@Andre, @Gag: there were a plenty of those 1974 Volvo 144, not only in Pyongyang, also in other towns. All of them were used as taxis. I haven't seen one with a yellow, so a private plate.
It's wrong, what's said on the Flickr-page! None of them is in mint condition, all are rolling zombies, repaired uncountable many times. It would be interestting to check their mileages.
Unfortunately we couldn't make a taxi-ride in them, although we asked for that. It should have been rather possible than to make a trip in the -much more scrappy trolley-buses (mainly selfmade) and trams (Skoda and Tatra, mainly bought used from East German towns).
This is not possible for foreigners, as a visit of regular shop for the local habitants and especially the legendary private Tong-Ri-market.
Still some of the DPRK-pecularities... Maybe it will change in the future.

The Dacias we've seen, were also used as taxis. And -this is the joke about the first pic and those, I will add now- for kids



No kidding, these Dacias are used for traffic- and first driving-lessons for teenager besides on of the schoolchldren's palaces (we've been to an older, smaller one, not the big http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mangyongdae_Children's_Palace

They are out of registration and didn't pass the madatory technical test, so they only can be used on this ground, not any more on public roads.

From http://www.imcdb.org/movie.php?id=2162595





So what did you mean?

Hopefully you don't bother about the missing chronological order. I'm busy with other things, so right here, right now, the impressions from the return trip. Here those from the Sheremetyevo-airport in Moscow:

Pyongyang Film Studios:



Korea 1920ies:



China 1930ies:



Japan 1940ies:




South Korea 1950ies:

More from the Film Studios:

German church:



German house:



Annother German house:



German house no.3 (but sometimes named French house):






Swedish house:






Of course: a heavy nitpicking-attacked discussion in the best IMCDb-style has increased over there, too

The only vehicle, we could spot there:



With a detail specially for rjluna2:




Other pics made for rjluna2:

Restaurant:



In Wonsan (for illuminating a statue of HIM):







The blue lamp in front of this motorway-resthouse:



Annother bulb on the USS Pueblo:



A propos: the DPRK is not only the country of high heels and ice lollys, it's also the country of enegry saving bulbs. The classic noremal one have disappeared totally.

Annother restaurant:



Flashing in intervals (sorry, the other pics of it failed):



In the bad times, the light in the top of the Juche-tower was the only light, which was on in Pyongyang by night. But today the rest of the town is illuminated, too.



Directly underneath it:




In the subway (when the homemade and Chinese trains became too old and unreliable, they have bought in the late 90ies used trains from the U-Bahn from West-Berlin):







The lights in the Karaoke-bar in our hotel:



The girls have sung

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kts3Pbp4LgM
and
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gkM_LXUCMeA



City lights of Dandong (the first Chinese town you reach by train on the route Pyongyang-Beijing:



Incredible many buildings in China were illuminated with all kind of coloured blinking-lights, but my camera is too cheap and too weak to make perfect night-photos out of rolling train or other vehicle.

@ingo: Vielen Dank!

With your permission, I would like to post some of these pictures in the Lighting Gallery website. Of course, I can show you which page I created for you

@ingo: Does the clock next to the tunnel entrance indicate the time between trains, like on ex-Soviet metros?

@Gag: yes. But this one hasn't worked properly. When I took this pic, a train just has passed a few seconds before, but it didn't went back immediately to O:00.

@rjluna2: your've welcome. Of course you can use the pics for your homepage. For that I have a better suggestion: because all these pics are only upploads on Imageshack, they appear there only for a while.
So it would be better, if I would send the pics - those and several other "made for rjluna2"-pics are still in my computer- directly to you via email. Then you can keep them by yourself.

We've seen, that many experiences,portrayed in older books and blogs about visitis there, are outdated. And that many suff, written by people, who never had been there, is bullshit.
Just the most obvious thing: the people there are living normal lives. Sure, there are several DPRK-unique pecularities, but the daily life is not too far away from the daily life of the people in other countries.

Sometimes it's said, that over there only a mass of party-soldiers are living, and everyone is busy with thinking about HIM, the revolution, the socialism and the enemyship to the USA etc.pp

And that there's famine everywhere, no traffic, no lights except for the monuments of HIM and so on. Well, there were such times in the past, after the 2nd half of the 90ies, but this has changed. Especially in the last 1/2, 3/4 years a lot has changed, according to the reports of people, who had been there then and today again.

I have already save those pictures that you uploaded. I'll take care of the rest now

@Ingo I've watched a few documentaries/news reports on North Korea and Kim Jong Il and that's basically what they say, that the government spends all its money on the military while the population starves, that it's the most secretive country on Earth and one of the worst for human rights, although like you say this may have been more what things were like 10 years ago and things may have improved a little. But, although you've actually been there yourself and I haven't, maybe you only saw what they wanted you to see and it's quite different outside the capital city?

Anyway, can you describe more about your visit? Were you allowed to go around by yourself or did you have to stick with tour guides all the time? What happened when you entered the country, did you have to go through checkpoints etc. What were you not allowed to do? Did you see anything outside of Pyongyang?

Puh, so many questions to answer...

These documentaries/reports, etc., you are referring, are nearly completely outdated now (I have collected the very most literature in German about the DPRK before the trip). Even those from 2010 and 2011 are not actual any more.
Although the political/progandistic superstructure is still existing and will not touched anyhow, the daily life of the common people is not too far away from those in other countries. Yes, Northkoreans are interested to earn money to give their families a good life and have a good life for their own. no, they aren't busy all day and night with readling and learning the propaganda-"bibles".
No, there are other lights in the towns except those for the monuments (although they still have big problems with the energy-supply).

btw: this is the 2012 World Press Photo: http://www.worldpressphoto.org/photo/2012-damir-sagolj-dl-1?gallery=2634

Yes, there are glass-panes in the windows, yes, there are gas stations existing, yes, a lot of people have mobile phones (although only usable inside the DPRK and although foreign mobile phones are forbidden)

A propos, here something DPRK-unique:



Every foreign mobile phone will be packed in this way by entering the country. Mine -visible here- was hold by our tour guide until the leaving. She gave it back at the train station with the instruction, not to open it until the border control is over, so at best by entering China.

Yes, we've seen a lot around Pyongyang, because we had booked a 10-day-trip (usually the tourist stay there for around 4-5 days). We had been at the DMZ in Panmunjom, in Hamhung, Kaesong, Kumgang-San (with a walk up to the mountain), Nampo and Wonsan (with two times swimming in the East-Sea (named Sea of Japan outside the DPRK)

The two guides alwys had been with us. An older guy with a large Germany-experience (student in the DDR, working in the ministery of foregin affairs and timewise for a German NGO since then) and a younger lady, a young mother from the English department from the ministery. The fmilies of both are working there, too, so their connections are very good.

The border-controls by entering the country was easy going, less elaborate than at the US-border or other non-EU-countries. Just sealing the mobile phones is a big thing. The rest of the luggage was not checked.
The controls by leaving the country (we rode by train via Shinuiju and Dadong to Beijing was not that bad, too. Not that strict, as it's said and not that strict, as it was at the DDR-border back then.

Several things weren't allowed, I told you about the restrictions. If you want to know all details, just send me an email. I've kept the pdf-document with them.
As we came there well-prepared and with a quite large travelling-experience (for me it was country no.45 and for my fellow country no.125), we followed them. Which made the trip very relaxing, interesting and impressive - because we had respected the taboos and haven't made any comment about obvious discrepancies between reality and official saying and about real absurd items, we had a relly good relationship to our guides, nearly as friends.
If you behave like this, you have much more advantages. You get much more informations and will make more intensive talks, as if you would act arrogant and narrow-minded.

By the way, South Korea also uses the term East Sea and wants it to be adopted internationally. Wikipedia says that the DPRK's preferred term is "East Sea of Korea", while South Korea just uses "East Sea".

Hi ingo I have setup an album for you at Ingo's Sighting. I will up load some more picture in later time

@ingo: A book about North Korean film has just been published, North Korean Cinema: A History by Johannes Schönherr. According to the only blog in the world about North Korean films, it's the only book about North Korean films you need to read.

@Gag: oh, I didn't know that book. But it's quite expensive, at the time I don't want(should) not that money for it. The book "Automobiles in North Korea" is also expensive...

When I'm someday able to resize the pics, my fellow had made, I can contribute several shots of trolley buses, trams and railway-locomotives. My camera (and me, too) mainly failed with snapshots out of the rolling bus or train.

Shhh....t, not fully visible It's interesting to count the stars on the side. Each means "50.000 km accident-free"



Unique for the DPRK



All (shown at the gate of the agricultural cooperative, we had visited, as a daily reminder, when the farmers went to the fields:












And to disprove the common rumours: yes, they have gas stations:

From the exhibition in Panmunjom:



Unfortunately it was allowed to make a pic of the official car of the local commander: Mercedes 500 SEL [W126]

Now to our running gag of that tour. Caused indirectly by IMCDb, expecially by trying to make "made for 130rapid"-pic.

It was the loud shouting "Taaatraaa!!!" with a following jump through the bus to try to get a pic

The first -already mentioned- view of a Tatra 613 with a private plate(!),



just at our first photo-stop at the Arch of Triumph on the way from the airport to the town-centre was really a shock. The shock-effect continued the following days, when we spotted more and more black 613 with private plates. Very annoying was, that all of them appeared suddenly, so that the most pics failed The other weren't really better:



On the last pic was the private registration no.99

As already mentioned in the database ( http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autobahn-Behelfsflugplatz
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Highway_strip )


A propos Behelfslandebahn: they exist in Northkorea, too. Here on the N7 between Hamhung and Wonsan:


And between Kaesong and Pyongyang:




Oouughh, rjluna2, have you noticed this Wiki-pic?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:C130_Hercules_taxidriving_on_Autobahn_DoD_DF-ST-84-09439.jpg