'I left Merseyside for North Korea and want people to see how amazing it is'

Zoe Stephens left Crosby for Pyongyang and hasn't looked back

A woman who left Crosby for North Korea said she enjoys it so much she rarely returns to her hometown.

Zoe Stephens, who has visited the country more than 30 times in the last nine years, explained how she has found the country to be completely normal with people living there not caring if tourists come and go.

Speaking to the ECHO over the phone from Taiwan where she now lives, the 31-year-old said: "I first went to North Korea in March 2016. My fascination started when I was in Japan and people were telling me how they wanted to visit the UK but wouldn't because it was so dangerous.

"At the time, there was a refugee crisis and the threat level was quite high, but they thought it was like a warzone. The only thing that was scary during my time in the UK was when I was at university in Newcastle and I saw police with guns once.

"So when I went home I thought about North Korea and how the media represent them. I went there as a tourist and I decided, because of everything that I saw there, I had a passion of showing people the version I know."

Zoe now works for Koryo Tours and spends her time taking people from across the globe on tours of not just North Korea, but also the likes of Afghanistan and Syria.

Before the Covid-19 pandemic shutdown the world, Zoe would visit up to once a month, but it has proven to be more difficult since as borders only reopened in February this year, before shutting again.

She is next due to travel there this month for the Pyongyang Marathon, but is only allowed entry to the country on the condition she participates in the race.

She says there are set rules the group has to follow in order to avoid trouble - like travelling in a two-guide-to-one-tourist ratio, and never taking silly photos of art resembling dictator Kim Jong Un.

The tour guide posts videos of normal life in Pyongyang, North Korea, on TikTok - and says people in the comments accuse her of spreading propaganda.

But Zoe wants people to see the "amazing" side of the country - from hikes with amazing views to the "lovely humans" that live there.

Since leaving Crosby, Zoe has lived in China, Tonga, Japan, Zimbabwe and Austria with her tours usually beginning in Beijing, China, and head towards Pyongyang, North Korea - and every time she takes her group out, she needs to undertake a one-hour briefing session on the rules.

When asked about travelling, and more specifically North Korea, she said: "The most amazing thing is always being proven wrong about the places I'm visiting.

"No matter where you go it is just normal people doing normal things, everyone is human. It's just normal humans in different places."

Zoe admitted she does miss aspects of her home region with her mum still living in the area, and always tells people heading to the UK to go to Merseyside and Newcastle. She said: "I go back to Liverpool once or twice every year.

"When I go back to Liverpool I miss it. I miss the community and if people are ever going to the UK I tell them to go to Liverpool."