Songdowon International Children's Camp

North Korean Summer Camp. The summer your children won’t forget

Songdowon International Children's Camp

Summer camp in ***********? It’s got one — and it’s got everything from giant water slides and a private beach to video games and volleyball courts. Oh, and, of course, a big bronze statue of the late leaders Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il surrounded by adoring children.

After some on-the-spot guidance from ***********’s new leader, Kim Jong Un, and a major face-lift, the Songdowon International Children’s Camp reopened Tuesday for this year’s flock of foreign — more than 300 young children and teenagers from ******, China, Vietnam, Ireland and Tanzania.

The campers spend the eight days cooking, swimming, boating and mingling with their North Korean peers. Though heavily subsidized by the government, the camp — plus a tour of Pyongyang — costs about $270 per foreign *****.

The camp, which has been operating for nearly 30 years, was originally intended mainly to deepen relations with friendly countries in the Communist or non-aligned *****. But officials say they are willing to accept youth from anywhere — even Canada.

The camp gives the participants an opportunity to see a country that remains a mystery to most outsiders, and *********** a chance to show off the best it can offer — sleeping in air-conditioned rooms with TVs and video games is a luxury most North Korean children can’t normally experience.

Still, teenagers have their own priorities.

“At the end there is a talent show,” said 19-year-old Linus Jamal Faustin, who came with a group of 16 from Tanzania’s Laureate International School in Dar es Salaam. “We are ready to show them all how to dance.”






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