Strangely optimistic

Features
Date posted:  1 Nov 2005
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It’s 100 years since Korean revival prayer meetings began. Of all places, its roots are found deep inside North Korea. One of AsiaLink’s staff went inside this most persecuted of countries.

Sinuiju doesn’t have much to commend it. This once bubbly logging town turned industrial community now has few signs of life. Its buildings are colourless, its people exhausted. Our train crawled alongside rolling stock that looked like it had been bombed.

The railway tracks had fared little better. We were halfway through the 27-hour train journey from Beijing to the North Korean capital, Pyongyang. Crossing the border into this tightly controlled country, we immediately understood why so many North Koreans make the suicidal escape into China. This is a silent, eerie land.

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