Man reveals what it is REALLY like at a North Korean summer camp where kids were ‘indoctrinated’ and played games ‘to destroy the White House’

A man who attended a summer camp in North Korea as a teenager has opened up about what it was really like to live in the totalitarian country, telling how children were “indoctrinated” and played games “to destroy the White House.”

In a first-person piece for Business insiderRussian Yuri Frolov recalled the summers he spent in 2015 and 2016 at the Songdowon international children’s camp in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.

Yuri, now 25, says his interest in North Korea was first piqued when he saw a documentary about the communist dictatorship as a child.

He was eager to see the country for himself and discovered the camp in Wonsan, North Korea, after doing some research online.

“I tried to find more information, so I joined a group called “Solidarity with North Korea” on VKontakte — the Russian equivalent of Facebook,” he explains in the piece.

Once he was in the group, he discovered a 15-day summer camp for children offered by the Communist Party of the Russian Federation. For only $300, food, accommodation, all facilities, airfare and everything was included.

“I saw it as an opportunity to see North Korea with my own eyes, so I asked my parents. They agreed to send me to Songdowon,” he said.

Yuri traveled from St. Petersburg, where he grew up, to Vladivostok, a city in the far east of Russia.

From there, he and the other children—all between the ages of nine and 15—were met by Communist Party officials and traveled to North Korea, arriving first in Pyongyang, the capital.

“I was probably the only one who went to North Korea to see this dystopia,” he admitted candidly. “Everyone else seemed to see it as a chance to go to the beach or play on the playground for cheap.”

Yuri recalled the activities the officials carried out with them, including war museums displaying captured American vehicles and the USS Pueblo, an American ship seized by North Korea in the 1960s.

He also said they were often pushed into supermarkets to spend money, but were allowed to buy alcohol and cigarettes, which led to some young children in the camp getting drunk.

Yuri said the Songdowon staff were “very welcoming” to the children. Most of the campers were from Russia, but there were also people from Laos, Nigeria, Tanzania and China.

A photo of an airplane in Pyongyang, the capital of North Korea, in March 2016, taken by Yuri

Food is prepared for a birthday celebration at Songdowon International School Children’s Camp in 2018 in Wonsan, North Korea

Songdowon International Children’s Camp Buildings, Kangwon County, Wonsan, North Korea in 2012

While they spent time with the other children, the North Korean children in the camp were largely separated from them.

“I think that was intentional, to prevent them from talking to us about their experiences,” he reasoned.

While many of the activities were fun, such as trips to the beach, sand castle building competitions and swimming, Yuri said there were also some “very strange rituals.”

“We had to clean statues of former leaders of North Korea,” he revealed. “One morning we woke up at 6 a.m. to clean the monuments of Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il.”

Yuri said the children took part in many activities aimed at “brainwashing” them, including singing propaganda songs about North Korea’s supreme leaders and a computer game where your character, a hamster in a tank, had to destroy the White House.

Although Yuri came to the camp out of curiosity, he said some children had been affected by the experience.

“One of the boys became so indoctrinated afterward that he joined the Communist Party in Russia and was constantly posting about North Korea,” he recalled.

North Korea is also not for those looking for a culinary experience. Yuri ate only rice, wedges and bread and lost a lot of weight in the 15 days he was away.

The national flags of North Korea and Russia are displayed in Pyongyang in June ahead of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un

Pictured: Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un attend an official welcoming ceremony at Kim Il Sung Square in Pyongyang

Yuri said that despite the camp being a “boring, miserable and overly controlled experience,” he returned the following year as the He had already been reported by Communist Party officials.

“It was a stupid decision to come back, and I don’t know why my parents let me go,” he admitted. “But I would absolutely do it again.”

The Songdowon International Children’s Camp has been in existence for almost 30 years.

Originally, the main aim was to deepen relations with friendly countries in the communist or non-aligned world.

But officials say they are willing to accept young people from anywhere — even the United States.

The camp is also open to North Korean children who get good grades.