By Sunny Lee

BEIJING — There are two photo rules you — a foreigner — should abide by in North Korea. First, you shouldn't take a picture of a soldier. Second, you shouldn't aim your camera at a scene that projects North Korea as a poor country.

Those were the two warnings a Chinese tour group last week received before they arrived in North Korea. The group included a Chinese journalist, who works for a state-run newspaper.

The following is what the Chinese journalist saw in North Korea. We'll call the person Wang Li, a pseudonym, so as not to run afoul of the North's authorities in future visits to the Communist nation.

"Even though I am a journalist myself, the North Korea that I visited last week was very different from the one I normally read about in the newspaper," Wang summed up. "I was expecting a land full of robotic people, who were brainwashed. Perhaps, it had to do with the fact I had a very low expectation of the country. Overall, I felt that North Korea was similar to China in the early 1990s."

Any foreign tourist's experience in North Korea starts with a guide, who doubles as a minder. In North Korea, a tour guide is considered as a well-paying job. Wang's guide said she makes 100 yuan ($15) a day, which included tips.

That's a lot in a country where the average monthly income is about $1, according to a National Assembly report, prepared by the Grand National Party lawmaker, Yoon Sang-hyun, in October.

Wang became curious whether the guide could keep all the money for herself, or whether she had to hand it over to the government. So, he asked about it.

"Are you kidding?" The guide said. "Of course, that's my money. We're living in the 21st century!"

Indeed, outsiders often forget that North Korea is also living in the same 21st century. Wang's expectation that North Koreans were kept in the dark about what's happening in the outside world turned out to be wrong too. "Surprisingly, they keep up with things happening outside," said Wang.

Many North Koreans, Wang saw, had mobile phones, run on the Egyptian telecom company Orascom's 3G platform. "Some of them placed it on to their waist so that they could show it off. That's what Chinese people did before," Wang said.

While Wang was in North Korea, an "unforeseen" incident happened. An old Chinese man in his entourage saw a group of North Korean soldiers. He was so excited and immediately rushed toward them. He wanted to take a picture with them. The guide panicked and pulled the man back, giving a long harangue later to the entire group, reminding them of the "rules."

But after that episode, the free-willing Chinese tourists became more unruly, giving the North Korean minder more headaches. Wang was one of them. He slipped away from the group as much as possible, and explored North Korea on his own, entering a shop or an ally, striking up conversations with local North Koreans. One of them was a middle-aged North Korean woman. Wang asked:

"Which country do you hate the most?"

"Japan," answered the lady.

"Then?"

"America. But America is not as bad as Japan."

"What about South Korea?"

The lady made a gesture of waving up her hand, as if to dispel something. Without answering, she left. Perhaps, her gesture was the answer, Wang thought.

Even though North Korea is "people's paradise," Wang also learned that there are strictly different social classes present. People from Pyongyang have special pride. They are regarded as first-class citizens. The next is those who live in Shinuiju, considered to be a special economic zone in North Korea. Wang's tour guide was a graduate of an elite university in Pyongyang. But her original hometown was not Pyongyang. Wang heard the guide grumbling: "If I were from Pyongyang, I would have been able to work for the foreign ministry, not as a tour guide."

The sense of social hierarchy was gleaned from young women's preference for favorite candidates for marriage too. He should be a man from Pyongyang, with a college degree, and who is a member of the Workers' Party.

During the trip, Wang was most struck by what one North Korean said: "If you have money, anything is possible in this country."

"I never thought I would hear such words from a North Korean," mused Wang.

Even though North Korea is sheltered from the rest of the world, Wang saw the country opening up. "My pre-conceived notion of North Korea and what I actually saw in North Korea were very different. The people, for example, didn't look very unhappy either. If the outside world can give North Korea the right inducement, I think it will open up further, like China," Wang said, cautiously adding, "Of course, I only saw a part of North Korea. And it doesn't necessarily represent the whole country."

South Korean journalists are normally not allowed to visit North Korea under the current policy, imposed since May last year. "How could then South Korean journalists write about North Korea? I mean, how could they write about something that they haven't seen? I understand that North Korea doesn't allow South Korean journalists because they want to hide their sorry situation. But I don't understand why the South Korean government doesn't let its journalists visit North Korea. That's strange," Wand said.