Accordingly, a motorist traveling on North Korean main roads has to make thorough traveling preparations. First of all, he or she has to secure an adequate quantity of gasoline and food. One may park his or her car anywhere on the highways, as there are no resting facilities. "So few vehicles use expressways that one is pleased to see even a disabled vehicle," reminisces North Korean defector Kim Song Il (pseudonym), who as a driver often traveled the Pyongyang-Wonsan Highway. It's risky to drive on freeways in the night, he says, because one has to drive in complete darkness and no warning lights are available on curves. Headlights of North Korea-made motor vehicles perform poorly, making it hard to identify obstacles. One's eyesight is sometimes lost momentarily when blinded by the headlight of a foreign-made car, coming from the opposite direction, according to Kim.

When a car goes out of order while traveling, it is sometimes stranded on a highway for a whole day. Due to caved in concrete and shoddy construction, the Pyongyang-Wonsan Expressway has numerous bumps and cracks. The 4km-long "Rainbow Tunnel" on the highway is one of the most difficult to pass because of frequently falling rocks. Traffic police cars rush to the scenes of traffic accidents, but mechanical troubles with cars often have to be taken care of by motorists themselves, because no vehicle service stations are available.

Conditions are relatively better with the Pyongyang-Hyangsan Expressway, which was opened in 1996 partly to facilitate the tourism of the famous Mount Myohyang. On that highway, motorists have no trouble running at 100km per hour. But one can hardly avoid feeling alone on that highway, too. A South Korean who recently traveled the highway said he encountered only five or six cars while driving there for one hour and 20 minutes.

Once special events celebrating highway openings are finished, the expressways virtually become pedestrian freeways. A reporter of the "Weekly Economy," a West German magazine, who visited the North in August, wrote in his article, "The highways (in North Korea) resemble endless airstrip runways. No vehicles travel them. These runways could be the most gigantic footpath in the world. People walk on them, where few bicycles are seen."

On the occasion of a founding anniversary of the Workers' Party on October 10 last year, the North dedicated in a ceremony its 8th freeway running between Pyongyang and Nampo. With 12 lanes running both ways, the expressway is 48m wide. Having no middle dividing devices, it can be used as a runway in war. Requiring over 50,000 man-days of "shock troopers" coming from across the country, and military servicemen, the construction of the Pyoangyang-Nampo Expressway was dubbed the "ants project." North Korean authorities designated the freeway as "Young Heroes Highway" on the grounds that it had been built by manpower alone without the help of equipment. The Pyoongyang-Kaesong Expressway, opened in April 1992, was constructed in consideration of inter-Korean relationships under an instruction of National Defense Commission Chairman Kim Jong Il. The Pyongyang-Hyangsan Expressway was constructed to facilitate transport to and from munitions factories in Jagang Province as well as helping foreign tourists visit the scenic Mount Myohyang.

(Kang Chol Hwan, nkch@chosun.com )