By Gabe Segoine
Kim Il-sung Square is a pretty interesting place. It’s where North Korea holds its massive military parades and national celebrations. The ground is marked with tens of thousands of position points, telling people exactly where to stand. And it’s huge—truly massive.
But when I think of Kim Il-sung Square, I don’t think of any of that.
Instead, I think of this picture I took in 2012. I call it “the smoking man picture,” and I often wonder about him. Why was he sitting alone on a stool in the middle of the square? Did he know that wearing house slippers outside is also common in South Korea? What was he thinking about? What is he doing now?
Did he have dreams when he was young—dreams that never came true because of where he lives?
I’ll probably never know the answers. But that hasn’t stopped me from wondering.
And who knows—maybe someday, under different circumstances, I’ll see him again in Kim Il-sung Square. If that happens, I’ll take the opportunity to sit down and have a chat.
Gabe Segoine is the founder of LNKM and author of Surfing North Korea. He spent over a decade in Northeast Asia doing humanitarian work focused on the DPRK. Gabe now writes about culture, faith, and emerging AI from a deeply human perspective. His book Surfing North Korea and Other Stories from Inside can be found on Amazon.