Footwear malfunction in front of Kim Il-sung
(WorldNews South Korea)

The `Free Willy` shoes, purchased in a market in Seoul, disintegrated while on a tour of North Korea. By Jon Dunbar When packing for vacation, it`s good to be prepared, because you can`t exactly run home and get whatever you left behind. This goes especially for North Korea, where even the possibility of buying a replacement is highly unlikely. A great deal of preparation went into both my North Korea visits, in August 2010 and September 2018. But there was one eventuality I hadn`t prepared for properly, both times. Ahead of my first visit, I`d bought a pair of sporty-looking running shoes from Moraene Market in western Seoul. I figured they`d be good for the trip, even though they were...