Is the Pyongyang Metro real? Is the Pyongyang Metro fake?

Stephen Hawking once said;

His comments were about the quantum state of Schrödinger's cat. Perhaps in this sense, the “reality” of the Pyongyang Metro is debatable.

However, for all intents and purposes in the Newtonian world most of us inhabit, the Pyongyang Metro is real.

It is a real and functioning subway system as much as any other functioning subway system is real.

Pyongyang Metro Myth Busting

It is truly fascinating how persistent existential rumours about the Pyongyang Metro have been over the decades. Tens of thousands of foreign visitors (and millions of North Koreans) have ridden the metro and yet still the rumours persist that this extremely deep and cavernous system of public transport is somehow fake or the riders are actors.

These rumours originally stemmed from the fact that foreigners were limited to where they could ride on the Pyongyang Metro.

Originally, there was only one stop you could get off at and explore. Of course, the masses took this to mean that clearly this one single stop was put their purely for their own benefit and to as a "show" to foreigners.

Slowly but surely, the metro has opened out to allow foreigners to ride it. Now, you can do an entire Pyongyang Metro tour, completely busting any myths that still remain about the Pyongyang Metro being real or fake.

This writer is searching for the “original sin” of Pyongyang Metro rumours — my theory is that at some point in the 1970’s or 1980’s some foreign visitor to North Korea, mentioned that the metro seemed “like” it was full of actor or “like” it was not real. These doubts have been passed down from generation to generation, although I doubt in Augustinian fashion.

Whenever I hear such doubts about the metro, I’m always reminded of the scene from The Life Aquatic where the reporter, Jane, confronts Steve Zissou about his latest film. “I thought aspects of it seemed slightly fake,” she says. To which the captain pulls out his glock, replying “Does this seem fake?”

The Pyongyang Metro is very real. Pyongyang is very real. Yet it still does remind us of a Wes Anderson film set, which lead us to our next question:

Is the Pyongyang Metro a set?

Generally no. But it has been in the past. The Pyongyang Metro appears in a number of North Korean films, and the 1988 Italian-North Korean cult classic Ten Zan — The Ultimate Mission. See 37:32 for the metro scene.

What is the Pyongyang Metro really like?

Check our Koryo Tours' two-part short film on the Pyongyang Metro.

You can also read more about the Pyongyang Metro in our North Korea Travel Guide or see it yourself on a group tour or private independent tour to North Korea.