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Ed Peters

I was born in 1961 and attended Wilmslow Grammar School, in Cheshire, which is pretty much middle Middle England.
Needless to say, the careers adviser did not have any pamphlets on setting up a business with North Korea.
I left school aged 16 with plans to become a countryside ranger. After agricultural college I ended up in the Medlock Valley, which flowed from the moors of the Peak District into gritty central Manchester.
Urban improvements were being carried out by Manchester council and that inspired me, aged 24, to study landscape architecture and later lecture at Leeds Metropolitan University.

Northern delights
I struck a substantial watershed in early 1993, when I visited my great friend Josh Green in Beijing.

The landscape architecture of Asia was in vogue and I spent three months wandering around various traditional gardens.
Josh had the task of setting up courier company TNT in Pyongyang, and that July, I and six other friends travelled to Pyongyang by overnight train from Beijing, a 23-hour journey; not a great distance covered, rather just a slow train.
At that time, Beijing and the border city of Dandong were rather bedraggled and Pyongyang’s tree-lined boulevards, ice rink, 105-storey Ryugyong Hotel and so forth seemed rather grand in comparison.
It had the feeling of somewhere “very different” and I was intrigued, but it took a number of trips just to find out how very different it really is.
The Chinese like to say it reminds them of old China and Cultural Revolution times, but North Korea took a very different trajectory.

Beautiful game
Josh and I realised there was a niche to be filled, launched Koryo Tours and set about building up numbers, soon reaching a heady 100 tourists a year.
We were the market leaders as nobody else was running regular tours, although it was more a case of no one realising you could actually travel there than no one wanting to visit.
We made a travel documentary with British broadcaster Andy Kershaw in 1996 and that put the destination on the map in a small way.
We had already started doing aid work with orphanages and a blind school, and film seemed like another good string to our bow, so, in 2002, together with Daniel Gordon, we made our first documentary, The Game of Their Lives, about the North Korean football team who knocked out Italy and became the first Asian team to reach the quarterfinals of the World Cup, in 1966.


Point of contact
Korea is all about contacts and trust and building these over time. Failure to do this leaves little foundation to build on, as many politicians can testify.
It is not a question of handing over brown envelopes, but more of developing a professional relationship that benefits both parties while making sure you do not compromise your Korean partner.
All companies are state-owned and pre-2002 we were happy just to plod along. There was a hierarchy in the areas I worked in – film and art at the top, sport in the middle and tourism lowest in the pecking order.
After a shift in government policy in 2002, which made earning foreign exchange a priority, tourism jumped up a few notches.

Model citizen
A visit to North Korea is not a holiday but it is probably the most exciting and intense experience you can have, short of jumping out of a plane without a parachute.
We have had a number of tourists who we have had to pull back from making criticisms, as this causes problems for the guides. It is not worth trying to convert the guides as they simply repeat what they are trained to say.
On a farm visit one tourist complained that it was not a real farm, so we had to point out that we had said it was a “model farm”.
It only needed him to see that this “model farm” was in a pretty bad way – mainly manual work, oxen instead of tractors … If this was the best they had to show tourists then you get an idea how tough it can be further down the line.

Amazing opportunity
Essentially, North Korea is a trip to embark on with few preconceptions – you just need to sit back and observe how the Koreans tell the story.
It is also, if you are personable, an amazing opportunity to actually speak to North Koreans about matters outside politics and to be allowed to enter into their personal feelings – how they met their wife, what jobs their parents did, how they came to move to Pyongyang from the countryside and so forth.
The long run
About 10 years ago we got into the marathon business. Originally, only elite runners were allowed and we wanted to make it more inclusive.

In 2013, (Koryo Tours general manager) Simon Cockerell and I organised a 5km (3-mile) fun run and the authorities saw the potential.
We were given permission to join the Pyongyang International Marathon in 2014 and brought in around 100 runners; in 2019 we brought in over 1,000.
The event itself is well managed but behind the scenes it is pretty tough going. Negotiations with the sports committees are not for the faint-hearted.
Kim Jong-un’s secret weapons: his wife, his sister, his subjects
In 2019 we were told the evening before that the course would be altered – this goes against all the rules and we ended up in heated arguments until 4am.
We managed to reverse the decision, but were run ragged before the start.
Bringing Palin
We were heavily involved in the 2018 travel documentary Michael Palin in North Korea. It took over two years to set up: a recce with the director, convincing Korean colleagues to trust us, and then bringing in the crew and equipment.
Palin is remarkable. He’s got a journalist’s mindset – one take was enough for almost all the pieces to camera, and, of course, his personality immediately relaxes people.
However, he takes his job seriously and that meant asking sensitive questions, for example, quizzing the guides about how they could possibly view their leaders without criticism, and debating with a DMZ guard which side had started the Korean war.
Friends indeed
As for so many other people around the world, Covid was a disaster for us. We thought it might last six months, then a year, and then every year one more. Perhaps I should have given in, but we are in contact with our Pyongyang colleagues every week and it is more than a job; it is our vocation.

We critically engage with North Koreans and have done for 30 years – and it would be unfair to desert them as there is very little there even at the best of times.
Joint venture
We established Koryo Studio to concentrate on cultural projects. Taking part in the 2014 Venice Architecture Biennale was a big win, as the joint Korea Pavilion was the first such collaboration between architects from both halves of the peninsula.
I was also pleased with the reception of our book, Made in North Korea: Graphics from Everyday Life in the DPRK, which was published by Phaidon in 2017.
A Hong Kong kidnap: how Kim Jong-il had South Korea’s top actress abducted from Repulse Bay
Its content was exhibited in London and in Seoul – the first time that everyday North Korean objects were allowed to be shown in public there.
Pyongyang to Tuscany
I am now working on setting up a space to show Koryo Studio’s art and graphic collection in Tuscany.
I chose Italy rather than the UK as my partner, Antonia, is Italian and I disagreed strongly with Brexit – working first-hand in one divided country is quite enough! Tuscany is also the home of academic art, which is the sort of training that North Korean artists go through.
I bought two derelict industrial sheds in Colle di Val d’Elsa, which suits the theme, and the city is renowned for papermaking – many of our pieces are ink works and posters on paper.
The collection consists of over 3,000 pieces of art and graphic material as well as film, photography and catalogues. The art celebrates the valour of labour, and for all of its kitschness that is something to celebrate in a world that’s heading a little far to the right for my comfort.


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When Michael Palin did North Korea: fixer and travel agency co-founder on 30 years of taking visitors into the country

Michael Palin in North Korea (left), and Nicholas Bonner, who helped him get into the country to film his documentary “Michael Palin in North Korea”. Bonner, the co-founder of a tour company, shares memories of 30 years of taking visitors into the country. Photo: ITN Productions/ Nicholas Bonner

Nicholas Bonner, the founder of Koryo Tours, which takes tourists into North Korea. Photo: Carla Cimini

Nicholas Bonner with a Juche Tower tour guide in 1993 and again in 2013. Photo: Nicholas Bonner

(From left) Josh Green, a military guide and Nicholas Bonner in Pyongyang in 1995. Photo: Nicholas Bonner

Nicholas Bonner (left) with Andy Kershaw in North Korea in 1996, during the making of “Travelogue”, the first travel documentary about the country. Photo: Nicholas Bonner

Nicholas Bonner with Ri Chan Myongy, the North Korean goalkeeper who, in a 1966 World Cup match, kept Italy from scoring. Photo: Nicholas Bonner

Nicholas Bonner at a screening of the 2021 North Korean romantic comedy “Comrade Kim Goes Flying”. Photo: Nicholas Bonner

Nicholas Bonner (third from right) during the filming of “Crossing the Line”, a 2006 documentary about James Dresnok, a soldier who defected from the US Army in the 1960s. Photo: Nicholas Bonner

Nicholas Bonner, dressed in running attire, outside the Pyongyang Foreign Bookstore with the shop’s manager. Photo: Nicholas Bonner

Nicholas Bonner in 2005 with Charles Jenkins and James Dresnok – two American servicemen who defected to North Korea. Photo: Nicholas Bonner

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Chinese migrant Cai Fei carries a black plastic bag of his belongings as he steps off the boat and finishes his trek in the Darien Gap, on his journey to the US, in 2023. Photo: Shawn Yuan

Migrants rest in makeshift restaurants and huts in Panama after crossing the Darien Gap. Photo: Shawn Yuan

Cao Yangbo shows his passport that he says had been defaced by Chinese government officials. Photo: Shawn Yuan

Quito, in Ecuador, is the first stop on the American continent for many Chinese migrating to the US. Photo: Shawn Yuan

A boat docks near the entry to the Darien Gap. Photo: Shawn Yuan

Tulcan is an Ecuadorean town near the border with Colombia. Photo: Shawn Yuan

Ecuador’s entry stamp and China’s exit stamp are the first and only stamps in many Chinese migrants’ passports. Photo: Shawn Yuan

Two migrants rest in Capurgana, before heading into the Darien Gap. Photo: Shawn Yuan

Tulcan is one of many landings on the migrants’ perilous journey through South and Central America. Photo: Shawn Yuan

Yu Qian, a Chinese migrant from Henan province, walks in a park in Monterey Park, California. Photo: Shawn Yuan

A square in Monterey Park, where nearly all Chinese migrants make their first stop. Photo: Shawn Yuan

How, during the Cultural Revolution, a Chinese ballet film wowed the West after premiering at Venice

A poster for “The Red Detachment of Women”. In 1971, at the height of the Cultural Revolution, Beijing sent a film version of the Chinese ballet to the glamorous Venice International Film Festival, from where it became a hit with Western cinema-goers from London to Sydney. Photo: Getty Images

Italian actress Gina Lollobrigida talks to a mystery man from the Chinese film delegation at the 1971 Venice International Film Festival. Photo: Alamy

A scene from “The Red Detachment of Women” shown on a Chinese postcard published in 1970. Photo: Getty Images

A clipping from the November 13, 1971 edition of The Sydney Morning Herald advertises an upcoming showing of “The Detachment of Red Women” in the Australian city. Photo: The Sydney Morning Herald

“The Red Detachment of Women” was the first movie from the People’s Republic of China to premiere at a Western film festival. Photo: Getty Images

Gina Lollobrigida looking every inch the movie star at the 1971 Venice Film Festival. Photo: AP

A clipping from the October 17, 1971 edition of The San Francisco Examiner promotes showings of “The Red Detachment Of Women” in San Francisco. Photo: The San Francisco Examiner Sun

A clipping from October 1, 1971, from the now defunct London newspaper the Marylebone Mercury, advertises upcoming showings of “The Red Detachment Of Women” along with other Beijing operatic films, as part of a Chinese film festival. Photo: Marylebone Mercury

A clipping from the October 6, 1971 edition of the Evening Standard advertises showings of “The Red Detachment Of Women” around London. Photo: Evening Standard

A clipping from the October 2, 1971 edition of the Evening Standard advertises showings of “The Red Detachment of Women” at the Classic Brixton cinema in London. Photo: Evening Standard

Actress Vanessa Redgrave (middle) with Chinese ambassador Shen Ping on her left, and the mystery man who Lollobrigida entertained sat directly behind him, in Venice.

Why North Korea’s Mount Kumgang resort will be ‘envied by the world’

Tourists on a trail at Mount Kumgang, in North Korea. Photo: AP

epa04354222 A picture made available on 15 August 2014 shows confined female gorilla Bua Noi (Little Lotus) as she sits and stares from behind the bars and glass cage at Pata Zoo, situated on the top floor of a shopping center in Bangkok, Thailand, 05 August 2014. Thailand's zoos with often bizarre animal shows are under fire from animal lovers, critical both of the tourists who show no care for the species other than a chance for entertainment and having their photo taken, and the business exploitation and welfare of the animals critics say have nothing to do with conservation and education, but profit. As most of the world shifts towards humane and natural eco-tourism, wildlife lovers say the attractions will only diminish Thailand's reputation. EPA/BARBARA WALTON

ZeroAvia’s hydrogen fuel cell powered flight at Cranfield in September. Photo: Handout

North Korea's Premier Kim Tok Hun, member of the Presidium of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea, wears a face mask while visiting the Mount Kumgang tourist area in North Korea, in this undated photo supplied by North Korea's Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) on December 20, 2020. KCNA via REUTERS ATTENTION EDITORS - THIS IMAGE WAS PROVIDED BY A THIRD PARTY. REUTERS IS UNABLE TO INDEPENDENTLY VERIFY THIS IMAGE. NO THIRD PARTY SALES. SOUTH KOREA OUT. NO COMMERCIAL OR EDITORIAL SALES IN SOUTH KOREA.

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Nicholas Bonner, tour firm co-founder who got Michael Palin into North Korea to film a documentary, shares experiences from 3 decades of taking visitors there


Nicholas Bonner, co-founder of North Korea travel firm Koryo Tours, who helped Michael Palin into the country to film a documentary, tells the Post how to get the most out of a visit to the secretive state.


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