On Traveling to North Korea.

[steve2470]

161. I understand your points, but I've been to mainland China and 1989 USSR

You could say I was foolish going to both of those places. In China, I never had the feeling I was being surveilled but I'm sure my registration at the downtown Beijing Holiday Inn (1997) was duly noted by the authorities.

In the USSR (yes in 1989 it was still called that), I went with my father and we both knew we were being actively surveilled. We had to stay in a special hotel for foreigners (the Stalinist design Rossiya in Moscow) and check our room keys in and out with a matron in our hotel hallway. She made a phone call to someone and told them we did something. Our tour in Moscow was "chaperoned" by some government guy, probably low-level KGB.

I was quite nervous in the USSR, having heard all the horror stories but they were just fine to us. Of course, we caused no problems and followed all the rules. We even got a bit lost on the way back to our hotel and the Moscow cops just redirected us politely. My dad tried to pay for a nice meal using US dollars but the owners told him firmly that was against the rules. He got the hint pretty fast and paid with rubles.

Just follow the rules and the laws, and you'll be fine. Poor Otto, he did something a bit ill-advised and got punished so harshly. Such a tragedy. I can see at his young age perhaps doing the same thing myself.

on edit: From reading the thread, it appears that you are risking detention and/or death if you're an American. I think I'll pass on NK. I'd rather go to the South Pole and risk freezing to death LOL