Jeff Cohen stood in awe, looking up at the 22 meter statues of North Korea’s two deceased leaders, Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il, giving him perspective of what the country and its government stands for.

According to Reuters, 1,000 runners from across the world participated in the annual Pyongyang Marathon April 10, including history teacher Cohen.

Cohen said his fascination with the country made the marathon a great reason to travel.

“It was a good excuse to go, but I would’ve certainly wanted to go there anyway,” Cohen said.

According to Cohen, he ran four laps around the city of Pyongyang with people from 50 other countries while local men, women and children cheered him on.

“The first lap was the best. Everybody was excited, there were little kids lining the streets of Pyongyang. You’d stop and take pictures with them and say hi to them. Even the adults were friendly,” Cohen said.

Cohen said he not only ran the marathon, but toured the country as well. He said he traveled with people from all over the world, visiting various sites.

“There were a couple other Americans, but it was mainly people from Europe — countries like France and Switzerland,” Cohen said.

Cohen said he never felt unsafe despite the lack of diplomatic relations between North Korea and the United States.

Sophomore Jacob Riley, a student of Cohen’s, said he never doubted Cohen’s safety.

“As long as he didn’t do anything rash and followed his packet of rules he was given, I knew he’d be fine,” Riley said.

Cohen said he knew if he obliged to his tour group guidelines he would have no problems.

“The second I met up with my group and saw everybody, it was a safe environment,” Cohen said.

Cohen said he did, however, feel tempted to step out of line a few times.

“Absolutely (I felt tempted to break some rules). The whole mystery of the fifth floor of the hotel where I stayed was tempting,” Cohen said.

Cohen said he was referring to the University of Virginia student who, according to Penn State University’s newspaper, “The Collegian,” stole propaganda from the fifth floor of the hotel Cohen was staying in. He was sentenced to 15 years of hard labor for betraying the state of North Korea, according to CNN.

According to Cohen, while he faced various electricity shortages, although his tour group, Koryo Tours, supplied him with enough food and water to make it through the week

“(We had enough food) because (North Korea) wanted to show off. The food was awful though,” Cohen said. “Water was not super easy to come by. You could buy bottled water,” Cohen said.

Riley said he thought Cohen’s visit to North Korea was intriguing.

“I was excited. I am always hearing about North Korea in the news and their latest threat and to have my teacher going there is both exciting and nerve-racking,” Riley said.

According to Riley, Cohen shared a North Korean propaganda video the country allowed him to bring home with his students.

Cohen said he felt a little guilty about financially contributing to the North Korean regime, but he also thought he represented something much bigger.

“(Openness to the outside world) is what it will take for that regime to be brought down. People will say, ‘We don’t want to live like this anymore. We want openness,’” Cohen said.