Crossing The East Sea

10 Yeonha

Since they were only going to visit Park Soojin in the evening, Nakajima proposed that the three of them – Watanabe, Shinsou and himself – spend the afternoon having a look around the city.

Wonsan was unlike other cities in North Korea, in that it had long been a holiday resort, and even the Supreme Leader had a luxurious Family Palace located by the sea there. The government had ambitious (and unrealistic) plans to develop it into a major tourist zone, and this included the redevelopment of the old city centre. The entire city area was to be evacuated, knocked down and completely rebuilt, and there were plans to introduce towering, futuristic structures which mirrored the ones that had been built in the capital, Pyongyang.

As far as Shinsou could see, the only building that looked as if it had been successfully completed so far was Wonsan Hotel, located right on the water's edge. According to an effusive brochure which they took from the hotel lobby, it was supposed to be a "5-star skyscraping hotel, with architecture like the pilothouse of a large vessel sailing an ocean".

"It looks impressive," Nakajima remarked, but Watanabe gave a guffaw.

"The electricity's still unreliable," he said, "The elevators break down regularly, and there's often no hot water. Hopefully they'll fix things by the time the Air Festival comes around next September. There should be guests a-plenty staying here around that time."

Otherwise, the remaining grand edifices that had been planned mostly remained unbuilt, or half-built. These included towering office blocks, an international financial complex, a cultural centre, history museum and an exhibition centre.

"He's ambitious, isn't he?" commented Nakajima, who had just finished reading the summary from the brochure out loud for the benefit of the others. He was referring to North Korea's Supreme Leader, who had a penchant for building expensive prestige projects, while the rest of the nation starved.

"He's mad," said Watanabe with conviction, "and his madness hasn't much method in it. Masikryong Ski Resort and Kalma Airport are another two lavish projects that have been languishing in idleness ever since they were completed."

As evening approached, Watanabe brought them to a jangmadang, one of the markets that had popped up all over the country after the famine. These jangmadang were actually illegal, for they were considered private enterprises in a country where everything was run by the state; but the government tolerated them because it was too broke to provide for the population, and the only way people could survive was by setting up businesses such as selling street food and daily necessities, or providing services such as bicycle repair, at these markets.

They had dinner at the jangmadang, which was located not too far from Park Soojin's apartment, after which Watanabe took his leave of them.

"I'll meet you back at the port later and escort you back to the ship," he informed Shinsou, before he left.

Park Soojin's apartment was located in a poorer part of Wonsan, where the buildings all looked rather decrepit. There were ten storeys in her block, and Soojin and her daughter lived on the top floor. Power failures were frequent in North Korea (although electricity in Wonsan was a bit more reliable because it was a popular holiday resort); and so in general the poorer you were, the higher up you lived, because the elevator could never be relied on to be working all the time.

Nakajima made himself and Shinsou invisible before they approached the building. All North Koreans had to belong to neighbourhood units called inminban, each of which contained an informer who spied for the secret police; hence it seemed prudent to prevent any of the other flat-dwellers from noticing their visit, especially as the ultimate aim was to get Park Soojin and her daughter to defect.