Maung Ne Win - Kim Il-sung and Socialist Korea

Entering the New World

At around 11pm Beijing time, I was alone and quietly looking at the night view of Beijing from my room on the tenth floor of the Beijing Hotel.

The Beijing Hotel is located in the heart of the city, surrounded by Wanfuqing Road to the east and the world-famous Tiananmen Square to the west. I could see the city of Beijing, which was lit up with electric lights, clearly from my room. China, which shook the world with its events and actions, is the China of world-famous revolutionaries such as Mao Zedong, Zhou Enlai, and Zhou Enlai. China, which has the largest population in the world, the oldest culture, and the most deeply rooted in history ...

Now I have arrived in this land of China.

My watch shows that it is 9:15 am. Since I left Yangon, I have deliberately not set my watch to Myanmar time. Since Beijing is 1:30 am away from Yangon, it is now 10:45 pm Beijing time.

As I slowly sip the Peking beer that the room attendant brought me, my mind wanders endlessly.

Today, July 10, 1978, at 1:00 p.m., I left Yangon. The Civil Aviation Administration of China, now known as the CAAC, uses Trident jets. There were only two passengers on board from Yangon. One was me, and the other was a member of the Korean embassy returning to the embassy in Beijing. We were the only two passengers on the big jet, so at first I was a little bored.

Since the moment we took off from Yangon's Mingalardon Airport, the sky was covered with clouds. I looked up at the homeland that I could only see in a blur. As the plane climbed higher, the scenery of the homeland below disappeared.

Soon, a glass of fruit juice, candy, and chocolate were brought to me. The flight attendant also brought me two packs of five-pack cigarettes and a Chinese sliver, which were gifts from the CAAC. After drinking the fruit juice, I became tired of the strange sky where I could see nothing, and I fell asleep.

When I woke up one morning, I could see the ground. It had been over an hour since the plane took off.

Looking at the terrain, you can tell that you are in Yunnan, China. The mountains are rolling up and down, covered in lush green. They are not dry, barren mountains, but green mountains wherever you look. The view of these mountains is endless, and they are everywhere, surrounded by terraced fields.

The further into China you go, the more the above-mentioned scenes become apparent. The mountainous terrain is connected by terraced fields. If the slope is large, the terraced fields are large, the fields are small, and the slopes without any fields are just red, purple, and yellow rocks. I noticed one thing that was different. It was nothing else.

Almost every mountain has a footpath. Some of the highest mountains have wide roads between them. The rugged mountains have been tamed by plantations and roads.

It was almost 3pm when our plane landed at Kunming Airport. The flight from Yangon to Kunming only took about 2 hours. A flight attendant said in English, “We will be stopping in Kunming. Please collect your passport and wait in the lounge. Then we will have lunch.”

At the entrance to the Kunming Airport building, there are giant portraits of Chairman Mao and Chairman Hu Kuo-feng. The airport building doesn’t look big by any stretch of the imagination, but once inside, it’s actually three stories high. My Korean friend, who was traveling with me, had been there before, so he took the lead. At the entrance, two airport staff members came and took us to the lobby on the second floor.

Then, our passports were checked. He was a diplomat, so there was nothing special to do, but for me, who had an ordinary passport, I still had to fill out a declaration form given to me by a customs officer. Name, nationality, date of birth, and any valuables I was carrying, such as Chinese or foreign currency, watches, cameras, jewelry, radios, cassettes, typewriters, etc.

Luckily, I didn't have to fill up too much. I brought in 14 US dollars, a wristwatch, and a camera, which I was allowed to bring with me by the Myanmar government. According to the customs regulations of the People's Republic of China, these items must be taken back when leaving China.

The staff at Kunming Airport struggled to speak English, but were polite. On the form I filled out, I listed my occupation as "Correspondent of KCNA," and a customs officer, who looked to be in his 30s, asked what it meant. When I explained that it was a correspondent for the Korean Central News Agency, he nodded and said "Journalist" to himself.

Then we went up to the third floor for lunch. There were many Chinese passengers eating in the dining room. A pot of rice was placed on the table in the middle. They could add more rice as they wanted. They were domestic passengers, so the two of us went into a small room that had been set aside for us. We were the only two people sitting at a large table for six. The table was high and the chairs were low, so I had to sit with my back bent.

Soon the dishes arrived. Three meat dishes for each person, two fried leaves, a cup of soup, two dumplings, and a bowl of rice. We both ate them with sauce, not using any diplomatic customs. I started eating rice and my Korean friend started eating dumplings. Our tongues and taste buds were different. He bit into the dumplings and ate the noodles. I also put down the rice and ate the noodles. When he finished the two dumplings, he added rice and I finished a bowl of rice ( a Chinese bowl ) and ate the dumplings. Then the peaches were brought out. On a small plate, there was a large, red peach, a knife, and then a small towel.

On the way from Kunming to Beijing, there were about four dozen Chinese passengers. They lined up in front of the airport building, each carrying their luggage. Then, each of them boarded the plane in a line. There was no noise, no commotion, just a calm atmosphere.

According to my watch, which had been out of sync since leaving Yangon, the plane departed from Kunming at 4:30 PM Myanmar time. The flight attendant from earlier came to me and explained, “Now we’re flying to Beijing. We’ll be flying at an altitude of 10,000 meters and the flight time is two and a half hours.”

On the way from Kunming to Beijing, at a height of ten thousand meters, all the clouds passed under the plane. Above and to the side of the plane, the sky was the real blue world that people call the sky blue. It seemed to me that it was a soft, deep, and pure blue. Everywhere I looked, only blue was covered. The sky was still bright. I looked at the clouds. Cotton shops, large cotton piles, large cotton fields, cotton mountains, wherever I looked, I could only see a large painting of cotton-like white clouds. Throughout the entire journey, there was no darkness, the entire space was bright.

As the plane slowly descended towards Beijing, it became dark below. The electric lights of Beijing were faintly visible. They looked like vast forests of blue, white, and yellow-brown lights, like vast islands of lights.

At the Beijing airport, Mr. Kim Bo-min, Deputy Secretary of the Embassy of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, and Mr. Kim Jong-sin, a Korean correspondent in Beijing, were waiting to greet him. "We have been waiting for you for a long time," they greeted him.

The Beijing airport building is huge. As you walk up the steps of the jetty, you enter a large waiting room for incoming passengers. The departure and arrival schedules are all automated and work on their own. It is hot, so you can see the Chinese sitting there with their shirts off and their jackets on. In such a crowded place, apart from about 11 Africans, there is no one talking loudly. The airport staff are walking around doing their jobs, but they don't talk much, and you can't even hear the sound of their shoes.

My Korean friend took my passport and left the embassy. Mr. Kim, the Beijing correspondent for the Rodong Sinmun newspaper, the mouthpiece of the Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea, was smiling and friendly, but he did not speak English, so we continued to communicate with each other using gestures, an international language.

After the passport process was completed, Secretary Kim returned and sent his driver to fetch the suitcase. At that moment, we were able to talk. Secretary Kim had been in Beijing for over three years, and he spoke both English and Chinese. I was a bit of a news junkie.

“This morning, the opening ceremony of the Korean exhibition was held in Yangon.” “What exhibition?”

"The Korean Photo Book and Industrial Art Exhibition, I came straight to the airport from the opening ceremony."

“Good, our relations with Myanmar are good in every way. In fact, an education delegation led by Deputy Minister of Education Dr. Maung Maung Aye went to Korea.”

“I met the Deputy Minister at the opening ceremony of the exhibition.”

Secretary Kim translated everything I said to Reporter Kim. I continued speaking.

"Soon, our country's art troupe will come to you."

"Yes, there will be forty members. That's good, we'd like to see it too. Even the Burmese ambassador will be there, so he'll be back in Beijing before then."

"Where is the ambassador?"

“I’m in Pyongyang now, and I’ll be back this week to hand over my appointment letter. How long will you be in Korea? They’re really looking forward to you there.”

"At least three weeks"

"The longer the better. We welcome you from our country."

“Thank you, I’ll try to stay longer.” The driver said he had the box, so they got in the car. Reporter Kim said goodbye and left, saying he had a report to report to Pyongyang. As we got out, he said it would be a thirty-minute drive from the airport to the Beijing hotel where I would be staying.

I looked at Beijing from under the electric lights. The streets were wide. The trees were neatly planted. There was little traffic, but many bicycles. Secretary Kim gave me room 1030 on the tenth floor of the Beijing Hotel, asked for my passport to get my flight ticket the next day, and said goodbye.

It's 9:30 p.m.

I went to the counter and looked at my watch. It was 11pm Beijing time.

I have entered the new world without realizing it.