" wrote:
On 13/05/2013 20:41, Recliner wrote:
" wrote:
On 13/05/2013 13:08, Recliner wrote:
On Mon, 13 May 2013 12:54:14 +0100, Roland Perry
wrote:

In message , at 11:04:42 on
Mon, 13 May 2013, Recliner remarked:
There's a pedestrian on the motorway in this pic, but the main lesson
is how drivers have to weave their way along the broad highway to
avoid craters:

So the problem seems to be a lack of tarmac paving the road, rather than
just having crushed stone?

Even when there is tarmac, it tends to be in poor condition (it's
probably another thing they're short of, as well road building
machines). Concrete roads probably do badly in North Korea's weather
(very cold winters, hot summers) and need more maintenance than they
can provide.

How was the road to Kaesong, however, considering its importance from a
military and political perspective?

The wide, straight roads themselves seem to have been well engineered
originally, with plenty of viaducts, bridges and tunnels through the
mountains, but the funds to keep them in good condition seem not to be
there (they're probably diverted to creating more leaders' statues and
grand buildings). As most people aren't allowed to travel, it probably
isn't an issue for the population at large, but it does seem odd that
by far the worst road we travelled on was the one connecting the main
port and the capital. We did see some freight trains, so that may be
how most goods move.

I have also seen some footage of freight trains in the Nampo area on
videos about the building of the Western Sea Barrier.

I have not heard of many cases where tourists have visited Nampo, I must say.

Yes, we drove along the sea barrage, saw the video in the visitor centre,
looked at the sea locks, etc. As a ship was passing through, we couldn't go
over the locks themselves. The road and railway line over the barrage
didn't seem to be heavily used.

We noticed what looked like a new comms cable being installed along the
road to the barrier. It was being done by thousands of volunteers (whose
bikes were parked along the road), hand digging a ditch and laying the
cable in it. No culvert, just the cable dropped in the probably not very
straight ditch.


I was under the impression that Nampo as a city had a strategic
importance and thus would be off limits to outsiders.

There's four pics of the Nampo West Sea Barrage in this set:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/recline...770649/detail/

Incidentally, the Korean "West Sea" is called the Yellow Sea by others. Its
East Sea is called the Sea of Japan by others.