# North Korea Journal

Canonical: https://www.bookquiver.com/michael-palin/north-korea-journal/9781786331908

![North Korea Journal](https://quivercdn.com/covers/hutchinson/michael-palin/north-korea-journal_978-17-8633-190-8-e5f26711.jpg?v=2026-09-21%2002%3A52%3A11)

- Book: [North Korea Journal](https://www.bookquiver.com/michael-palin/north-korea-journal) ([North Korea Journal.md](https://www.bookquiver.com/michael-palin/north-korea-journal.md))
- Authors: [Michael Palin](https://www.bookquiver.com/michael-palin)
- Publisher: hutchinson
- ISBN: 978-17-8633-190-8
- Pages: 176
- Published: 2019-09-19
- Language: en_GB
- Binding: Hardcover

## Description

THE BOOK BEHIND THE HIT DOCUMENTARY A glimpse of life inside the world’s most secretive country, as told by Britain’s best-loved travel writer. In May 2018, former Monty Python stalwart and intrepid globetrotter Michael Palin spent two weeks in the notoriously secretive Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, a cut-off land without internet or phone signal, where the countryside has barely moved beyond a centuries-old peasant economy but where the cities have gleaming skyscrapers and luxurious underground train stations. His resulting documentary for Channel 5 was widely acclaimed. Now he shares his day-by-day diary of his visit, in which he describes not only what he saw – and his fleeting views of what the authorities didn’t want him to see – but recounts the conversations he had with the country’s inhabitants, talks candidly about his encounters with officialdom, and records his musings about a land wholly unlike any other he has ever visited – one that inspires fascination and fear in equal measure. Written with Palin’s trademark warmth and wit, and illustrated with beautiful colour photographs throughout, the journal offers a rare insight into the North Korea behind the headlines.