For a more compelling and professional journalistic write-up of what we had experienced, please read BBC News’ longform article on us and our story:
I promise you, it’s way better and more in-depth than their live on-air segment with me —
Disclaimer
The events described in this post and on the 5th floor occurred in 2011, at a time when not a single tourist had ever been detained by the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK). It was a time when scores of travelers before us had already ventured to this floor and back safely, even when approached by the hotel staff during their excursions. The first tourist detained by the DPRK took place in 2014, 3 years after this post was published, and it was over an unrelated incident. Yet, a lot has changed since then.
The Monsoon Diaries assumes ZERO and NO responsibility for you, your well-being and/or your safety if you attempt any of what we did below when visiting North Korea. The rules and oversight have changed since we visited, so the consequences of your actions may differ from what happened to us.
Therefore, the risks that you choose to take while in North Korea are of your own accord and we thus take no responsibility for whatever consequences that befall you if you are to be caught and persecuted by the government of the Democratic People’s Republic Of Korea.
Welcome To The 5th Floor (shot by Justin Bussies):
The 5th Floor – Our Experience
It’s been a few days since this American, yours truly, escaped from North Korea after partaking in some off-the-traditional-path activities.
That said, when we noticed that elevator buttons skipped the 5th floor of our North Korean hotel in Pyongyang, or that if you google “Yanggakdo Hotel” it auto-fills it to “Yanggakdo Hotel Floor 5”, we knew something was up.
So we went there.
On the last night of the trip with nothing else to do but sit around, drink, or go to sleep, we decided to explore the entirety of the hotel given that we had called it home the past week.
I remember this photo was taken in between our countless trips that night, where we reconvened in my room, had a drink, and debated whether to go for another round.
So whether from the basement casino to the rooftop restaurant, we explored in groups and never alone. On one of those trips we decided to check out each of the hotel’s floor starting from the bottom by way of stairwell.
From the 4th floor one of us thought he had heard some screaming as we approached the stairs to the 5th floor…err…yeahh….so we decided to skip that and head down from the 6th floor instead.
Either way you do it, you can count and you’ll get to where ever you’re supposed to go.
For the record, there is NO sign anywhere that even suggests you are trespassing, let alone some kind of lock contraption or mechanism that suggests this was an area where a random person shouldn’t not be allowed to wander. We saw an open door, and we walked in.
Most doors are locked, but only one we supposed had any real significance as it looked like a “communications room.”
We saw a pair of shoes outside.
And then there are the weird propaganda posters that adorn the walls. Because the floor is dark and empty, the posters seemed to be screaming at us to listen.
Too bad none of us could read Korean.
We reached the end here.
Getting Caught?
Nobody got in trouble because whomever gets “caught” is assumed to be lost and shown to the elevators. Not a single person in our group who was approached by local staff was escorted back to their room; they were simply just shown where the elevators were.
Besides, we had been informed that any sort of actual action against you would infer the admission that the 5th floor exists. And nobody wants that, right? So some others in the group returned 5 more times to check out more, hoping that a door would be unlocked and another staircase could be revealed.
And for the record nobody in our group had to write letters of apology to the government, give up their cameras for inspection, or had their photos reviewed/deleted upon leaving North Korea the next morning. In fact they shook our hands and some tried to awkwardly give us a hug goodbye.
Other Accounts
Here are eyewitness accounts from other excursions in my group who ventured the next day:
. . . We decided to check out the missing floor by the stairs as there simply had to be something to it. Esshie was somewhat concerned that we might be caught and then permitted by the authorities to make true our dreams of staying permanently in the DPRK. No such luck though—we made it back without incident. Well, that’s to say we weren’t caught. What we did find was very interesting indeed.
First, the 5th floor is unlike any floor of the hotel, it is all concrete, like a bunker, complete with steel doors. There are no decorations of any kind; instead there are propaganda posters. At that time all the strange doors were shut tight, but we were still able to stumble upon the most intriguing of all: in a corner there was a large pile of what appeared to be miniature cameras, as if awaiting repair. We saw desks with screens and monitoring equipment, the space was still in the Cold War when tensions were higher.
Another account by another travel blogger:
Cameras, lots of them, and well enough for each room of the hotel. I don’t think I need to spell it out for you, word for word anyway. Oh, and another member of our group reported that when he went at a different time one door was open and there appeared to be official-looking men before computers or machines of some kind and listening to something with headphones. Add it up and its chills down the spine. – Another Travel Blog
Here’s another account by a few friends in my group who went with us and then attempted another run on the 5th floor a few days later, this time trying to find the hidden “floor within a floor.”
Yes, there is now evidence of a second floor within the 5th floor, which explains for the very very low ceilings when we explored the 5th floor 2 weeks ago.
[Friend 1] asked [Friend 2] to show the door that would lead up to the second floor of the fifth floor, so that we could try to go up there eventually. So they both went up and [Friend 2] tried to open it bit it seemed like it was locked. Suddenly they heard footsteps from behind the door.
They made a run for the normal stairs and decided to split, one going up one going down. The guard followed [Friend 2] upstairs but decided not to get him in the end. So it’s still a cliffhanger, but the hidden floor on the fifth floor is more or less confirmed.
Another account:
There was one door that opened up into a concrete wall. You could go left or right, but not ahead. Another door was simply walled off. I then went up a hidden flight of stairs behind a third door to reach another floor.
On that floor, there was a room with a sign above it that read: “The Tailors.” I also peeked inside a giant “Paintings Room” filled from floor to ceiling with propaganda paintings about Kim Il-Sung and North Korea.
One of the theories of what the 5th floor is:
The North Koreans have this contingency plan where if war ever broke out, they would move all their art, posters, paintings, and sculptures into a safe area and lock it away until the end of the war.
That way, the ideology of Kim Il-Sung would be preserved in places like the 5th floor.
Another analysis:
So the only poster I saw that specifically mentioned America was the last poster with the white haired person in it. That poster refers to Americans as “승냥,” which different Koreans have said describes kind of a man eating wolf or a puma-like creature. Whatever a “seung nyang” (romanized pronunciation) actually is, the word is not your typical insult or cuss word. It’s used to express a deep hatred, fear, and mistrust of whoever it is directed to.
I did a little bit of research on that particular poster, and apparently the white haired figure has been used in other locations as well, and the revenge that the poster wants is apparently for a bombing by Americans of innocent men, women and children of North Korea. I’m not sure what bombing they are talking about, or whether it is a specific attack or just atrocities by American in general, or even if what they are talking about is true or not. But clearly, the poster is informing the viewer that America is evil, not to be trusted, and that a “hundred, thousand times” revenge against Americans is not only justified, but necessary.
As to what the fifth floor might really mean, I read the updated entry and “secret hiding spot” sounds like a good guess. I’m pretty sure without even having been there that it is a “communications” floor aka where they listen to your phone conversations and walls, etc. In all honesty, I’m not surprised that there are propaganda posters on the fifth floor, because if it’s where people “employed” by the North Korean government are working, then it only makes sense that they would be given reminders of what they are working for. What I am a little bit surprised about is how easy it was to get in and see things and how obvious it was.
Secrecy in North Korea seems to mean more “don’t talk about it, pretend its not there” than actually trying to hide it. The idea seems to be more that the government doesn’t care if people know, as long as they are too scared to say anything. If I was running a dictatorship based on lies and fear, I would probably build narrow hallways and offices between the outer walls and the rooms, rather than devote an entire floor to it.
I guess this was a subconscious response for assigning two spies in our group during our trip (they were posing as 2 out of 4 of our guides), who inadvertently admitted their identities when we watched them get drunk on our last night together. It was also made obvious when they kept asking the Americans very misplaced and inappropriately pointed questions during the whole trip (“Michael Jackson died of AIDS didn’t he? Is everything in America burning to the ground like in the TV Show COPS?”).
My friend and I did beat both of them at a game of pool (they had challenged us first: “Let’s play pool! We Koreans vs. the world!”) on our last night together, but this is different.
And there you have it: our trip being so over the top, it reaches another kind of alternate reality on the 5th floor. I can’t imagine a better way to end my trip, let alone do it with a cadre of a great group of friends. But if anybody can read Korean, please tell me what all the posters are saying.
Thanks for the memories, Pyongyang:
Update – 3 Days Later
So 3 days later and I’m still alive back in NYC. Whether it’s because they’ve decided that I wouldn’t be too much of a threat or because they actually might have liked me, I’m still breathing.
Since being back, I’ve been asked by a lot of friends how the North Koreans took to me identifying myself as an American but having Chinese blood. When I think back on it, I feel like my North Korean guides considered me as one of their Chinese allies/brothers who had been “brainwashed by the imperialist Americans.” Therefore, I was given a somewhat higher advantage in establishing a sort of camaraderie with the North Koreans. Whether my life has been spared (for now) has anything to do with this despite the stunts I’ve pulled, I can only wonder.
Want to travel with us on another adventure? Join us on our trips! It’s now been over 10 years since this was first posted and we’re now at 190 countries & territories!
- At time of posting in Pyongyang, it was 26 °C - Humidity: 65% | Wind Speed: 3km/hr | Cloud Cover: cloudy
hi, ron from, u.k.
damn, i was in the same hotel, June 2014, with Koroyo tour group.
didn’t know about the missing floor or notice it in the lift. envious of those who did.
Thanks Joe!
For the blogger that wondered what bombing they might have been talking about.
During the Korean war the USAF carpet bombed North Korea causing approximaty one million civilian deaths.
More bombs were dropped on North Korea between 1950 and 1953 than the whole of the Pacific theatre in WWII
They may be referring to that
So interesting. I’ve seen a few floors and spaces in buildings in the United States that are perhaps not for visiting. No photos of any of the strange ghost bases in Oregon either.
Just stumbled this blog and I wish I had known about this as I didn’t even notice the 5th floor button missing even after staying at that same hotel twice already in 2009 and 2011. (FYI: I’m Chinese American as well, too!)
But, this snapshot probably sums up 2 trips experience in DPRK…
https://m.flickr.com/photos/fresh888/3907229303/?xajax=1
I am SOuth korean however, North korean language and South Korean language might look or sound the same but it isn’t. Most of the words are different from each other. Its like comparing with Portugese and Spanish.
Kind of silly that the hotel chose to skip over the #5 button in the elevator. Had they simply used the #5 button on the 6th floor and kept numbering accordingly it’s likely fewer people would have reason to go exploring the hotel for the missing floor.
thanks for the pics and the account! i think the person who saw the cameras hit it right on the mark- i believe the workers may use the floor to watch or spy on the visitors @ the hotel -_-
if you watch https://enterko.com/%EC%86%8C%ED%9B%84-%EC%9D%B4%EC%A0%9C-%EB%A7%8C%EB%82%98%EB%9F%AC-%EA%B0%91%EB%8B%88%EB%8B%A4-131222/ , around the 31 minute mark, an ajumma nk defector talks about how one of her friends worked there and comments on how at night her job is to watch the cameras…. O_o
The 5th floor is one of the hubs in the hotel for recording/carrying on hidden surveillance on the guests in the rooms. The idea being, when they have someone ‘interesting’ coming to visit they place them in one of the surveillance rooms (hotel rooms) and then surreptitiously spy on you from there. They can then record everything and then ‘determine’ what you are really up to.
The reason the floor is covered with extra vicious Propaganda posters is for this reason – the North Koreans who are manning these listening ‘stations’ are exposed to freedom vis-à-vis the people they are spying on. So they are hearing ‘uncensored’ conversations from the ‘outside’ world – something that is not allowed (because then they would know how bad their lives really are compared to ‘normal’ countries).
This is very dangerous to a totalitarian state. Recognizing that these government ‘monitors’ will be exposed to freedom and new ways of thinking they try to ‘counteract’ that exposure by jamming as much propaganda into the monitors as possible to prevent them from being ‘corrupted’ by the conversations they are hearing.
It’s a very screwy way of thinking but then, these totalitarian regimes are very strange from any ‘normal’ country.
I doubt very much that the 5th floor is used much these days. Normally, you do your spying/surveillance on high-ranking/important visitors. Those folks would get to stay in a much better hotel. But, don’t kid yourself, North Korea will have high-end modern hotels somewhere, you just won’t get to stay in one as you’re not important enough.
In it’s day, this hotel was probably good enough to put visiting dignitaries in. Today, it would be too embarrassing to the state to put a visiting dignitary in a hotel such as this so the 5th floor is probably not used much anymore.
You can sure though that the ‘5th floor’ will exist elsewhere, and, while they may seem strange and curious to you and I they really aren’t funny at all or safe to ‘explore’. A significant portion of North Korea consists of camps designed to exterminate entire family lineage – literally to the third generation. People are born, raised, and killed in those camps. Slow roasted over fires, shot dead, worked to death you name it. None of it fiction and you can be sure it’s much worse then we can even comprehend.
North Korea used to kidnap folks from other countries and bring them to North Korea. Just so you understand this, North Korea would send out spies to other foreign countries and take the people by force back to North Korea. Several times the respective countries knew the people had been taken to North Korea and nothing could be done about. Down at the border between South & North Korea there have been many instances where South Korean soldiers, manning the border, were literally pulled across the line (just a couple of feet) and were never heard from again.
So it’s real easy to ‘disappear’ in North Korea no matter who you are or what you think your government may/may not do to get you back but what you saw on the 5th floor was just a touch of the seedy underbelly that really is North Korea….
I think its pretty obvious the place is a listening post to monitor all the tourists and employees there. Btw, all the guides are spies. Its a totalitarian dictatorship.
hello homie. are trips to north korea now easily achieved? I want to go. how much did you pay, did you see much things? i like 80s nostalgia that n korea gives.
I was in this hotel a few weeks ago and thought i found some interesting stuff a few floors down a fire escape from the top floor restaurant. Now i really regret we didnt go for a expedition to the 5th floor too though since some people in the group had heard about this and possibly seen the youtube video too.
Anyhow, does anyone whats with the spare set of elevators that i believe flashes by around 0:20 into the video clip? I saw those on our floor too but never saw them downstairs. I guess they could just be service elevators for staff or anything simple as that… but did it look like they would access the 5th floor?
I was also on the 5th floor with a few friends in 2011. We didn’t manage to get video though. Nice work, I’ll be following this blog.
Your website is excellent chap!
I think I feel sorry for the people of North Korea (and how could you not!). I watched a documentary on NK yesterday which was as chilling as it was interesting; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PKwx2doPBRs
People actually sneak in video’s of soap operas from South Korea and the people who watch them cannot believe their eyes! Lets not forget, these poor, hungry people are brainwashed into thinking that the whole outside world is alot poorer than them. Weather or not they believe this or choose to believe this I don’t know. But did you know that the £££/$$$ they get in aid gets SOLD at their local markets?
There are people lying about the place DEAD because they cannot afford to eat. People actually sell their houses for food too!
It looks a lovely place at night though.
炊飯器チーズケーキ
Every last Jack has his Jill
This article is not so farfetched as it seems. As a previous consultant to several government agencies I can say that there are buildings here in the US with 1/2 floors. Unless you are going there with one of the staff you would have NO idea it was there and certainly couldn’t access it.
@ EVL:
In Korean culture (and, I presume, the rest of Asia as well, though I don’t actually *know*) it’s not the number 5 but rather the number 4 which is considered unlucky, in the same sense as with 13 in the US and the West in general.
I honestly cannot fathom why, according to pictures and my experiences in several countries, almost all Americans without hesitating seem to think atrociously unflattering shorts, cheap bad haircuts, shapeless, baggy t-shirts and white chunky trainers are never considered improper attire when travelling.
Unlike in the USA, if you walk the stairs from Floor 12 to the floor above, it’s Floor 14. Floor 13 is skipped simply for symbolic purposes.
In North Korea — as you’ll read from the entry — we walked up the stairs from Floor 4 to the floor above, and it was a unmarked floor #5 that was very different from all the other floors in the hotel (re: lower ceilings, propaganda posters, a hidden floor within a floor). If you keep walking the stairs past this floor #5, you’ll get to the actual Floor #6. Nothing is “skipped” for symbolic purposes. It’s very clear they didn’t intend this floor for foreigners to stay in.
Could it be that the number 5 in North Korea is “unlucky” just as the number 13 is in the US and most “western” countries? All elevators and buildings in the US omit numbering the 13th floor, skipping to floor 14. I noticed in the elevator pic that 13 appeared, but 5 did not. Could the sixth floor simply be the missing fifth floor, just as the 14th floor in the US is the missing thirteenth floor?
Just another opinion…
It wasn’t. Most passageways were locked. We had to time when we could sneak in.
ah such a good read, hoping to go in 2012, but don’t have the guts to go searching on creepy floors! Post reads like something out of 1984!
Makes me wonder… if it’s a secret floor… why is it so easy to walk down the stairs and open the door? Just saying.
nice share…!!!
Sounds kind of creepy and exciting! My favorite combo.
It was great reading of all your travels and seeing all of these photos. Did you notice any fishing communities or fishing for sport? Just curious since I am a fan of tarpon fishing.
한국인입니다 우연히 뉴스보다 알게되었는데 역시 북한은 상상이상의 국가네요 님의 용기에 박수를 보냅니다.
Great pictures. Can I use a few in a post for our website?
Great pictures. Can I use a few of them in a post for our website?
You had 2 guides who were spies? How’d they admit they were spies? How did you guys end up suspecting them in the first place?
Thanks for the pics and the explanations…
I’ll be back again to check up on the updates.
3. I don’t see bottom two words. Just to read the words in white with red flags behind of AK-47 from top left to bottom,
Self-regeneration, Revolutionary soldier, SungSi(Sa)..something, something-bomb or something-NorthKorea.
“The Japanese invaders slaughtered innocent, law-abiding citizens” (blue)
should be like this,
“The Japanese invaders who slaughtered innocent, patriotic inhabitants(citizens)”
무고한 애국적주민을 학살하는 일제 침략자들
계속 연락원합니다
사진도.
Hey wow. My name is the MHS and the Korean news site came in here through the hotel and toured the fifth floor after I have secrets to comment’re raising.
As you know it, between North and South Korea since ancient times’ bad state, but I hope soon doeteumyeon unity. Travelers is really admirable! The problem is that the five-story hotel building is drawn to the one you seen something byeokmada secret place a secret operative’m seureopgodo.
I do not know the age of 16 years young, but fought each other, fighting each other what yideukyiit d…
와 놀랍군요,,,,, 저는 한국사람입니다. 이 사이트가 기가에 링크되어 보았습니다… 역시 북한은 무서운 나라같네요,,
Watching your back. You guys are miraculous idiot.
They’ll be with you in order to hide their shame.
Perhaps, after day, I will read an article which indicates NK-Killer.
I think that someone will be killed by your action.
from Seoul, S.Korea.
Some translation is wrong… 미제 is not to be translated into “American Product”, 미제 is abbreviation of 미 제귝주의,
it should be translated to American Imperialism.
The one with the nooses say
“Let’s prepare thoroughly in order to defeat the invaders” (Red)
“The Japanese invaders slaughtered innocent, law-abiding citizens” (blue)
and 2,000,000 sex slaves at the end.
holy crap. holy crap. holy crap.
what an interesting/crazy tunneling experience. this beats the boilers under mudd.
Team Awesome pic doesn`t include the indo-austrian interracial couple.
i just got the chills and yes, as Kat has stated above- and the one with the nooses- well that’s saying
1,000,000 slaughtered/killed
6,000,000 forced arrests
2,000,000 slaves (adults)
we need a skype session whenever we’re both free….
Okay, I just saw the video and read the rest, the gist is to get revenge a thousand hundred times against the Americans.
1. Yellow background with red flower: “Our General is the best (the most)”
2. Red writing, pine trees background: “We miss our Father, the General”
3. Gun centered between vertical writing (this one is written using the Korean alphabet, but “spells out” Chinese characters): top two words on the left side means: “military first politics” bottom two words means “leadership,” and then the right side means “powerful nation”
4. The picture of the computers: “the 21st century is the age of information (communications) inductry”
The last one with the white haired person is kinda hard to read…I know part of it is talking about American products and referring to Americans as wolves? I think this might be a North Korean dialect using Chinese characters…