Pyongyang Metro - The secret subway

North Korea (known officially as Democratic People's Republic of Korea or DPRK) is well known as a secret state of human rights violations, famine, and nuclear aggression. But this isn't an international policy blog. This is one about transit. So let's talk about a fascinating rapid transit system that might not even exist: The Pyongyang Metro in North Korea's capital city.

Simon Bone's excellent Pyongyang Metro website has lots of information, pictures, maps, and news stories about this peculiar system. The city also has a tram/trolleybus system that pretty much runs on right-of-way since there are few cars in Pyongyang. Visitors to the city are often shown the Metro, but they all seem to make a 1 stop journey between the the same two stations and few pictures online show others. The stations shown are beautiful and are filled with patriotic music, large murals, all-female attendants, and (possibly staged) well-dressed people going in and out of the station. This raises suspicion that either the metro puts on a show for foreigners, is in disrepair, is not operating outside of showing foreigners due to cost or power shortages, or doesn't exist at all outside of the "show stations." Ok, so maybe the last one is a bit of a stretch, but this is a city that would have had the world's tallest hotel if only it wasn't a concrete shell. Take a look at some interesting links and see for yourself:

- A online travel site offers a partial tour of the subway
- Beautiful photos from a Russian site, but again, of the same two stations
- BBC reporter describes the metro "with old East German trains complete with their original German graffiti." No pictures show this, so perhaps the reporter saw the side of the metro citizens see.
- System map
- Strange video showing the metro, but of only one station
- This site reports to show some other stations, showing that it may not only be a prank on foreigners
- Photos that show another station
- Trip report from Last Known Location, mentioning people getting off a train only to get back on it again and a perfectly filled train and station that seemed to vanish immediately when the foreigners left...
- Some facts from subways.net