Five Eye-Opening Days in Pyongyang

I arrived in Pyongyang one Saturday evening last December, and the next morning I woke up at 5 a.m., not as a result of the 13-hour time difference between Washington and Pyongyang, but rather because of loudspeakers blaring out military-style anthems down below. I was staying on the 17th floor of the Koryo Hotel, the 25-year-old twin-towered colossus that, when it first opened, was hailed by Kim Il Sung as the showcase accommodation for foreigners visiting the capital of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. I walked out onto my balcony in the chilly winter morning and tried to peer through the blackness that still, at that hour, prevailed over the relatively lightless city. I detected movement below, but could not definitely make out anything but a single train arriving at the nearby station.