Man reveals what it’s REALLY like at a North Korean summer season camp

A man who attended a summer camp in North Korea as a teen has shared what it was really like to stay in the totalitarian country – revealing that kids were ‘indoctrinated’ and played games ‘to destroy the White House.’ 

In a first person piece for Business Insider, Russian man Yuri Frolov recalled the summers he spent in 2015 and 2016 at the Songdowon International Children’s Camp in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.

Yuri, who is now 25, said his interest in North Korea first piqued as a child after he saw a documentary about the communist dictatorship. 

He desperately wanted to see the country for himself, discovering the camp in Wonsan, North Korea, after doing some research online.  

‘I tried to find more information, so I subscribed to a group called “Solidarity with North Korea” on VKontakte — Russia‘s equivalent to Facebook,’ he explained in the piece. 

Russian man Yuri Frolov recalled the summers he spent in 2015 and 2016 at the Songdowon International Children’s Camp in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea 

Once in the group, he discovered a 15-day-long children’s summer camp offered by the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, which for only $300 included food, accommodation, all the facilities, plane tickets, and everything else.

‘I saw it as an opportunity to see North Korea for myself, so I asked my parents, who agreed to send me to Songdowon,’ he said.

Yuri traveled from St Petersburg, where he grew up, to Vladivostok, a city in the far east of Russia.

From there, he and the other children – all aged between nine and 15 – were met by some Communist Party officials where they traveled to North Korea – arriving first at Pyongyang, the capital city.

‘I was probably the only one traveling to North Korea to see this dystopia,’ he candidly admitted. ‘The others seemed to see it as a chance to go to the beach or play in the playground inexpensively.’

Yuri recalled the activities the officials took them on, which included war museums showing the captured American vehicles and the USS Pueblo, an American ship that was seized by the North Korea in the 1960s.

He also said they were often pushed into supermarkets to spend money, noting they were allowed to buy alcohol and cigarettes – with some of the young children on the camp ending up drunk.

Yuri said the staff at Songdowon were ‘very welcoming,’ to the kids, with most of the campers from Russia but others from Laos, Nigeria, Tanzania, and China.

A photo of a plane in Pyongyang, the capital city of North Korea in March 2016 taken by Yuri

Food is laid out for a birthday at the Songdowon International School Children’s Camp in 2018 in Wonsan, North Korea

Songdowon international children’s camp buildings, Kangwon Province, Wonsan, North Korea in 2012

While they spent time with the other children, the North Korean kids at the camp were largely separated from them.

‘I think that was deliberate, preventing them from talking with us about their experiences,’ he reasoned.

While many of the activities were fun, including beach outings, sandcastle-building competitions, and swimming, Yuri said there were also some ‘really weird rituals.’

‘We had to clean statues of North Korea’s former leaders,’ he revealed. ‘One morning, we woke up at 6am to clean the monuments of Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il.’

Yuri said the kids took part in many activities designed to ‘brainwash’ them, including singing propaganda songs about the North Korean Supreme Leaders and a computer game where your character, a hamster in a tank, had to destroy the White House.

While Yuri had attended the camp out of curiosity, he reported some of the children were influenced by the experience. 

‘One kid became so indoctrinated afterward that he joined the Communist Party in Russia and was always posting about North Korea,’ he recalled.

North Korea isn’t for those seeking a culinary experience either, with Yuri only eating rice, wedges, and bread, losing a lot of weight in his 15 days away.

National flags of North Korea and Russia are displayed in Pyongyang in June for Russian President Vladimir Putin’s summit with North Korea’s Kim Jong Un

Pictured: Russia’s President Vladimir Putin and North Korea’s leader Kim Jong Un attend an official welcoming ceremony at Kim Il Sung Square in Pyongyang

Yuri said that despite the camp being a ‘boring, miserable and overly controlled experience,’ he returned the following year as the Communist Party officials had already signed him up. 

‘It was a stupid decision to return, and I don’t know why my parents let me go,’ he admitted. ‘But I’d totally do it again.’

The Songdowon International Children’s Camp has been operating for nearly 30 years.

It was originally intended mainly to deepen relations with friendly countries in the Communist or non-aligned world. 

But officials say they are willing to accept youth from anywhere – even the United States. 

The camp is also open to North Korean children who achieve good grades.