Novel North Korean tours, courtesy of your Hong Kong schoolteacher
Camping and soccer training offer adventurers an unusual take on the reclusive country
Tales of travellers signing up for North Korea conjure up images of state-controlled tours and grim hotels, not camping, golf, skiing and soccer training.
And as if those activities are not unexpected enough, the man behind this new approach to tourism in the hermit state comes as another surprise: a Hong Kong teacher.
"In June of this year I'm going to be running the first-ever camping tour," said Ronny Mintjens, a football coach and head of languages at Li Po Chun United World College in Sha Tin.
"Actually camping in the wild. It's never been done before, apart from by the North Korean military."
The father of four has travelled to the country repeatedly over the past six years, and has organised 15 trips for other Hongkongers.
He said an increasing number of people in Hong Kong were drawn by the allure of going somewhere few have gone before, and a desire to see more than what was portrayed in the news.
Last year, he led the first Western travellers to Mount Kumgang since the death there of a South Korean woman, shot dead in 2008 for allegedly entering a restricted area.
One of the hikers, Bob Nipperess, a human resources manager with Cathay Pacific, said: "I wasn't worried at all. I knew that others from South Korea had gone since and survived."
This year Mintjens is organising tours for golfers, skiers and marathon runners, a summer camp for young soccer players and the June camping trip.
The number of tour companies running trips to the country has been growing.
So has the number of international visitors.
The numbers had climbed steadily from just 2,000 non-Chinese about six years ago to 5,000 to 6,000 a year, said Simon Cockerell of Beijing-based Koryo Tours, which collaborates with Mintjens.
Koryo Tours has run tours to the country since the early 1990s.
Figures for Chinese visitors were likely in the tens of thousands, said Cockerell.
Chinese nationals and Malaysians whose countries had stronger diplomatic ties to the North Korean regime faced less strict entry requirements.
North Korea is investing in its tourism infrastructure with the recent completion of a ski resort in Pyongyang, as well as a golf course.
"It is safe to go as long as one follows the rules," said Scott Snyder, senior fellow for Korea studies at the Council on Foreign Relations, a US-based think tank on US foreign policy and international affairs.
Cockerell said the growing number of Western tourists had helped the middle class immensely, and not just because of the foreign currency they put in their pockets.
"The contact undermines the broader image that foreigners are no good, and also undermines the idea that North Koreans are unthinking robots," he said.
