Russian Traveler Compares North Korea to Soviet Union: ‘Like Stepping Back in Time’

“My grandmother told me about life during the Soviet era, and it feels like I’ve gone back to that time. The streets are empty, there are no billboards, it’s surreal.”

On the 20th (local time), [CNN] reported that Ilya Voskresensky, a Russian travel blogger from St. Petersburg, who signed up immediately upon hearing about North Korean tourism when travel to Europe was difficult due to the war in Ukraine, expressed such feelings about his visit to North Korea.

The travel of Russians to North Korea is based on an agreement between Chairman Kim Jong Un and President Vladimir Putin held at the Vostochny Cosmodrome in the Amur region of the Far East last September and subsequent agreements between Russia’s Primorsky Krai and North Korea.

On the 9th, 97 tourists visited North Korea on an Air Koryo. They returned home on the 12th after a 3-night, 4-day tour of places like Kim Il Sung Square in Pyongyang and the Masikryong Ski Resort in Wonsan. The second group of tourists is scheduled to visit North Korea on the 8th of next month, and the third group on the 11th.

According to [CNN], Iliana Bychkova, who works in marketing in Moscow, said, “The meticulous preparation for the trip was like producing a play,” she was not swayed by the things North Korea carefully staged and showed.