I was originally granted entry permission to participate in a private tour . The tour was to ride a bicycle around Pyongyang, the capital. It was agreed I could do this tour on my unicycle. My unicycle wasn’t manufactured in North America, which was obviously the winning point on this. It’s best not to take anything North American, into North Korea. Americans included.

My sole reason for travelling to North Korea was because I didn’t think anyone else in the world - outside of that country - had ever unicycled there. It’s fascinating that in 2019, it was still possible to do something that had never been done before. So here’s a hint kids: pick wierd sports!

Four days before my entry to North Korea, via Beijing, I receive an email from the tour organisers:

“The permit we had acquired for your cycling trip around Pyongyang has been revoked. There was no official reason given by the local authorities but I've been told it's not possible for you to unicycle around Pyongyang or to bring your unicycle with you into the country” 

So, I’m in Beijing. Without real internet, and with an expensive Unicycle that I can’t really check into an Airport locker for a few days.

After a little bit of to and fro, I get another email:

“After much negotiating last night they have agreed for you to bring your Unicycle to Pyongyang, however riding it through the streets of Pyongyang is absolutely out of the question and all I've been able to secure for you is riding it out the front of the Yanggakdo International Hotel in the car park for the amusement of the local guides”  

I can bring the unicycle into North Korea, but I can only ride it in the hotel car park. 

Okay I figured, carparks or not, I still get to unicycle in North Korea. So in I went to North Korea, on that basis. I call this a KIMPROMIZE - or how it was that Kim Jong-un compromised for me, on my visit to North Korea.

My ‘local guides’ were pretty nice people, and at every tourist attraction they’d do a bit of side-eye around the carpark, ask if I’d like to take my ‘bike’ out of the van, and I would ride a couple of laps around said carpark. I figured my local guides had permission for me to unicycle in carparks other than just the Yanggakdo International Hotel. I didn’t get arrested but I did do a ‘Unicycling the 14 Car Parks of North Korea’ tour. 

In one particular carpark - at the Munsu Waterpark - where there was no water and no people and certainly no tourists (which was a popular theme throughout North Korea), a small group of Mums and toddlers were making their way across the carpark and saw me riding. As I did my obligatory lap, they waved, shrieked with joy, and hurriedly shuffled off to their waiting bus, much to my delight.

So if you have North Korea change their mind on you, like they did for me, I hope your KIMPROMIZE turns out to be a successful one, too.