By Choi Sung-jin
"I could feel no anxiety or looming crisis caused by sanctions on North Korea. The streets of Pyongyang were peaceful with cherry blossoms and azaleas in full bloom and people looked bright."
That's what a Singaporean woman, who ran in part of a marathon in Pyongyang on April 10, said about the North Korean capital.
Ong Wan, 39, and her elder brother visited the North's largest city in April 9-11 and ran in a 10-kilometer race, a section of the Pyongyang Marathon. It was the largest event, drawing about 1,000 foreigners, since the United Nations slapped on new sanctions to discipline the isolated regime's nuclear and missile provocations.
"The event was held amid strong sanctions the international community has imposed on North Korea, but the atmosphere was far from anxious or crisis-ridden in downtown Pyongyang, which was opened to foreign tourists," Ong told the Yonhap News Agency by phone.
Before and after the marathon, foreigners walked around the streets and subway stations and found the atmosphere was quite peaceful and the citizens' faces were bright, she said.
"Because of North Korea's images that I had gotten through media outlets and what my South Korean friends told me about the North, I had some vague fear about the country but I soon adapted to it," said Ong who studied in South Korea and is running a Korean language institute in Singapore.
"I could feel I was in a different world, however, when I saw most stores do not have their own names and on subway walls were propaganda writing and pictures instead of commercials," the Singaporean said in fluent Korean.
Ong was somewhat astonished to find that a cafe at Sunan Airport served "skinny latte," a low-fat milk coffee, which she said could not be found in many coffee stores in Singapore.
To memorialize their visit to Pyongyang, Ong's brother had a haircut a la Kim Jong-un, paying 64 Chinese yuan (11,300 won), twice the normal rate, she said.
"I had heard the North Korean authorities forced residents to have a Kim Jong-un cut, but that was not true," Ong said. "The barber said my brother was only the fourth customer to ask for that hairdo."
"I could feel no anxiety or looming crisis caused by sanctions on North Korea. The streets of Pyongyang were peaceful with cherry blossoms and azaleas in full bloom and people looked bright."
That's what a Singaporean woman, who ran in part of a marathon in Pyongyang on April 10, said about the North Korean capital.
Ong Wan, 39, and her elder brother visited the North's largest city in April 9-11 and ran in a 10-kilometer race, a section of the Pyongyang Marathon. It was the largest event, drawing about 1,000 foreigners, since the United Nations slapped on new sanctions to discipline the isolated regime's nuclear and missile provocations.
"The event was held amid strong sanctions the international community has imposed on North Korea, but the atmosphere was far from anxious or crisis-ridden in downtown Pyongyang, which was opened to foreign tourists," Ong told the Yonhap News Agency by phone.
Before and after the marathon, foreigners walked around the streets and subway stations and found the atmosphere was quite peaceful and the citizens' faces were bright, she said.
"Because of North Korea's images that I had gotten through media outlets and what my South Korean friends told me about the North, I had some vague fear about the country but I soon adapted to it," said Ong who studied in South Korea and is running a Korean language institute in Singapore.
"I could feel I was in a different world, however, when I saw most stores do not have their own names and on subway walls were propaganda writing and pictures instead of commercials," the Singaporean said in fluent Korean.
Ong was somewhat astonished to find that a cafe at Sunan Airport served "skinny latte," a low-fat milk coffee, which she said could not be found in many coffee stores in Singapore.
To memorialize their visit to Pyongyang, Ong's brother had a haircut a la Kim Jong-un, paying 64 Chinese yuan (11,300 won), twice the normal rate, she said.
"I had heard the North Korean authorities forced residents to have a Kim Jong-un cut, but that was not true," Ong said. "The barber said my brother was only the fourth customer to ask for that hairdo."
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