在朝鮮，我是一名“隱形”的西方記者

“時(shí)報(bào)內(nèi)情”專欄(Times Insider)為讀者呈現(xiàn)《紐約時(shí)報(bào)》新聞、專題報(bào)道及評(píng)論的幕后故事。

PYONGYANG, North Korea — We all knew that Pyongyang would be odd. But the strangeness of the place hit hard while on a morning jog last week during a visit to the North Korean capital by a State Department delegation and journalists covering it — including me.

朝鮮平壤——我們都知道，平壤會(huì)很奇怪。但上周美國國務(wù)院代表團(tuán)及包括我在內(nèi)的隨行記者訪問朝鮮首都期間，這個(gè)地方的奇特之處，是在晨跑的時(shí)候令我深有感觸的。

The Paek Hwa Won Guesthouse had the feel of a minor Middle Eastern palace: gold carpets, jumpy staff and scores of empty rooms. Outside, a small lake with a brick path around its perimeter provided a running path for a jet-lagged reporter at 4 a.m.

百花園迎賓館給人的感覺就像一座小型的中東宮殿：金色的地毯、緊張不安的員工和大量的空房間。酒店外面有個(gè)小湖，周圍是一條磚砌的小路，它在凌晨4點(diǎn)為一名在倒時(shí)差的記者提供了跑步道。

Along the lake’s edge stood uniformed soldiers every 25 meters, carrying rifles with fixed bayonets. Each stiffened to attention as I jogged by and made a show of looking away, although one or two glanced in my direction once I had passed.

沿著湖邊，每隔25米就有身穿制服的士兵拿著帶刺刀的步槍站在那里。當(dāng)我慢跑經(jīng)過他們的時(shí)候，大家都挺直了身板，裝作在看別處的樣子，盡管有一兩個(gè)人朝著我的方向瞟了一眼。

On my second loop around, all but two of the soldiers had melted into the shrubbery and disappeared.

在我跑第二圈的時(shí)候，除了兩名士兵外，其他人都消失在了灌木叢中。

At one point, I headed for one of the compound’s exits. Two workers joined me, never looking my way, until we reached some sort of invisible line where one suddenly turned and gestured that I could go no farther. The studious lack of attention was the oddest part of the American delegation’s 28 hours in North Korea. We were all but invisible.

我一度朝著院子的一個(gè)出口跑去。兩名工作人員加入我，卻并不看我，直到我們來到了某種肉眼看不見的邊界，其中一人突然轉(zhuǎn)身，示意我不能再往前了。故意無視是美國代表團(tuán)在朝鮮停留的28個(gè)小時(shí)里最奇怪的部分。我們幾乎是隱形的。

“That was probably state-sponsored indoctrination,” said Sung-Yoon Lee of Tufts University’s Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy in Medford, Mass. “And at the guesthouse, I’m sure it was government diktat.”

“這很可能是國家教導(dǎo)的結(jié)果，”馬薩諸塞州梅德福市塔夫茨大學(xué)(Tufts University)弗萊徹法律外交學(xué)院(Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy)的李晟允(Lee Sung-Yoon)說。“在賓館里，我肯定那是政府的命令。”

Our motorcade’s vehicles were almost the only ones on the road between the empty airport and central Pyongyang, but workers in fields and bicyclists and pedestrians on sidewalks did not seem to look toward us.

在連接空蕩蕩的機(jī)場和平壤市中心之間的道路上，我們的車隊(duì)幾乎是唯一的車輛，但田里的勞動(dòng)者，路上騎自行車的人和行人，似乎都不會(huì)朝我們看。

During a tour of Pyongyang, uniformly well-dressed residents went about their business as if we were not there. The lone exceptions were young children, who stared.

在一次游覽平壤的行程中，穿著統(tǒng)一的考究衣服的居民們忙著自己的事情，對(duì)我們似乎視而不見。唯一的例外是小孩子，他們會(huì)盯著我們看。

Veteran North Korean experts counseled against making too much of the disconnect. They said North Koreans go to restaurants, work in hospitals and struggle with the same issues humans everywhere do.

資深的朝鮮問題專家建議，不要過分強(qiáng)調(diào)這種隔斷。他們說，朝鮮人也會(huì)下館子，也會(huì)在醫(yī)院工作，其他地方的人有的問題他們也有。

“It’s not that the people of North Korea are abnormal, it’s that their system is,” said Frank Jannuzi, the president of the Maureen and Mike Mansfield Foundation and a Korea scholar who has visited the North many times.

莫琳和邁克·曼斯菲爾德基金會(huì)(Maureen and Mike Mansfield Foundation)會(huì)長、多次訪問朝鮮的朝韓問題學(xué)者弗蘭克·詹努齊(Frank Jannuzi)說：“不正常的不是朝鮮人民，是他們的制度。”

On the hourslong city tour, which was organized for reporters by the North Korean Foreign Ministry, we saw perhaps a few thousand people in the capital of a country with 25 million residents. Many wore white uniforms, and some clipped patches of grass with small shears.

在朝鮮外交部為記者組織的這個(gè)長達(dá)數(shù)小時(shí)的市區(qū)觀光行程中，我們?cè)谶@個(gè)擁有2500萬人口的國家的首都，看到了大約幾千人。許多人都穿著白色的制服，有些人在用小修剪刀修剪一塊塊的草地。

At the foot of giant bronze statues of Kim Il-sung and Kim Jong-il, the country’s founding father and his son, at the Grand Monument on Mansu Hill, groups of citizens laid flowers and bowed in choreographed waves.

在萬壽臺(tái)大紀(jì)念碑廣場，金日成和金正日(朝鮮國父及其子)的巨大銅像腳下，一群群的民眾在獻(xiàn)花，整齊劃一地一批批鞠躬。

When Secretary of State Mike Pompeo travels abroad, his schedule is usually planned to the minute. But in the days leading up to the trip to North Korea, diplomats said they were uncertain how it would unfold, where we would stay, how we would communicate with the outside world and even what stamp we would need in our passports.

國務(wù)卿邁克·龐皮歐(Mike Pompeo)的出國訪問日程通常是精確到以分鐘計(jì)算的。但在前往朝鮮之前的幾天里，外交官們表示，他們不確定一切會(huì)如何進(jìn)行——包括我們將在哪里下榻，如何與外界溝通，甚至在護(hù)照上需要蓋什么章。

On the final leg of the flight into Pyongyang, the secretary’s security staff looked as edgy as they had the previous year during a visit to Kabul, Afghanistan, when rockets were raining down on the air base there.

在飛往平壤的最后一段路程中，國務(wù)卿的保安人員看上去就像前一年訪問阿富汗的喀布爾時(shí)一樣緊張，當(dāng)時(shí)火箭彈正如雨點(diǎn)般襲擊那里的空軍基地。

One of the diplomats on the flight asked for the numbers for any cellphones we journalists planned to bring into Pyongyang. We were counseled to turn off our mobiles — or at least shut down their ability to communicate — because “sometimes phones can behave erratically” long after leaving North Korea, ostensibly from exposure to surveillance.

飛機(jī)上的一位外交官詢問了我們記者計(jì)劃帶入平壤的手機(jī)號(hào)碼。我們被建議關(guān)閉手機(jī)——或至少關(guān)閉它們的通訊功能——因?yàn)樵陔x開朝鮮之后很久，“手機(jī)有時(shí)會(huì)表現(xiàn)得很不穩(wěn)定”，顯然是因?yàn)槭艿奖O(jiān)控的緣故。

State Department officials were so convinced that their every move was being watched that, even when they walked outside the guesthouse, they covered their mouths when whispering to each other so no one could read their lips.

國務(wù)院官員非常確信，他們的一舉一動(dòng)都受到監(jiān)視，即使在酒店外散步時(shí)，他們也總是捂著嘴巴互相耳語，以防別人讀他們的唇語。

Kim Kwang-hak, our North Korean government minder, made clear he was all too aware of the world beyond Pyongyang’s bubble as he took careful note of the media organization for which each of his charges worked.

朝鮮政府為我們派的保鏢金光學(xué)(Kim Kwang-hak，音)明確表示，他非常清楚平壤泡泡之外的世界，因?yàn)楝F(xiàn)在由他負(fù)責(zé)的所有媒體組織，他都認(rèn)真關(guān)注過。

“In this van, no fake news? No CNN or NBC?” he asked with a laugh.

“這輛面包車?yán)餂]有假新聞?沒有CNN和NBC?”他笑著問道。