A man who attended asummer campinNorth Koreaas a teenager has shared details about his fifteen-day stay in the East Asian nation.
Yuri Frolovtraveled from Russia to North Korea in 2015 when he was 15 years old.
Frolov wanted to verify this claim with his own eyes, so he logged on toVKontakte, Russia’s equivalent to Facebook, and subscribed to a group calledSolidarity with North Korea.
Yuri Frolov spent over two weeks at a North Korean summer camp when he was 15 years old
Image credits:Micha Brändli
He then stumbled across an opportunity he considered too tempting to pass up: the Communist Party of the Russian Federation was offering a chance to go toSongdowon, aNorth Koreanchildren’s summer camp, for about $300.
The price covered plane tickets, food, accommodation, and all the recreational facilities.
There, the young man met with a group of Communist Party officials and other children who would be attending the summer camp, who were 9, 10, and 11 years old.
“I was probably the only one traveling to North Korea to see this dystopia. The others seemed to see it as a chance to go to the beach or play in the playground inexpensively,” Frolov explained.
In 2015, Frolov traveled from Saint Petersburg, Russia, to Songdowon International Children’s Camp, located in North Korea’s eastern shore
Image credits:Carl Court/Getty Images
The camp reportedly has the capacity for 1,200 children and boasts an aquarium, water park, theater, and beach, according to itswebsite.
Before arriving at the camp on North Korea’s eastern shore, the curious teenager spent two days inPyongyang, the country’s capital city, where he says he was “constantly supervised.”
In Pyongyang, Frolov and the other children were taken to the large Kim Il Sung Square and the war museum, which displayed objects like captured American vehicles and the USS Pueblo, an American research ship that was seized in 1968.
Image credits:Eric Lafforgue/Getty Images
Frolov says he was taken to supermarkets and “pushed” to spend his money there.
Those in charge of the underage group didn’t seem to care much about their purchases.
“What was funny was that it was really easy to buy vodka and cigarettes,” he described.
“Some kids in our group, as young as 12, bought North Korean rice vodka, brought it back to the camp, and got extremely drunk on the first couple of nights.”
When they reached Songdowon, they met with children from other countries, including China,Nigeria, Laos, and Tanzania.
There were also local children at the camp, but Frolov and the other visitors were only allowed to meet them once on their last day. “I think that was deliberate, preventing them from talking with us about their experiences,” he suggested.
Songdowon has the capacity for 1,200 children and boasts an aquarium, water park, theater, and beach
The 25-year-old recalls many activities he did during his time at Songdowon, such as beach outings, sandcastle-building competitions, and swimming.
However, there were other activities—or “rituals,” as Frolov described them—that deviated from the typical camp experience.
“We had to clean statues of North Korea’s former leaders. One morning, we woke up at 6 a.m. to clean the monuments of Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il.
“We didn’t have sponges or anything — we were just brushing off the dust, even though the monuments were cleaned professionally every week. It was strange.
“They tried to brainwash us in many ways. We played a computer game where your character, a hamster in a tank, had to destroy the White House.”
The children were also made to participate in concerts, singing propaganda songs about North Korean leaders translated into their own languages.
Frolov said the staff tried to “brainwash” him and the other children, and he was made to play a game where he had to destroy the White House
All the time and effort put into creating a sense of belonging between the children and the totalitarian nation proved more effective in some cases than in others.
While one of his campmates joined the Communist Party in Russia after coming home and “was always posting about North Korea,” Frolov’s interest in the country had waned.
“For me, it didn’t work — the propaganda was too straightforward.
“Also, I was too frustrated with the strict schedule to be brainwashed. For example, when I was sick, they wouldn’t let me skip early-morning exercise.
“The food was also really bad. The only things I could eat were rice, wedges, and bread.”
During his fifteen-day stay at Songdowon, Frolov lost 11 pounds (5 kilos).
The 25-year-old also had to wake up at 6 a.m. to clean statues of North Korea’s former leaders
The following year, in 2016, he returned to the camp because the Communist Party had signed him up for another “boring, miserable, and overly controlled” experience.
According to Russian state mediaRIA Novosti, a group of Russian schoolchildren will attend Songdowon this year at the end of July.
“For me, it didn’t work—the propaganda was too straightforward,” Frolov explained
Gurov also said that Russia would invite North Korean children to attend Russian summer camps, including Artek (a youth center in Crimea), as part of an exchange program.
People had mixed opinions about Frolov’s experience at Songdowon
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