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Rare Trips to North Korea Via Geographic Expeditions

Geographic Expeditions, a travel company, has made the famed Mass Games the center for trips it will offer to North Korea. These trips are scheduled for August, 2006. This action will mark the first time in the last fifty years that a major American tour operator has been granted permission to operate trips to the Democratic People?s Republic of Korea.

The planning, logistics, and permissions for such trips are `daunting and delicate,` says Jim Sano, president of the San Francisco-based travel company. `But pioneering travel firsts has always been one of GeoEx?s specialties, and we have nailed down the details. Our leaders, Sarah Timewell and Daniel Levitsky, both British, have traveled extensively in the DPRK, and know its history, politics, and on-the-ground realities very well. This is a marvelous opportunity for our travelers to experience North Korea behind the headlines.`

The Mass Games, one of the world?s largest human spectacles, are an art form unique to the DPRK. In a stadium holding 150,000 people, said to be the largest seating capacity in the world, 80,000 dancers and gymnasts emerge from months of grueling practice and perform against a massive backdrop of rapidly changing flash cards showing images of North Korean unity, strength, and agricultural bounty.