Mick Hartley

Mount Paektu – “the sacred mountain of the revolution” – holds a special place in North Korean iconography. Supposedly the birthplace of Kim Jong-il – he was actually born in Russia – the ascent by Kim Jong-un on a white horse in 2019 was a deeply symbolic event….

…echoing the legend of Chollima, the mythical winged horse. “At Chollima speed” is a constant exhortation to drive forward at full speed towards the dream of a great Socialist Nation.

But it does get very cold up there.

From the Daily NK:

North Koreans are bribing officials to remove their names from “voluntary” winter expeditions to Mount Paektu, complaining that the trips force them to spend up to $200 to endure temperatures as low as 20–30 degrees below zero.

A source in North Pyongan province told Daily NK recently that branches of party and workers’ organizations in the city of Sinuiju had started organizing winter expeditions to Mount Paektu last month.

While the regime portrays attendance on these expeditions as being “voluntary” and motivated by “a high degree of political fervor,” North Koreans view “nominations” for the expeditions as a form of political mobilization that they dare not refuse.…

On top of that, the expeditions present considerable challenges for their participants. The area of Ryanggang province where Mount Paektu is located gets frigid in the middle of winter—as low as 20–30 degrees below zero. The regime’s promotional language about experiencing “the spirit of the bracing winds” basically means braving extreme cold on the ascent up the mountain.

“When the wind whips by your frozen face, it feels like your skin is peeling off. Mount Paektu in the winter is not so much an expedition as a military exercise,” recalled a young person who returned from one such trip last month.…

“Many people don’t see the point of spending so much on a grueling experience and observe that under the circumstances, the best option is not to go. It’s not like this is the Wonsan Kalma Coastal Tourist Area,” the source observed.

But organizations at all levels are enthusiastically organizing expeditions as they race to prove their loyalty.

“Given the increasing focus on political projects nowadays, an expedition to Mount Paektu is becoming another yardstick for assessing a unit’s loyalty and political posture. As the higher-ups try to hold expeditions, the lower ranks are scrambling for reasons not to go,” the source said.

It has even become common for people to slip bribes to the organizing officials to have their names removed from the list of people recommended for an expedition.

“If not for the compulsory nature of organizational life, I honestly doubt anybody would want to go to Mount Paektu in the winter. The expeditions to the mountain used to be focused on learning revolutionary traditions. But now they’re mostly about units competing to prove their loyalty and members anxious to avoid being nominated,” the source said.