of prison systems in other societies? What do you know about Tibet's prison system prior to 1959? It does not make any of it right but you might be judging from a distance. I listen to what they say and you would be surprised that they are not all zombie cult robots.

I suggest you travel to rural Asia and examine the poverty and living conditions. Take a long tour of North Korea. It is an eye opener because you learn more about your preconceptions of what you think you will see. Most people do the 5 day short tour to say they have been there. You need to go into the farms and fields and into the small villages. That is the real north. Get on the back roads and examine life there. You will go back in time 50 to 80 years and you will find that they love that place, a country where they will explain their ancestors came from this village and how they want to live and die there. They are not all as miserable as you think. Life is hard but they endure. The black market is alive and well and I have traded and purchased from the emerging free enterprise sellers. There is an air of optimism compared to the old Kim Jong-il days. Even I was surprised.

Learn about Korean culture first. I am sure many of the former missionaries can speak to the issues of Korean culture. Now imagine a closed Korean state with a warped sense of what a modern nation is. Communism has nothing to do with the north but an extreme form of Korea culture does. The flags and marching is but a thin veneer over a much deeper psyche.