A tourist has revealed what it’s really like to visit North Korea as she filmed the ‘dystopian’ wake-up call residents hear at 6am.
Zoe from Liverpool has spent the last 15 years travelling all over the world – first visiting North Korea in 2016, before dedicating her career to tourism in the country.
This week she gave her TikTok followers an insight into what it’s like staying in the city of Rason, a special economic zone near the borders of China and Russia, which is one of the few places where tourists can visit.
Taking to her account @zoediscoversnk, she captioned the now-viral clip: ‘Pov it’s 6am in North Korea.’
Filming from inside her hotel room, she said: ‘Don’t you love it when the morning music wakes you up like this.’
Turning her camera around, Zoe filmed the virtually empty city square in the morning fog, over which operatic music was blaring out.
In a subsequent room tour, she pointed out a TV on the horizon, saying it ‘plays things at night’.
The music in question appeared to be The Song Dedicated To My Fatherland – an official song of the East Asian country.
Zoe from Liverpool filmed the bizarre noise she heard from her hotel room in Rason, North Korea
The video has since racked up more than 35 million views – but people were baffled that Zoe was allowed to film in the notoriously private state.
They wrote: ‘My biggest question is what on planet earth are you doing there’;
‘That is SO dystopian’;
‘Girl what are you doing there’;
‘Girl I’m scared put us back inside’;
‘Is no one else wondering how she’s posting on social media from North Korea’;
‘Im sorry but the song is hitting hard idk.’
The travel obsessive also gave her followers a tour of her ‘very retro’ hotel room.
Turning her camera around, Zoe filmed the virtually empty city square in the morning fog, over which operatic music was blaring out
The video has since racked up more than 35 million views – but people were baffled that Zoe was allowed to film in the notoriously private state
‘This is one of my favourite hotels in Rason, actually it’s the best hotel in Rason,’ she said.
Trying out the beds, she described them as ‘very tough’, adding: ‘I don’t know if you heard me sit down on that, but it’s very hard and very tough, which you’ll find a lot in China and in Korea.’
She pointed out the furnishings in the room, including a bizarre lamp which also doubled up as a clock, and a chair, which she said was ‘much comfier’ than the bed.
Though she said it was ‘freezing cold’ outside, luckily her hotel room had ‘really good’ heating.
Moving on to the ‘very simple bathroom’, she said it had running hot water and a shower in the corner.
Western tourists were allowed back into North Korea in February for the first time since Covid-19 pandemic – but only into the remote city of Rason.
But according to the BBC, several tour companies have already said that trips have been cancelled until further notice.
Michael Palin also recorded the mysterious sound for his Channel 5 show in North Korea, which aired in 2018.
She also gave viewers a tour of her hotel room, and admitted the beds were ‘very tough’
The clip has since resurfaced on social media and many were freaked out by the ominous sound.
In the UK most people tend to set their own alarms for when they need to get up- and of course hit the snooze button a few times.
However, in Pyongyang, the capital of North Korea, waking up is an entirely different experience for locals as they are all awaken at the same time by a haunting sound.
For almost two decades, the residents have experienced an ‘eerie’ and ‘dystopian’-like wake-up call echoes through the streets.
At 6am, the haunting melody, which was composed by former Supreme Leader Kim Jong Il himself, plays into homes, businesses and streets.
Palin described the tune as ‘the world’s most unusual wake-up call’ that ‘you can’t avoid.’
Played through loudspeakers across the city, the song that plays daily was first broadcast in 2008, performed by the state-approved Pochonbo Electronic Ensemble.
In Pyongyang, the capital of North Korea , waking up is an entirely different experience for locals as they are all awaken at the same time by a haunting sound
Palin added: ‘This is the sound of Pyongyang, which is not the sound of any other city I’ve ever been in.
‘I first heard this, I think at 5am this morning, it’s like the music emanates from the whole city, I don’t know where it’s coming from. It’s a fusion of sound… it’s rather strange.
‘Without any of the other sounds of a city, screaming sirens, cars rushing round, none of that at all, so this sound you can’t avoid it.’
Social media users were creeped out by the haunting tune, with some saying it sounded ‘dystopian’.
One person took to YouTube: ‘Eerie. Sounds like a perfect soundtrack for a strange dystopian land, played throughout the city like that creates a fitting vibe.’
Another added: ‘I agree, looks like it could be the scene of a movie after an apocalyptic event.’
Someone else said: ‘That music would leave me dead inside every day waking up, my heart goes out to the people in North Korea.’
Another person on TikTok added: ‘But up close they sound just like frequencies, very depressing ones actually.’
This mysterious sound was once featured in the Channel 5 show Michael Palin In North Korea, which originally aired in 2018
Palin described the tune as ‘the world’s most unusual wake-up call’ that ‘you can’t avoid’
Social media users were creeped out by the haunting tune, with some saying it sounded ‘dystopian’
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un speaking at the ceremony of the Rakwon County offshore farm in South Hamgyong Province
Someone else added: ‘Designed to keep the citizens under a sense of foreboding’
Another added: ‘it is surrealism at its finest, creepiest and most frighting.. the music is keep the masses hypnotized.’
It originally featured in a 1971 opera, A True Daughter of the Party, in which a nurse sings longingly about meeting North Korea’s founder and ‘Eternal President,’ Kim Il Sung.
The song blares out every morning from the speakers of the Pyongyang Railway Station and is six-minutes and 30-seconds long.
Today, the track serves as a reminder of the firm grip Kim family’s continues to have on the country.
The Kim family, officially the Mount Paektu Bloodline, have ruled the country since 1948 as ‘supreme leaders’.
Three generations of the Kim family have ruled with absolute authority, using heavy repression and a system of patronage that ensures support from elites and the military.
North Korea is among the world’s poorest nations. Elite families hold much of the country’s wealth and exert heavy influence over the economy.
According to Amnesty International, the country has one of the world’s worst human rights records, having also been condemned by the United Nations and Freedom House