Whatever you do in North Korea, DON’T get sick!

Welcome back to “whatever you do in North Korea”, where I talk about my very own odd, painful, or hilarious experiences I’ve gone through whilst in North Korea. This weeks edition I’ll cover whatever you do in North Korea, DON’T get sick! Here we go.

Back in September of 2015 I was leading the very first of our Grand National Day & Northeast tour where the group partakes in the DPRK national day celebrations in Pyongyang, then boards an Air Koryo flight to North Hamgyong province in the northeast of the country, and return by flight to Pyongyang back to China.

North Hamgyong province is the largest and poorest province in North Korea where the DPRK’s third largest city, Chongjin, is located as well as the incredibly scenic Mt. Chilbo regions. As fascinating as this is, the province is faced with a severely outdated road network and a crumbling infrastructure which sees frequent power cuts and no running water.

On the second morning of the group tour in Pyongyang, I woke up to an odd burning sensation around my left eye. At first, I thought I may have possibly rubbed it too often during my sleep and so didn’t honestly think too much of it. I gave it a good wash in the shower and later met my group in the Yanggakdo Hotel lobby, pumped and ready to kick off the day.

The senior acting Korean guide of my group at the time, Ms Sim, wasn’t a particular favourite of mine. We had worked together once before, and I found her to be abrupt, rude to curious tourists, and someone who was fonder of the word ‘no’ rather than ‘let me find out’. Although she was younger than me, these sorts of traits usually match guides who were trained during the 90s. Sometimes our travel partners in Pyongyang needed to rotate the not-so-great Korean guides around and so for this particular tour I drew the short straw.

It got to about noon that day where my eye began to swell and the burning pain was greatly increased. It was at this point I thought it would be better to have this looked at by a doctor down here in Pyongyang before we fly up to the northeast where there are practically no medical facilities.

I approached my junior Korean guide to confirm the afternoon itinerary so I could ask the driver to swing by the diplomatic compound and visit the Pyongyang Friendship Hospital. The hospital was built in 1986 and was intended for diplomats and other foreigners residing in Pyongyang. Whilst considered fairly modern for a hospital in North Korea, it can accommodate basic inpatient procedures or not serious illnesses.

Within a few moments I had Ms Sim stomping her feet towards me, then asking what’s the matter? I pointed my eye and said I want to see a North Korean doctor. Her immediate response was “Ohhh that’s very ugly! Don’t let the tourists see this, you’ll scare them”. Thanks for your assistance, Ms Sim.

We had the group scheduled to visit the Juche Tower after lunch, which then we agreed to have the driver drop me off at the gates of the diplomatic compound. As much as I tried pursuing Ms Sim to stay with the group, and have the junior guide assist me, Ms Sim persisted she would visit the hospital with me. Oh boy.

whatever you do in North Korea don't get sick

I took this photo whilst I was waiting in the bus at the Juche Tower so I wouldn’t ‘scare the tourists’.

We arrived at the gates, one of my previous experiences of entering the compound with an unauthorised Korean person resulted in giving a small bribe to the officer on guard. However, to Ms Sim’s credit, with just enough of her pouting she was let in, no bribes. I could tell the guy was tired of her.

We arrive at the entrance of the hospital and the lights were off. There’s enough sunlight outside to dimly light the lobby. We were greeted by the receptionists who asks for what we need in Korean. We explain my eye situation and she recommended to see the optometrist on the second floor. As we make our way up we saw the hospital wasn’t busy at all. This gave me some hope that we wouldn’t need to wait too long and possibly see the best doctor available.

We waited in the doctor’s office. There wasn’t much available other than an eye chart on the wall and a fairly old machine to test your vision. The doctor finally rocks up as he’s still putting on his white coat. A fairly young-looking lad. He takes a look at my eye and suggests that I need to see a dermatologist as the infection is related to my skin, and not the eye.

We shuffle down the hallway on the same floor, passing a lot more offices. We saw most of the staff sleeping at their desks. Ms Sim lets out a loud sigh to try and wake ‘em up. We arrived at the dermatologist department and it made the optometrist room look way more equipped. This office had only a desk, two chairs and a cabinet with nothing visible on top.

An older woman wearing the soviet doctors attire walks in. She takes a good look at my eye, and starts poking the inflamed skin with her fingers. By this stage it’s incredibly painful. She pokes at it a few more times which I couldn’t resist anymore and had to pull away. Both the doctor and Ms Sim were giving me puzzling looks

The doctor steps back, takes a moment to herself, then asks in Korean, which is translated to me in English by Ms Sim. “Did a butterfly bite your eye?”. It is by this stage I know I am well and truly fucked. The doctor has no idea, and even if she did, I doubt she has the correct medicine here to help.

She goes over to her cabinet, pulls out three ointments, squeezes each of them into a jar and mixes it. This gives the paste an unappealing dark yellow, snotty looking colour. She walks over and says this cream will immediately help to relieve the pain. What option do I have for now? She applies it. Holy hell, it hurt, and stinks.

As we finish up with my new oiled up eye, the doctor finishes our session and says by tomorrow my eye will be a lot better. I knew this was false hope, but I had to hold onto something. I told myself if by tomorrow morning it doesn’t improve, I’ll visit a foreign doctor based here before I board my flight up to Chongjin the following day.

It turns out, that evening was not my best evening in Pyongyang, and the next morning certainly goes down as one of my worst. As I woke up, I couldn’t open my left eye. So much mucus and puss had sealed it shut during my shitty sleep. I had to wash my eye, carefully peeling the dried gunk off my eyelashes so I could open my eye. This was not a pleasant experience.

I wore sunglasses to cover up my eye that morning, remember what Ms Sim said, we don’t want to scare the tourists. Although my tourist group did know about it and were understanding. I call my friend at the UNDP and he gives the contact of the doctor currently based there. I call the doctor and to my luck not only is he in Pyongyang, he said he’s available all day. I jump into a cab from the hotel, and make my way through the diplomatic compound gates. The guard at the main gates couldn’t care less and allowed me in.

I approach the UNDP compound but a guard based at their entrance is preventing me from entering. I tell him in shitty Korean I go to doctor, but he would have none of it. He starts gently pushing me off the property. I check my phone and the network is out. I was left with no other option but to shout the doctor’s name in hopes he would hear me. He steps out of the building, a tall African man who gives me the biggest smile and welcomes me onto the property. The guard allows me to enter.

He invites me into his clinic and the severe worries I went through that morning began to melt away. Now this is a clinic! Well stocked! Electricity! Things on desks! A PC! Wow! He shakes my hand and introduces himself. He’s Ugandan British and says he had been in North Korea for two years helping folks out in the rural countryside for the UN.

He takes a look at my eye and within a millisecond he diagnoses it as periorbital cellulitis. He explains it’s an acute infection of the tissues surrounding the eye, which may progress to orbital cellulitis with protrusion of the eyeball. Yikes.

He tells me that usually he can’t treat foreigners in North Korea with medical supplies already in the country as they’re reserved for North Koreans only. However, he said if what I had was left untreated it would potentially get worse. He gave me multiple antibiotics to take and said it should clear up in three days. What an absolute legend. Exactly three days later, whilst I was up in the northeast, my eye was totally clear of infection.

I felt incredibly lucky to catch the doctor and to be treated well for it that day. However, as time went on, tougher sanctions have been introduced in 2017 which prevent the UNDP and other NGOs based in North Korea from importing medicines that are necessary for them to help treat the people in need. It’s an absolute shame. This needs to be changed in the near future or else it will only complicate and punish those of the country that simply want to live, get a job, have a family and live happy. Here’s hoping for a brighter future.