Chapters of this Article
1 Tourist Handlers
2 Emptiness
3 Fake and Staged
4 Mass Child Labor
5 Pain and Suffering
6 Mass Hypnosis
7 Secrecy
8 Dark Paranormal Encounters
9 Is North Korea run by the CIA?
10 Is North Korea a child trafficking hub?
I’ve wondered about North Korea since the 1990s when reports came out that their population were starving to death but not allowed to leave the country. Defectors report the people were eating grass and in extreme cases cannibalizing each other. Thousands who tried to cross the borders, drowned in the freezing rivers or were shot by their fellow North Koreans.
North Koreans still can’t leave their country today and political dissidents are sent to Gulag prison camps for life. Some are publicly executed to serve as examples. Citizens still don’t have an Internet that can access the outside world. They only have a vague idea of life outside of their country.
How on Earth do people create such a prison for themselves? Why? I sought to understand what factors create such deprivation, so I read a dozen books on North Korea and watched documentaries. I’ve heard hundreds of defectors, authors and tourists speak. I prefer the word of tourists because the commentary of regular people is often more authentic than that of mainstream media.
I’ve concluded that North Korea hides a secret even darker than the ones already known. I see the whole country as a social engineering experiment in mass mind control, conducted by a misanthropic, secretive cabal.
With this article I hope to convey how I arrived at such a conclusion.
We-the-people must no longer sit idly by while anti-human activity takes place all around us.
Tourist Handlers
Tourists use words like “surreal”, “unsettling”, “creepy”, “contrived”, “staged” and “fake” to describe their North Korean experience. Visitors travel a tightly controlled environment and not once gain access to authentic local life.
Every tourist gets a government-assigned “handler” that follows and monitors their every move. These handlers control the conversations and interactions with North Koreans. Tourists can’t leave their Hotel rooms at night, cannot go to places outside of tour-stops, cannot have non-scripted meetings, cannot take photos of normal houses and buildings. Unauthorized photos are considered “espionage”. Some tourists are questioned by police, who seem to have looked up the tourists social media postings and can quote from them. They demand to review your photos and read your text messages, creating an atmosphere of paranoia.
A typical village in North Korea
The run-down socialist high rises across the country is one thing handlers don’t want you taking photos of.
Tourists report feeling watched in their hotel rooms, even when alone. Travel blogs recount small inconsistencies, like a slightly misaligned ceiling panel or faint clicking sounds, suggesting hidden cameras or microphones. While guides always dismiss such concerns, the constant presence of staff lingering near rooms and the prohibition on closing curtains reeks of round-the-clock surveillance.
Can you imagine visiting a neighbor and he won’t let you talk to other family members, follows you around and secretly listens at your door? You’d think he’s psychotic. Or covering up something really bad.
Emptiness
Tourists describe the eerie emptiness of public spaces. Citizens move in a highly disciplined way through streets and subway stations, with no lingering, stopping, chatting, stretching or having a look around. It’s as if they are programmed along certain lines with no room for spontaneity.
The subway stations, which double as nuclear bunkers, feature patriotic anthems, gilded statues of Kim Il Sung, and socialist-themed decor. The children wear mandatory school uniforms, even on weekends.
When traveling by train between cities like Pyongyang and Kaesong, tourists report carriages are strangely quiet, with locals avoiding eye contact and speaking in hushed tones, if at all. The windows reveal impoverished rural areas—malnourished farmers, dilapidated homes, and military checkpoints—that contrast starkly with the regime’s propaganda about prosperity.
Photos of rural North Korea convey that nothing new has been built since the communists took over in the 1950s.
A tourist recalled on a travel blog feeling watched by officials on the train, dressed as commoners, who seemed to note every move.
People frequently note the darkness of North Korean cities at night due to frequent power outages. Pyongyang, while better lit than other areas, still has neighborhoods that go pitch black, with only propaganda billboards illuminated. A traveler on Quora mentioned staying in a hotel where the power cut out abruptly, leaving them in total darkness except for the glow of a Kim Il Sung portrait on the wall.
Tourists report entire buildings and even towns that appear to be empty. People on discussion forums question why on Google maps the whole country seems to be devoid of people and cars while in other countries you see plenty of vehicles on the road and signs of human activity.
Even the most iconic building of North Korea, the Pyramid you see in the photo above and here, has always stood empty ever since it was built in the early 1990s.
Mainstream views are that the North Koreans couldn’t afford to complete their most famous building and this is why it stands empty.
I have an different view:
Our ancestors traditionally built empty houses for the spirits (jinn, demons, entities). Even though NK is ostensibly an atheistic country.
I’m told that in northern European countries some old houses are not demolished so that “the elves and fairies” could take up residence in them. The superstition says that if you build houses for them they won’t come bother you in your house. Sound crazy? I think it’s crazier to build all these empty, seemingly purposeless places. I am reminded of China’s habit of building entire cities that remain empty.
Fake and Staged
Tourists report fake shops and staged markets. Visitors to places like the Chilgol Revolutionary Site or department stores in Pyongyang notice that shops appear staged, with goods displayed but no one buying. A tourist recounted entering a grocery store where neatly arranged products seemed untouched, and the few “shoppers” moved as if following a script, avoiding interaction. It’s as if all of the places tourists go to were built just for tourists so they report about them.
Munsu Water Park in Pyonyang has been described by a tourist as “the creepiest waterpark you’ve ever seen” because of it’s contrived atmosphere contrasts with the country’s poverty. Tourists talk about overly saturated colors of the park against the backdrop of drab housing blocks, and the presence of stern-looking officials watching young people play in the water. The indoor pool contains a life-sized plaster statue of Kim Jong II – oh what fun!
The water-park is today listed as “permanently closed”. This doesn’t surprise me, as tourists report that it was always empty. Photos published by NK show it as crowded with happy Korean families, contradicting eyewitnesses.
Why was it empty? Because all “fun” is staged for visitors. Real citizens of North Korea can’t afford it.
An even more grandiose building project was the Wonsan luxury Bathing Resort along the beach of North Korea. It stands permanently empty, but that doesn’t stop NK leaders from posing for pictures there.
North Korea’s amusement parks, like the Kaeson Youth Park in Pyongyang, are also said to lack genuine activity. Tourists report seeing rides operating with few or no riders, and staff maintaining a forced cheerfulness while military personnel stand nearby.
Some tours showcase hospitals, like the Pyongyang Maternity Hospital, meant to display the regime’s healthcare system. Visitors have been turned off by the sterile, overly perfect presentation – empty wards, brand-new equipment untouched, and nurses who seem to be acting rather than working. One visitor noted a doctor reciting a memorized speech about the hospital’s greatness while avoiding eye contact, giving the impression of a staged performance. Again, the visitor never sees the hospitals where real people go, only an obvious facade.
Some tourists witness orchestrated displays of public mourning, particularly around anniversaries of Kim Il Sung or Kim Jong Il’s deaths. A traveler described seeing groups of citizens sobbing dramatically in front of a Kim statue, but their expressions seemed rehearsed, with some glancing at nearby officials as if awaiting approval. Defectors say it’s all forced and contrived. The artificiality of the grief, coupled with the knowledge that such displays are mandatory, creates a performative atmosphere that lacks any genuine feeling.
Tours include interactions with locals presented as “volunteers” at work sites or cultural events. A tourist described meeting a group of women planting trees, who smiled and waved but refused to answer questions, their responses limited to praising the regime. The women’s identical outfits and robotic demeanor, combined with the guide’s constant hovering, makes such encounters feel scripted.
I submit that the entire country serves a different purpose altogether. To mask this, some tourists are let in to witness a rehearsed theater that has little to do with reality.
At the time of this writing (2025) all tourism to North Korea is suspended. I guess the regime got tired of most visitors posting negative reviews of their stay, despite their best efforts to put a happy face on bad situations.
Mass Child Labor
Tourists attending events like Arirang mass games in the stadium, describe performances involving tens of thousands of children moving in perfect synchronization, creating intricate human mosaics glorifying the Kim regime. The performers, who undergo grueling training for months, appear robotic, without emotion. Tours often include visits to schools or camps where young students perform highly choreographed songs and dances praising the great leader. Tourists describe the performances as creepy due to the children’s intense, almost mechanical delivery and the militaristic undertones of the lyrics, which glorify sacrifice for the state. Defectors say that the Government trains children as spies to snitch on their parents if they hear views critical of the regime.
Tours sometimes include visits to children’s summer camps, like the Songdowon International Children’s Camp in Wonsan. Tourists report an unsettling mix of typical camp activities—games, singing—with militaristic drills and songs about defending the homeland. One visitor noted children as young as six performing mock bayonet drills with intense focus, their faces devoid of joy. You can tell a lot about a nation in how they treat their children.
Pain and Suffering
From North Korean defectors to China and South Korea we know there are gigantic prison camps all over the country in which dissidents are locked up. They are similar to the communist “Gulag” camps of Siberia, where people worked until they died of exhaustion or starvation.
The Government exerts control over the economy and citizens income is distributed centrally. Being a socialist country, a person cannot make his own income and becomes dependent on Government handouts. When those handouts are not forthcoming, starvation has been the result. As of 2023 the U.N. reports a 41% malnutrition rate in North Korea.
One of many reported prison’s is “Camp 22” hat Hoeryong, NK (image below).
On Google Maps, some of the locations around Hoeryong are blurred out or low-resolution compared to the surroundings, as in other places in North Korea. Google has not explained why it blurs images on behalf of an anti-human regime.
It’s also fairly odd to me that Gulag towns like this have a tourist Hotel.
What kind of “tourism” does a Gulag receive?
Mass Hypnosis
Everywhere you go in North Korea you find large posters and billboards of North Korea’s leader. Citizens are expected to practice religious devotion to him.People are obligated to hang up pictures of him in their homes. Worship of God or any spiritual belief is strictly forbidden and will get you sent to the labor camp or at the very least have you attend re-education camps.
Located in the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ), Kijong-dong, also known as the “Peace Village,” is a North Korean village built only for propaganda purposes. Tourists say the whole town is deserted, with identical-colored buildings and a massive flagpole broadcasting patriotic music and speeches toward South Korea. The village is designed to project prosperity but feels like a ghost town, with lights turning on and off automatically to simulate activity.
Tourists occasionally witness seemingly impromptu gatherings of citizens, such as workers or students assembling to chant slogans or wave flags. One visitor recalled seeing a group of schoolchildren suddenly line up in a Pyongyang park to sing praises to Kim Jong Un, their movements so synchronized it felt rehearsed. The guide claimed it was spontaneous, but the lack of genuine emotion and the presence of uniformed officials nearby suggested otherwise.
In rural North Korea, tourists report hearing loudspeakers blaring patriotic songs or regime announcements in seemingly empty villages. A tourist on a travel blog described stopping at a rural rest area and hearing a distorted voice echoing through the fields, praising Kim Jong Un, with no visible source or people around.
Disclaimer
The article thus far presents information most people agree on. The second part below looks at more speculative ideas. Speculation is needed for discovery of new information but may sometimes be inaccurate. Take it with a grain of salt.
North Korea is full of things that don’t make sense.
Like the hidden 5th Floor of Yanggakdo Hotel: In 2011, a group of tourists explored the unmarked 5th floor of the Yanggakdo Hotel in Pyongyang, which is not accessible by elevator and is rumored to be off-limits. They found narrow hallways filled with propaganda posters and closed doors.
A photo of the elevator buttons in Yanggakdo Hotel
During tightly controlled tours, some visitors report sudden, unexplained changes to itineraries, such as buses taking long detours or stopping in remote areas for no apparent reason. A tourist on a travel forum described their bus pulling over in a rural area for an hour, with guides offering vague excuses about “road checks.” The group was instructed to stay silent and avoid looking out the windows, where they glimpsed military vehicles in the distance.
Stories like these puzzle me. On the one hand we see how tightly controlled the population is. On the other hand, we hear reports like this, of some kind of military emergency and people pleading with tourists not to look out of the windows.
We’ve already seen the unfinished 105-storied pyramid-shaped Ryugyong Hotel in Pyongyang. One visitor recalled their guide refusing to acknowledge the building’s existence when asked. But why? Isn’t it a legitimate question? Is the Hotel not visible to all? Why would a tour guide avoid answering questions about it? These type of reactions point toward mass hypnosis resulting in mass psychosis. Something is right in front of your face and one avoids talking about it.
Dark Paranormal Encounters
Reddit, YouTube and Quora are filled with dark paranormal encounters tourists have allegedly had in North Korea. I understand how the gloomy atmosphere inspires imagination. But I wouldn’t place bets on all stories being made up.
One redditt user shared a disturbing account from a 2018 tour, describing a video captured by a fellow tourist showing a figure with a “triangular mouth lined with razor-teeth and a singular, beady eye.” The group also heard heavy footsteps and guttural, demonic-sounding voices outside their hotel room, accompanied by frightened shouting from North Korean guards, suggesting an encounter with something inexplicable.
Some tourists report seeing fleeting, unexplained figures in restricted areas, particularly near the DMZ or rural regions. A Reddit post described spotting a lone figure in a military uniform standing motionless in a field far from any visible road during a guided tour. When they asked their guide about it, the guide quickly changed the subject, leaving the group speculating about whether it was a guard, a defector, or something else entirely.
Several tourists have reported strange sounds outside their hotel rooms at night, particularly in less central locations like Hamhung or Wonsan. A Quora user described hearing rhythmic tapping and muffled voices in their hotel hallway, only to find it empty when they checked. Their guide dismissed it as “maintenance.
If the sitting President endorses a “conspiracy theory”, then it’s worth looking into, despite countless attempts by popular “influencers” to obfuscate the original Q-posts. Let’s see what Q and Q+ (Trump himself) have said about North Korea. I’ve screenshot relevant posts:
Here Q asks “Who really controls NK?” showing another Pyramid-shaped Hotel. This is the most luxurious Hotel in North Korea, a two hour drive north of the capital. It’s the Hyangsan Hotel in the town of the same name.
At around the time Q posted about it, Trump, through his Twitter account, showed a picture of Hyangsan. In those days it was common for Trump to confirm Q-posts on his Twitter account and was certainly one of the reasons the President was banned from Twitter and Facebook.
In the context of all his other posts, Q is implying that North Korea is run by the same satanic, pedophilic Cabal that has been attempting to run the whole world. The cabal have an affinity for Pyramids and Triangles and this is why the two most prominent Hotels in NK are Pyramid shaped.
All this would of course sound far-fetched. But in the context of what we’ve already learned from mainstream sources, it no longer seems that outrageous an idea to me.
Later Q classifies North Korea as a “CIA Blacksite”.
A “blacksite” is a place the CIA takes to interrogate or torture prisoners outside of U.S. law. The public perception is that North Korea is an enemy of the U.S. If the CIA used North Korea as a “blacksite” it would therefore be scandalous (but not surprising considering all the criminal stuff the CIA is already known for).
In this post, North Korea is linked to child abductions for satanic rituals and pedophile networks:
Other Q posts reference North Korea, but I don’t wish to go into more detail here.
Is North Korea a child trafficking hub?
So could that be the “even darker secret” of North Korea? That it’s a pedophile playground of the elite? A child trafficking hub? As well as a human experimentation project? And a mass-hypnosis experiment? I have an active imagination and could even conceive of clandestine cloning factories and other weird genetic experimentation that gives rise to the “paranormal” encounters some tourists have reported. But let’s not verge too far off track.
Wikipedia, NGOs and other mainstream sources answer the “human trafficking” question with a “Yes”. The The U.S. Dept. of State ranks NK as a “Tier 3” country, which is the most severe level of human trafficking.
In 2018 I spent a lot of time looking around Hyangsan, but it’s difficult to learn anything about it. Even today, Google blocks even talking about the nearby town Kuwollim:
For the record, Google has helped both China and North Korea build a censored Internet (in the case of North Korea it’s completely censored, allowing only Government Propaganda).
One of the few photos of Kuwollim town, from Google Maps:
Another current photo on Google maps:
At the time of this writing, there were no other photos of the town. My concern with these is why they both show children alone on the streets, soliciting people. Without the context given by Q, I wouldn’t have noticed.
At the time it was said that Google CEO Eric Schmidt was in North Korea and that it “wasn’t supposed to have become public” that he went there.
But it was never explained why Schmidt would travel to an avowed “enemy” of the U.S. It doesn’t make any sense. Just like it doesn’t make sense that Google still censors its maps on behalf of North Korea.
Not too long after his trip to NK, Schmidt was removed from his leadership of Google for “sexual misconduct”. This was at a time many celebrities and CEOs stepped down for the vague reference of “sexual misconduct”.
But if it’s true that NK and Google are run by the same employers, it all makes sense.
Even mainstream sources acknowledge that North Korea has been working with South Korean, Chinese and Russian Mafia, with Japanese Yakuza gangs and other criminals in buying, selling and trafficking drugs, weapons and humans.
I typed “Children” into Google Maps of North Korea and it brought up something puzzling: The most common object in North Korea using the word “Children” is called “Children’s Traffic Park”.
They appear on Google Maps around the country more commonly than Children’s Hospitals, Daycare centers, Playgrounds, Toy Shops or Children’s Museums. Another one:
I tried looking up what these are. It is said that these are “driving schools for children”.
Ah, OK. Makes sense. Problem solved. Case closed.
But wait…only adults are allowed to drive in North Korea. And the majority of people can’t afford cars. Driving is primarily done by military and tour guides. Tourists report empty roads, empty villages and empty streets around the country.
So why the prevalence of “Children’s Traffic Parks”? And if these were actually driving schools for children, why aren’t they called “driving school” or “driving park”?
North Koreans don’t have Google Maps and generally don’t read English. But I guess it’s important for western tourists to know where all these “children’s traffic” centers are.
I’m not saying this proves anything, but it’s an oddity.
Then I looked up “Orphanages” and found a few:
An Orphanage near the border to China, in Sinuiju, NK:
Hamhung Orphanage:
Notice anything?
Every orphanage I looked at, has a triangle shape and is neighbored by a nursery that is square shaped. We see that symbolism and geometry are important to the North Korean regime.
Again, this doesn’t prove a thing, it’s just an oddity I stumbled.
Tourists have taken pictures of children’s playgrounds surrounded by barbed wire:
Browsing Pyongyang, I found this image on Google Maps (it’s east of the Pyongyang Observatory):
Without looking for it, I find Pyramid symbolism across North Korea. It’s rampant!
The very strange thing about this image is that it traces lines or roads that are no longer there. A close-up without the roads reveals that these circles and Pyramids used to be there but have since been obscured or destroyed.
It’s as if Google is saying “Look friends, this is where it used to be”. If you’re a map maker, why point out streets that no longer exist? Like so much else, it doesn’t make sense. Who are the makers of Google Maps and Google Earth communicating with?
I’ve noticed this overlaying with streets where there are none a lot. Here’s a northern town where the entire street map and naming seem to be fake, with streets just crossing atop buildings:
These could be errors of course, but the Pyramid shape above is no error because the outlines of the old shape can still be seen.
Conclusion
Even if you dismissed my speculations here, we can agree that something is amiss in NK that warrants questioning – for the sake of our humanity. What we need most in the world is a committee for the investigation and prosecution of anti-human activity.
You could argue that we already have this, but these international organizations are ineffective. Maybe they’re ineffective by design. Otherwise anti-human events in NK (and several other places in the world) wouldn’t just keep repeating from decade to decade. Their repetition is a reminder to us that we need to increase good people’s sphere of influence.
It would be ridiculously easy for Chinese and Russian military to enter North Korea and extract the regime while keeping the citizens safe. We don’t do it and cite”non intervention”. I agree, everyone should be free to choose the life they want, without our intervention. We’ve seen a lot of military intervention happen under false pretenses, where “democracy” is promised but economic control was the real goal.
Yes, I agree we shouldn’t have foreign invention. With one exception: Extreme abuse of human dignity. NK is extreme enough to warrant some kind of intervention. We’re looking at starving people getting shot for trying to escape to places where they can eat. Such a people can no longer free themselves of their own power, they need our help. I don’t think many people would protest if we did something about the situation. Most people know right from wrong, it’s a universal inclination, embedded in our spirit.