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The Farthest Place on Earth: North Korea - Truths and Myths From the Most Isolated Country in the World
Bridging the gap between East and West, The Farthest Place on Earth is an eye-opening, firsthand account of daily life in the most secretive, reclusive country on Earth.
When it comes to North Korea, most people prefer to look in rather than out. Longtime travel guide Avraham Tashach is not like most people. A seasoned veteran with hundreds of tours in his thirty-year career as a professional guide, Tashach truly believed he had seen everything this world had to offer. But when the opportunity came to journey into the only lasting totalitarian communist regime in modern times, he expected to find fear and hostility. He expected to find camps and armed forces.
What he found was a different North Korea.
In The Farthest Place on Earth, Tashach uses a novelist’s compelling narrative and a historian’s precision to substitute the narrow, one-sided perspective of North Korea as a solely Orwellian society into a complex, multi-layered and hospitable—albeit foreign—country.
Through eight excursions between 2016 and 2018—a chaotic period in North Korea’s relationship with the Western world—The Farthest Place on Earth takes readers on a street-level exploration of North Korea’s cities, villages, and unique culture, as seen from a Western perspective. Tashach is not afraid to break myths and confront hard truths about the country and its portrayal in Western culture. From bonding with local guides over shared experiences to donating a truckload of food to rural villages in the middle of a flash flood, this book shares incredible, unheard-of stories from the most isolated and possibly misunderstood country on Earth.
When it comes to North Korea, most people prefer to look in rather than out. Longtime travel guide Avraham Tashach is not like most people. A seasoned veteran with hundreds of tours in his thirty-year career as a professional guide, Tashach truly believed he had seen everything this world had to offer. But when the opportunity came to journey into the only lasting totalitarian communist regime in modern times, he expected to find fear and hostility. He expected to find camps and armed forces.
What he found was a different North Korea.
In The Farthest Place on Earth, Tashach uses a novelist’s compelling narrative and a historian’s precision to substitute the narrow, one-sided perspective of North Korea as a solely Orwellian society into a complex, multi-layered and hospitable—albeit foreign—country.
Through eight excursions between 2016 and 2018—a chaotic period in North Korea’s relationship with the Western world—The Farthest Place on Earth takes readers on a street-level exploration of North Korea’s cities, villages, and unique culture, as seen from a Western perspective. Tashach is not afraid to break myths and confront hard truths about the country and its portrayal in Western culture. From bonding with local guides over shared experiences to donating a truckload of food to rural villages in the middle of a flash flood, this book shares incredible, unheard-of stories from the most isolated and possibly misunderstood country on Earth.
406 pages, Kindle Edition
Published October 13, 2024
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
February 22, 2025
Very enjoyable and quite thoughtful. Although I do think that this book is mostly about the charmed life of North Koreans who live in Pyongyang, it does offer an interesting read about a topic that not a lot of people see. I liked the emphasis the author put on making the people he met into real people and not just people who were part of a show and how he talked about how he himself and other members of his group were caught up in the personality cult while they were there because it was so powerful. That’s pretty fascinating.
May 11, 2026
The Democratic People's Republic of Korea, more commonly known as North Korea, easily has a notorious reputation for being one of the most oppressive nations in the world, someplace where I and certainly no other sane human would ever want to live. Israeli travel guide Avraham Tashach decided in 2016 to go on a tour to the nation, culminating in an account of his experience, The Farthest Place on Earth: North Korea - Truths and Myths From the Most Isolated Country in the World.
The author's preface--which he suggests is "more than just a prelude"--states that the fall of the Soviet Bloc left North Korea as one remaining "reserve," with his book expressing and reflecting the worldview of the North Korean middle class with whom he developed direct relationships and the "truth" as they saw it. His book also seeks to create cracks in the hard but thin shell around both halves of the Korean nation, which was a victim of the Second World War and an even greater victim of the Cold War. He mentions the Six Day War in Israel, not to mention the Vietnam War that occurred due to fear of the domino effect, and notes the minimum military retirement age of 40, when he started going on world tours.
In February 2016, it was suggested the author go on a tour of North Korea, and he mentions tours of Bucharest and Budapest a few years before the collapse of communist rule.
He details the process of getting approval for the trip, noting strict instructions and watching YouTube videos for preparation. He discovered he would be in the country on April 15, the birthday of Kim Il-Sung, North Korea's first supreme leader, noting the nation's history and hearing news early in 2016 of the executions of the country's various leaders and the sentence of an American student to prison at the time.
When he left in April, he took Air Koryo, North Korea's national airline, one of the alleged "worst" airlines in the world, to the country, but discovered it wasn't that bad. He had a decent experience at Pyongyang Sunan International Airport, and got instructions not to desecrate photos of leaders due to things like sitting on them or throwing them into trash bins, and told not to photograph military officers or installations--he also got a warning about putting his hands into his pockets.
He notes that how unlike anywhere else in the world, there is no signage showing company names on office buildings, no advertisements, no commercial slogans, no signs of any banks, how restaurants and stores don't show their wares for passersby to see, and how instead there are endless painted murals and propaganda boards in the streets glorifying the nation. He describes Mansu Hill, a landmark in the North Korean capital, and notes the end of his first day at Koryo Hotel.
On the second day, Tashach notes that North Korea's citizens ranked themselves second in the world in the national happiness index next to China, denoting to him an alternate reality. He discusses Juche, the guiding ideology of North Korea, formulated by President Kim Il-Sung with the goal to make his country a self-reliant nation in terms of defense, economy, and culture, alternatively called Kimilsungism. The Kumsusan Palace of the Sun is described, the residence of Kim Il-Sung, converted into a mausoleum after his death. Kim Il-Sung's biography is given through North Korean and foreign eyes, with his father having been a Christian pharmacist, and how he became part of a personality cult--although he considered his people to be his "god."
His son Kim Jong-Il's biography is given as well, and how he stood against foreign anti-socialist onslaught, with divergent stats for deaths due to the famine in North Korea from 1994-98. Tashach notes how permission was asked to photograph the North Koreans, and how in many cases they requested to be part of his photographs. Kim Il-Sung visited Sukarno in Indonesia in 1965, with a flower named after him, the Kimilsungia; likewise, his son received a flower named after him as well, the Kimjongilia. The Juche Tower is described, built in the Juche Year 70 (1982) to commemorate seven decades of Kim Il-Sung's leadership. During independence day celebrations, the author got a certificate affirming that he was born in the year North Korea was established, and he recalls historical sites he visited across the world in the past.
Tashach discusses the Ryugyong Hotel, a hotel begun by foreign investors that turned out to be a dud. He discusses the Victorious War Museum celebrating North Korea's "victory" over America in the Korean War, and mentions the seize of the SS Pueblo on January 23, 1968 that injured several American crewmen and killed one. Other sites he visited include Mangyondae, now a ghost town where Kim Il-Sung was born, and the Arch of Triumph celebrating the Korean victory over the Japanese. In Pyongyang, soldiers were occupied with non-military activities like roadbuilding, and Mount Myohyang is a mountain declared a nature reserve for summer recreation, with the Hyangsan Hotel nestled among the mountains in the same reserve.
Pohyon-sa is a Buddhist temple with a lone monk that touted alleged freedom of religion in the country, although without visible devotees. The International Friendship Exhibition was the highlight of the visit to the nature reserve, with North Korea lacking parallel roads. The world has different views of North Korean military strength, in terms of size the fourth largest in the world with 1.1 million soldiers and accounting for 22-24% of the Gross National Product; the country's tourist guides really emphasize the military. Songun is based on the idea of self-reliance, Juche, with the state being an essential condition for the realization of the socialist national and cultural ideology, defense of the state being the main priority.
Tashach talks about the road heading from Pyongyang southwards towards the border and demilitarized zone, also the road to Seoul, the South Korean capital, and the most important highway in Korea as it also leads through Kaesong, the most important city in Korean tradition, the road being called the Reunification Highway. In North Korea, although the government controls everything, shopkeepers enjoy incentives linked to their results, the beginning of a type of private commerce. He visited Panmumjom, trapped in the heart of the DMZ on the northern side of the border, and the location of the talks that ended the Korean War. Kaesong was the capital of Korea for more than four centuries during the Koryo Dynasty (936-1392).
The author says he came from a Polish background, a working-class family whose archetype inspired Karl Marx's Communist Manifesto. Kimchi is described as the Korean "national food," a side dish made from fermented and pickled vegetables. Various UNESCO sites include the Sonjuk (Bamboo) Bridge, and the Songgyungwan Confucian Temple. Confucianism is a Chinese philosophy dating back the sixth century BC, recorded by Kung Fu Tse (Confucius') disciples. The Korean belief and worship system is similar to that of China, with religion Eastern Asia not organized and dogmatic but rather comprising an assortment of beliefs, myths, rituals, and customs.
Tashach visited the double tomb of King Kongmin and his wife, the mausoleum of King Wang Kon, and the Western Sea Barrier. Otto Warmbier is mentioned again, with his alleged purpose of coming to North Korea being to offend them, with rumors that President Obama had a hand in his visit--Warmbier had stolen a poster as well. While Western sources say that Kim Jong-Il's mother died of childbirth complications, it was later with the birth of another child. The author's first visit concluded with his departure from the international airport, which has just one international flight per day, at the scheduled time, to China.
He saw North Korea as a functioning country, not up to Western standards, although he visited many others that had similar or worse levels of poverty. Tashach would see another ad offering another tour to North Korea that he took advantage of, around May 2016 when the seventh Congress of the Workers' Party of Korea occurred, during which the new president Kim Jong-Un had trouble consolidating his leadership. More tourist facts of North Korea are given, with Big Brother seeing everything, and the nation's ultimate goal of seeing the injustice of the division of the single homeland corrected.
The next tour was led by the Chinese Uri tourism company, with Tashach describing Pyongyang as the "capital of the revolution," and how North Koreans aren't allegedly "cold and depressed," citing Japanese colonialism of the peninsula. The subsequent establishment of North Korea and South Korea by Syngman Rhee in the latter nation mucked agreements of a unified Korea when the Cold War began. The author mentions a beer festival and talks about scaremongering about North Korea's nuclear weapons, although it was actually America that introduced them into the peninsula in 1958.
In the realm of healthcare, North Koreans describe a "complete health basket" and note they aren't familiar with Western medicine, likewise in housing, clothing, and food despite a collective memory of horror from death by starvation. During his second trip, Tashach describes his first sighting of a gas station in the country, considered an "attraction." The author visited Wonsan, the Agricultural University, and Ulim Waterfall, discussing Ariang, a three-part folk song about the three components of Korea: the south, the north, and the diaspora.
He revisited several sites in Pyongyang and a supermarket, hearing that homosexuality was taboo in North Korea, which was socially conservative. Then he traveled to Myohyang, and discussed Kim Jong-Suk, Kim Il-Sung's wife who was born in northern Korea under Japanese occupation. He discusses rumors that his tour group was only seeing what the North Koreans wanted to show them, believing instead that his group was seeing what they didn't want to show them. His tour concluded with a visit to the Mansudae Art Gallery, and then a flight to Beijing.
Then Tashach toured Manchuria before returning to North Korea in the Fall of 2016, revisiting Pyongyang, the Museum of Victory, Mansudae Hill, and the DMZ. One new site mentioned is the Mansudae Production Studios, the brainchild of Kim Jong-Il when he was still an heir apparent. Tashach mentions that Israeli ideology is like Juche, allegedly of self-reliance, but with foreign help, especially America's more so today than anytime else. Other sites he visited include the Children's Palace and the port city of Nampo, and he watched a musical about North Korea. The current president, Kim Jong-Un, prioritizes the interests of the people and allegedly loves and respects them to translate their dreams into reality, proposing supposed economic reforms and meeting with Donald Trump in his first term. Tashach went back to the DMZ and then to the Sci-Tech Museum.
The author had yet another tour in October 2016, around the time he had knee surgery, and revisited several sites. He notes that the train stations were clean but not worthy of visits, going back to the DMZ and Children's Camp. A new site he visited was the Three Toms of the Kaguryo Dynasty in Kangso, and he discusses a kindergarten at a community center where the children are told to keep right when walking in public areas. His trip concluded with a visit to a karaoke club.
Tashach went on yet another trip in the spring of 2017, after Donald Trump began his first term as president and met with Chinese president Xi Jinping, believing North Korea to be a threat. During this visit, Ryongmong Road was constructed to commemorate April 15th celebrations, with the author noting that Kumusan, Mansudae Hill, the house where Kim Il-Sung was born in Mangyungda, the Flower Exhibition, and Moran Hill--which he describes in detail--were especially conspicuous; the Kimilsungia and Kimjongilia were used as decorations. Tashach had an easy time calling his friends and family back in Israel, although in the opposite direction to North Korea, things were more difficult. He had trouble at the border with China given the lack of English-speakers, although when entering the country he had gone "back to civilization." He describes the Potemkin village, a synonym for an external facade intended to make a situation look better than it is.
During his next visit on September 17, Tashach notes a meeting President Trump had with Kim Jong-Un around the time South Korea elected a new president, Moon Jae-in, and Otto Warmbier was released albeit in a vegetative state, dying six days later. On this trip, the author noticed the seats on his flight half empty, and afterwards called his relatives in Israel to assure them he was okay. He visited a pub and the Workers Party Foundation Monument, also describing the features of the North Korean flag, visiting a school as well. On September 18, he landed at the Ben Gurion Airport, hearing about travel risks to North Korea, and then of a new program on October 4th.
Around that time, President Trump called Kim Jong-Un "Little Rocket Man," resulting in a verbal altercation between America and North Korea's leaders, although he and the leaders of the north and south portions of Korea would have summits in 2018. On May 5th, Tashach visited the International Friendship Museum at the Myohyang nature reserve, went on a night tour boat ride on the Taedong river, and had a less-drawn-out border inspection at Sinuiju.
In 2018, President Trump and Kim Jong-Un met in Singapore for more talks, with Tashach revisiting more old sites. After breakfast one morning, there was a clothing inspection before a visit to the Kumsusan, with Ruhakana Rugunda, the prime minister of Uganda, visiting North Korea. The author visited the 1st of May Stadium--the largest stadium in the world--for a spectacular show that Kim Jong-Un opened. Then he went to Pyongsong, the largest satellite city around the capital, known as North Korea's "Silicone Valley," and home to the North Korean Center for Nuclear Research. He returned to Pyongyang to see a circus, noting that the citizens are mainly intolerant towards deliberate provocative behavior, and states that his tours of the nation were powerful and special experiences.
On February 27th, 2019, President Trump and Kim Jong-Un met in Hanoi, Vietnam for more talks, with Tashach mentioning later events like the COVID pandemic and Russia's war with Ukraine. He cites the film The Truman Show, where the producer told Jim Carrey's character, "There's no more truth out there than there is in the world I created for you. The same lies. The same deceit."
The final section discusses the Korean peninsula's history, starting with the Gojoseon Dynasty before the birth of Christ, going to the Three Kingdoms (Goguryeo, Silla, and Baekje), the Silla dynasty, the Koryo/Goryeo Dynasty, and the Joseon Dynasty. From 1895 to 1905, Russia and China fought for control over Korea, ending with Japan annexing the peninsula, during which over a million people were killed. Korea would be liberated from Japanese occupation, the peninsula divided after the Second World War, with Syngman Rhee leading the South and Kim Il-Sung leading the North during the Korean War, America and its allies aiding Rhee in fear of the communist bogeyman and domino theory. America had pledged that the use of nuclear weapons against Japan in the Second World War was a one-time event, and has kept to its word since then. North Korea has a different perspective on its history and world, hating the peninsula's division and ultimately wanting reunion.
In the end, The Farthest Place on Earth, in spite of endless repetition of the author's visits to the same sites of places in North Korea and injecting many personal things, is a good book on the despised and enigmatic nation, really giving a good perspective on their society and how they feel about the rest of the world. I would never want to visit the nation myself for obvious reasons until it's free of communist rule, but given what America, South Korea, and their allies did to the nation during the Korean War, they have every right to hate us, and all of its problems today are pretty much our fault. I was really more than happy to broaden my horizons by reading the book and would recommend it.
The author's preface--which he suggests is "more than just a prelude"--states that the fall of the Soviet Bloc left North Korea as one remaining "reserve," with his book expressing and reflecting the worldview of the North Korean middle class with whom he developed direct relationships and the "truth" as they saw it. His book also seeks to create cracks in the hard but thin shell around both halves of the Korean nation, which was a victim of the Second World War and an even greater victim of the Cold War. He mentions the Six Day War in Israel, not to mention the Vietnam War that occurred due to fear of the domino effect, and notes the minimum military retirement age of 40, when he started going on world tours.
In February 2016, it was suggested the author go on a tour of North Korea, and he mentions tours of Bucharest and Budapest a few years before the collapse of communist rule.
He details the process of getting approval for the trip, noting strict instructions and watching YouTube videos for preparation. He discovered he would be in the country on April 15, the birthday of Kim Il-Sung, North Korea's first supreme leader, noting the nation's history and hearing news early in 2016 of the executions of the country's various leaders and the sentence of an American student to prison at the time.
When he left in April, he took Air Koryo, North Korea's national airline, one of the alleged "worst" airlines in the world, to the country, but discovered it wasn't that bad. He had a decent experience at Pyongyang Sunan International Airport, and got instructions not to desecrate photos of leaders due to things like sitting on them or throwing them into trash bins, and told not to photograph military officers or installations--he also got a warning about putting his hands into his pockets.
He notes that how unlike anywhere else in the world, there is no signage showing company names on office buildings, no advertisements, no commercial slogans, no signs of any banks, how restaurants and stores don't show their wares for passersby to see, and how instead there are endless painted murals and propaganda boards in the streets glorifying the nation. He describes Mansu Hill, a landmark in the North Korean capital, and notes the end of his first day at Koryo Hotel.
On the second day, Tashach notes that North Korea's citizens ranked themselves second in the world in the national happiness index next to China, denoting to him an alternate reality. He discusses Juche, the guiding ideology of North Korea, formulated by President Kim Il-Sung with the goal to make his country a self-reliant nation in terms of defense, economy, and culture, alternatively called Kimilsungism. The Kumsusan Palace of the Sun is described, the residence of Kim Il-Sung, converted into a mausoleum after his death. Kim Il-Sung's biography is given through North Korean and foreign eyes, with his father having been a Christian pharmacist, and how he became part of a personality cult--although he considered his people to be his "god."
His son Kim Jong-Il's biography is given as well, and how he stood against foreign anti-socialist onslaught, with divergent stats for deaths due to the famine in North Korea from 1994-98. Tashach notes how permission was asked to photograph the North Koreans, and how in many cases they requested to be part of his photographs. Kim Il-Sung visited Sukarno in Indonesia in 1965, with a flower named after him, the Kimilsungia; likewise, his son received a flower named after him as well, the Kimjongilia. The Juche Tower is described, built in the Juche Year 70 (1982) to commemorate seven decades of Kim Il-Sung's leadership. During independence day celebrations, the author got a certificate affirming that he was born in the year North Korea was established, and he recalls historical sites he visited across the world in the past.
Tashach discusses the Ryugyong Hotel, a hotel begun by foreign investors that turned out to be a dud. He discusses the Victorious War Museum celebrating North Korea's "victory" over America in the Korean War, and mentions the seize of the SS Pueblo on January 23, 1968 that injured several American crewmen and killed one. Other sites he visited include Mangyondae, now a ghost town where Kim Il-Sung was born, and the Arch of Triumph celebrating the Korean victory over the Japanese. In Pyongyang, soldiers were occupied with non-military activities like roadbuilding, and Mount Myohyang is a mountain declared a nature reserve for summer recreation, with the Hyangsan Hotel nestled among the mountains in the same reserve.
Pohyon-sa is a Buddhist temple with a lone monk that touted alleged freedom of religion in the country, although without visible devotees. The International Friendship Exhibition was the highlight of the visit to the nature reserve, with North Korea lacking parallel roads. The world has different views of North Korean military strength, in terms of size the fourth largest in the world with 1.1 million soldiers and accounting for 22-24% of the Gross National Product; the country's tourist guides really emphasize the military. Songun is based on the idea of self-reliance, Juche, with the state being an essential condition for the realization of the socialist national and cultural ideology, defense of the state being the main priority.
Tashach talks about the road heading from Pyongyang southwards towards the border and demilitarized zone, also the road to Seoul, the South Korean capital, and the most important highway in Korea as it also leads through Kaesong, the most important city in Korean tradition, the road being called the Reunification Highway. In North Korea, although the government controls everything, shopkeepers enjoy incentives linked to their results, the beginning of a type of private commerce. He visited Panmumjom, trapped in the heart of the DMZ on the northern side of the border, and the location of the talks that ended the Korean War. Kaesong was the capital of Korea for more than four centuries during the Koryo Dynasty (936-1392).
The author says he came from a Polish background, a working-class family whose archetype inspired Karl Marx's Communist Manifesto. Kimchi is described as the Korean "national food," a side dish made from fermented and pickled vegetables. Various UNESCO sites include the Sonjuk (Bamboo) Bridge, and the Songgyungwan Confucian Temple. Confucianism is a Chinese philosophy dating back the sixth century BC, recorded by Kung Fu Tse (Confucius') disciples. The Korean belief and worship system is similar to that of China, with religion Eastern Asia not organized and dogmatic but rather comprising an assortment of beliefs, myths, rituals, and customs.
Tashach visited the double tomb of King Kongmin and his wife, the mausoleum of King Wang Kon, and the Western Sea Barrier. Otto Warmbier is mentioned again, with his alleged purpose of coming to North Korea being to offend them, with rumors that President Obama had a hand in his visit--Warmbier had stolen a poster as well. While Western sources say that Kim Jong-Il's mother died of childbirth complications, it was later with the birth of another child. The author's first visit concluded with his departure from the international airport, which has just one international flight per day, at the scheduled time, to China.
He saw North Korea as a functioning country, not up to Western standards, although he visited many others that had similar or worse levels of poverty. Tashach would see another ad offering another tour to North Korea that he took advantage of, around May 2016 when the seventh Congress of the Workers' Party of Korea occurred, during which the new president Kim Jong-Un had trouble consolidating his leadership. More tourist facts of North Korea are given, with Big Brother seeing everything, and the nation's ultimate goal of seeing the injustice of the division of the single homeland corrected.
The next tour was led by the Chinese Uri tourism company, with Tashach describing Pyongyang as the "capital of the revolution," and how North Koreans aren't allegedly "cold and depressed," citing Japanese colonialism of the peninsula. The subsequent establishment of North Korea and South Korea by Syngman Rhee in the latter nation mucked agreements of a unified Korea when the Cold War began. The author mentions a beer festival and talks about scaremongering about North Korea's nuclear weapons, although it was actually America that introduced them into the peninsula in 1958.
In the realm of healthcare, North Koreans describe a "complete health basket" and note they aren't familiar with Western medicine, likewise in housing, clothing, and food despite a collective memory of horror from death by starvation. During his second trip, Tashach describes his first sighting of a gas station in the country, considered an "attraction." The author visited Wonsan, the Agricultural University, and Ulim Waterfall, discussing Ariang, a three-part folk song about the three components of Korea: the south, the north, and the diaspora.
He revisited several sites in Pyongyang and a supermarket, hearing that homosexuality was taboo in North Korea, which was socially conservative. Then he traveled to Myohyang, and discussed Kim Jong-Suk, Kim Il-Sung's wife who was born in northern Korea under Japanese occupation. He discusses rumors that his tour group was only seeing what the North Koreans wanted to show them, believing instead that his group was seeing what they didn't want to show them. His tour concluded with a visit to the Mansudae Art Gallery, and then a flight to Beijing.
Then Tashach toured Manchuria before returning to North Korea in the Fall of 2016, revisiting Pyongyang, the Museum of Victory, Mansudae Hill, and the DMZ. One new site mentioned is the Mansudae Production Studios, the brainchild of Kim Jong-Il when he was still an heir apparent. Tashach mentions that Israeli ideology is like Juche, allegedly of self-reliance, but with foreign help, especially America's more so today than anytime else. Other sites he visited include the Children's Palace and the port city of Nampo, and he watched a musical about North Korea. The current president, Kim Jong-Un, prioritizes the interests of the people and allegedly loves and respects them to translate their dreams into reality, proposing supposed economic reforms and meeting with Donald Trump in his first term. Tashach went back to the DMZ and then to the Sci-Tech Museum.
The author had yet another tour in October 2016, around the time he had knee surgery, and revisited several sites. He notes that the train stations were clean but not worthy of visits, going back to the DMZ and Children's Camp. A new site he visited was the Three Toms of the Kaguryo Dynasty in Kangso, and he discusses a kindergarten at a community center where the children are told to keep right when walking in public areas. His trip concluded with a visit to a karaoke club.
Tashach went on yet another trip in the spring of 2017, after Donald Trump began his first term as president and met with Chinese president Xi Jinping, believing North Korea to be a threat. During this visit, Ryongmong Road was constructed to commemorate April 15th celebrations, with the author noting that Kumusan, Mansudae Hill, the house where Kim Il-Sung was born in Mangyungda, the Flower Exhibition, and Moran Hill--which he describes in detail--were especially conspicuous; the Kimilsungia and Kimjongilia were used as decorations. Tashach had an easy time calling his friends and family back in Israel, although in the opposite direction to North Korea, things were more difficult. He had trouble at the border with China given the lack of English-speakers, although when entering the country he had gone "back to civilization." He describes the Potemkin village, a synonym for an external facade intended to make a situation look better than it is.
During his next visit on September 17, Tashach notes a meeting President Trump had with Kim Jong-Un around the time South Korea elected a new president, Moon Jae-in, and Otto Warmbier was released albeit in a vegetative state, dying six days later. On this trip, the author noticed the seats on his flight half empty, and afterwards called his relatives in Israel to assure them he was okay. He visited a pub and the Workers Party Foundation Monument, also describing the features of the North Korean flag, visiting a school as well. On September 18, he landed at the Ben Gurion Airport, hearing about travel risks to North Korea, and then of a new program on October 4th.
Around that time, President Trump called Kim Jong-Un "Little Rocket Man," resulting in a verbal altercation between America and North Korea's leaders, although he and the leaders of the north and south portions of Korea would have summits in 2018. On May 5th, Tashach visited the International Friendship Museum at the Myohyang nature reserve, went on a night tour boat ride on the Taedong river, and had a less-drawn-out border inspection at Sinuiju.
In 2018, President Trump and Kim Jong-Un met in Singapore for more talks, with Tashach revisiting more old sites. After breakfast one morning, there was a clothing inspection before a visit to the Kumsusan, with Ruhakana Rugunda, the prime minister of Uganda, visiting North Korea. The author visited the 1st of May Stadium--the largest stadium in the world--for a spectacular show that Kim Jong-Un opened. Then he went to Pyongsong, the largest satellite city around the capital, known as North Korea's "Silicone Valley," and home to the North Korean Center for Nuclear Research. He returned to Pyongyang to see a circus, noting that the citizens are mainly intolerant towards deliberate provocative behavior, and states that his tours of the nation were powerful and special experiences.
On February 27th, 2019, President Trump and Kim Jong-Un met in Hanoi, Vietnam for more talks, with Tashach mentioning later events like the COVID pandemic and Russia's war with Ukraine. He cites the film The Truman Show, where the producer told Jim Carrey's character, "There's no more truth out there than there is in the world I created for you. The same lies. The same deceit."
The final section discusses the Korean peninsula's history, starting with the Gojoseon Dynasty before the birth of Christ, going to the Three Kingdoms (Goguryeo, Silla, and Baekje), the Silla dynasty, the Koryo/Goryeo Dynasty, and the Joseon Dynasty. From 1895 to 1905, Russia and China fought for control over Korea, ending with Japan annexing the peninsula, during which over a million people were killed. Korea would be liberated from Japanese occupation, the peninsula divided after the Second World War, with Syngman Rhee leading the South and Kim Il-Sung leading the North during the Korean War, America and its allies aiding Rhee in fear of the communist bogeyman and domino theory. America had pledged that the use of nuclear weapons against Japan in the Second World War was a one-time event, and has kept to its word since then. North Korea has a different perspective on its history and world, hating the peninsula's division and ultimately wanting reunion.
In the end, The Farthest Place on Earth, in spite of endless repetition of the author's visits to the same sites of places in North Korea and injecting many personal things, is a good book on the despised and enigmatic nation, really giving a good perspective on their society and how they feel about the rest of the world. I would never want to visit the nation myself for obvious reasons until it's free of communist rule, but given what America, South Korea, and their allies did to the nation during the Korean War, they have every right to hate us, and all of its problems today are pretty much our fault. I was really more than happy to broaden my horizons by reading the book and would recommend it.
October 24, 2024
Educational and Informative
Clearly, the author did a good deal of research into the history of North Korea and was very happy to find he and his tourist groups would be allowed entrance into this mysterious and isolated place. He made sure that everyone including himself showed respect to the Leader, and to the rules and customs of their country which is wise advice when visiting anywhere!
I found the few photos included very interesting because I have never seen photos of the country. However I did find portions of the book somewhat repetitive and thus difficult to hold my attention and interest.
Clearly, the author did a good deal of research into the history of North Korea and was very happy to find he and his tourist groups would be allowed entrance into this mysterious and isolated place. He made sure that everyone including himself showed respect to the Leader, and to the rules and customs of their country which is wise advice when visiting anywhere!
I found the few photos included very interesting because I have never seen photos of the country. However I did find portions of the book somewhat repetitive and thus difficult to hold my attention and interest.
October 30, 2024
EDUCATIONAL
I really enjoyed this book, as the author immerses the reader into the heart & culture of North Korea. As a traveler to the DMZ, I have enjoyed his passion & heart that shines through this book.
I really enjoyed this book, as the author immerses the reader into the heart & culture of North Korea. As a traveler to the DMZ, I have enjoyed his passion & heart that shines through this book.
June 26, 2025
Well written with interesting perspectives
Well worth the read to get another perspective on North Korea from the actual citizens of the country. Eye opening.
Well worth the read to get another perspective on North Korea from the actual citizens of the country. Eye opening.
December 26, 2024
a joy to read. i didn’t want to put it down. many times i found myself smiling at such lovely imagery and visuals. this book is an unbiased peek behind the curtains
January 1, 2026
This is a rare kind of North Korea book: written not from theory, ideology, or armchair horror, but from repeated firsthand exposure as a tour leader returning again and again to the most curated society on Earth.
Tashach is clear about what he is doing: presenting the worldview of North Koreans he met directly—“the truth as they see it”—while letting the reader feel the eerie dissonance between lived encounter and state narrative. The result is less a geopolitical treatise and more a field report from inside a national mythology.
Some of the most memorable passages are about spectacle: monuments, towers, and sacred architecture designed to manufacture reverence. The Juche Tower detail—constructed from blocks corresponding to days of a leader’s life—is the sort of fact that doesn’t need commentary; it is the commentary. And his comparison of these sites to other tyrant-built monuments lands because it’s not performative outrage—it’s calm recognition of a familiar human pattern: power demanding worship.
The book is also surprisingly funny in places—Air Koryo being labeled the world’s worst airline, then protesting the rating, is a small anecdote that reveals a larger truth: even totalitarian regimes crave external validation.
The book is strongest as reportage and reflection, not as comprehensive analysis. But as a grounded view into the psychology of a closed society, it’s compelling—and unsettling.
Pull-quotes:
• “Juche Tower… built from 25,550 blocks—one for each day of the President’s life.”
• “All of these are megalomanic sites built by tyrants… How is the Korean worship of their leaders different?”
Tashach is clear about what he is doing: presenting the worldview of North Koreans he met directly—“the truth as they see it”—while letting the reader feel the eerie dissonance between lived encounter and state narrative. The result is less a geopolitical treatise and more a field report from inside a national mythology.
Some of the most memorable passages are about spectacle: monuments, towers, and sacred architecture designed to manufacture reverence. The Juche Tower detail—constructed from blocks corresponding to days of a leader’s life—is the sort of fact that doesn’t need commentary; it is the commentary. And his comparison of these sites to other tyrant-built monuments lands because it’s not performative outrage—it’s calm recognition of a familiar human pattern: power demanding worship.
The book is also surprisingly funny in places—Air Koryo being labeled the world’s worst airline, then protesting the rating, is a small anecdote that reveals a larger truth: even totalitarian regimes crave external validation.
The book is strongest as reportage and reflection, not as comprehensive analysis. But as a grounded view into the psychology of a closed society, it’s compelling—and unsettling.
Pull-quotes:
• “Juche Tower… built from 25,550 blocks—one for each day of the President’s life.”
• “All of these are megalomanic sites built by tyrants… How is the Korean worship of their leaders different?”
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