PYONGYANG, North Korea — When I first found out I was going with the New York Philharmonic to Pyongyang, North Korea, I started thinking about what kinds of stories I could do and immediately I thought of my own family.

I wouldn’t normally do a story on my family, but this seemed like the right time. My family is just one of thousands of families who suffered through during the Korean War – which ultimately divided North and South Korea. So in telling my family’s story, I am in some small way telling the story of the Korean people.

For me, this has also been a way for me to learn about my family history and that learning experience has been invaluable and often emotional. My parents were born in Seoul, South Korea, but they were forced to flee the city when the communist North invaded the South in 1950.

During the course of the war, two of my dad’s uncles disappeared. We still don’t know what happened to them, but we believe they are living in North Korea and my goal is to find them while I’m there.I’ve even written a letter to the North Korean government asking for their help.

I’ve just interviewed my 90-year-old grandmother and my parents, who traveled from the States to meet me in Seoul and help me with this story.My grandmother talked about how my family suffered during the Korean War and how she starved to feed her four children.

It was at this point that I saw my dad cry for only the second time in my life.   My grandmother also told me if I do get to meet these long lost relatives, please tell them that she’s still alive and healthy and that the rest of the family is doing well. I’m not sure how likely it is that I’ll find my relatives once I arrive in North Korea, but my mother envisions the day they can travel freely to the South for a family reunion.  In her words, it’ll take “a miracle,” to find them, but we still have hope.

You can watch my package here

LONDON, England – It has been days since the last model worked the catwalk at London Fashion Week, but we’re still getting jitters over our extraordinary backstage access at the Julien Macdonald show - for many the culmination of this fashion season.

Alphonso Van Marsh, right, interviews
Julien Macdonald, center, and Egyptian jewelry designer Azza Fahmy.

I’m working a story about Azzy Fahmy, an Egyptian jewelry designer who very ingeniously teamed up with the famed fashion guru to get her work on London catwalks.

The collaboration, one part of Fahmy’s strategy to build her design brand internationally. His clothes. Her accessories. In a phrase: Designer Bling Bling.

We met Fahmy at her design center in Cairo as she meticulously watched over the construction of each curve and clasp of her necklaces, bracelets and rings.

I met up with her again at London Fashion Week as she and Macdonald put the finishing touches on their designs.

The energy backstage was insane: Almost like that TV show “Project Runway” brought to life. Models must be matched to Polaroid pictures displaying hair, make-up and clothes.

A statuesque human coat hanger in a gold dress who easily had three inches on me — and I’m six feet tall — strikes an almost pharaonic pose… turns out she’s just catching her balance on mammoth heels. Fahmy catches our eye as she gives a resounding “OK” sign after a scantily clad model slips into a beaded black outfit — and puts on a sparkling, hand-cut ring necklace Fahmy designed. Breathtaking.

In another room, across from the buffet table with nothing but diet cola, bottled water and vegetarian sandwiches, a hair stylist catches me looking aghast. He’s pressing a hot comb through a model’s hair - and the smoke is wafting upward.

“Its steam! Not smoke,” he says with a wink of the eye. The smell tells me otherwise.

And through all the madness, we had a chance for an interview with Fahmy and Macdonald together, reunited backstage. It was a fun moment. And the show — well, if you missed it, check out our profile on Azza Fahmy on CNN’s Marketplace Middle East, scheduled to air March 24.

CENTCOM C-40, The Persian Gulf – Finally after seven days traveling halfway around the world, myself and CNN cameraman Doug Schantz are on the way home, traveling military style with one of the country’s most senior commanders, Admiral William Fallon, head of the U.S. Central Command.

The C-40 is a military VIP version of the Boeing 737. Packed with communications gear and high speed Internet at every seat — including mine — Fallon can stay in touch 24/7 and I can file for CNN.com.

Of course, staying in touch is vital for Fallon. As head of Central Command he has top responsibilities for Iraq, Afghanistan, the Persian Gulf, Pakistan — and yes, he keeps a very close eye on Iran.

Fallon invited CNN to travel exclusively with him on this trip that would take him to Iraq and several Persian Gulf nations. Like many CNN correspondents I have made several trips to Iraq and Afghanistan — its always half adventure and three-quarters trying to stay awake on the grueling 20-hour days. As I write, poor Doug is collapsed in the next seat. He’s been shooting our pieces, editing them, feeding them into CNN via satellite and hauling about 250 pounds of gear everyday.

As for adventure, it started on our first day at MacDill Air Force Base in Florida, Fallon’s headquarters and also the headquarters for Special Operations Command, known as SOCOM. SOCOM agreed to let us have an up-close and personal look at a new assault rifle they are about to field with some of the nation’s most secretive military commando units. Yup, even I test fired it — under the strict supervision of a couple of Army Rangers.

We took off and flew first to Shannon Airport, Ireland for an overnight refueling stop — where the war awaited us. These days, in the middle of the night Shannon airport is full of young American troops coming and going from the war zone. You don’t have to ask them in which direction they are headed, you just look at those young faces and know.

Next stop Qatar, and our first conversation with local military leaders. We met with the Qatari chief of staff General Hamad bin Ali Al Attyah at his desert home where he raises beautiful hunting falcons. We got a unique look at these birds of prey and than sat down to lunch of boiled camel, lamb and heaps of rice and vegetables. But the talk turned to Iran, and our Qatari hosts made it clear Iran is a great concern to them.

We would hear the same worries in Oman, Abu Dhabi and Dubai. But all of these small Gulf nations maintain extensive commercial and economic ties with Iran; the Qataris, for example, share an offshore gas field. For them, Iran is a neighbor; worrisome, but nobody in the Gulf wants war and there is an effort to get along.

As always when you land in Iraq everyone on board goes quiet. We were on a C-17 transport plane and the pilot executed several swift manuvers just before touching down to avoid any prospect of a being hit by missiles, rockets or gunfire. What I didn’t know is that a day later that is exactly what we would be worried about.

Our first stop was Balad, a giant airfield and U.S. base about 50 miles north of Baghdad. I was met by three guys who I can only say are “members of the coalition.” They showed me the latest videos and documents captured from the insurgency. We spent the night in Baghdad at a secure military facility. I have spent many nights in this building since 2003. This time there was improved Internet access. It was nice for us visitors, but it’s absolutely vital for the troops, allowing them to stay in touch with family and friends back home.

The next day we headed to Falluja. For months it was a dreaded place: Who can forget the horrifying pictures of U.S. contractors’ bodies hanging from the bridge, the months and months of al Qaeda terror and the two massive battles the U.S. fought to retake the town?

I was truly amazed to be walking these streets with Fallon. The marketplace was crowded and the people were friendly. This IS a success story of the US troop surge. But Fallon is looking beyond the security: He wants to know why there is only power three hours a day, why there are few jobs and what is being done to really get the city back on its feet. With the security picture finally improving, the problem now is improving the daily lives of Iraqis so peace can be maintained.

Finally we got back on the V-22 tilt rotor aircraft we were riding around on. We were flying back to Baghdad with everyone is nodding off when suddenly we realized we were circling the capital. The pilot had been denied permission to land as the Green Zone was under rocket attack. Up to a dozen rounds had already hit, and everyone at the place where we stayed the night before was waiting it out.

We were now running low on fuel and it was getting dark, so we flew back to the Marine Corps base at Falluja and stopped at the chow hall for the first meal of the day. But Fallon wanted to get back to Baghdad. He had a key meeting that night with General David Petraeus, the top commander inside Iraq, to discuss strategy, including timetables for withdrawing more troops.

But dust storms closing in on Baghdad, all aircraft were now grounded, forcing us to make a critical decision. Our entire traveling party were suited up with helmets and armored vests for a drive through the night across areas that were once the heartland of the insurgency.

There’s an expression everyone uses in moments like this: “Welcome to Iraq!” It roughly translates to “Well… what are you gonna do?” Little did I know that would be the watchword for the next couple of hours. About an hour into the convoy ride we came to a halt. Iraqi forces had suddenly established a checkpoint on the road and we could not pass. So our convoy carrying the four-star commander is now at a dead stop, at night, not certain how to proceed. This is what you call bad juju. Convoys in Iraq don’t stop, they keep moving. Stopping means you are vulnerable to attack; stopping can mean deadly trouble.

The lead vehicle called for everyone to turn off their lights. We were trying not to be seen. Finally the interpreter traveling with us went up to the Iraqis to ask for directions to an alternate route so we could get moving again. Nobody said it, but everyone is thinking the same thing, remembering the tragedy of Jessica Lynch’s convoy in the early days of the war. They took a wrong turn and disaster struck.

At this point, Admiral Fallon was making it clear he wass less than happy. Not because he feared for his safety: This man in his sixties is committed to taking the same risks as the young troops in the field. But he wanted to know how troops get on roads and don’t have immediate plans for alternatives at hand when things like this happen. Stopping on the roads at night is the last option for a military convoy, not the first.

We eventually made it, safe but exhausted back to Baghdad.

Our incident seemed to underscore the irony of success in Iraq. The checkpoint had been put up by Iraqi security forces to keep insurgents off the main routes into Baghdad. The Marines driving us had been in the country for just a few weeks and, because of improved security conditions, hadn’t seen combat yet, so were frankly a bit unsure as to what to do when confronted with the unexpected.

But that’s Iraq these days — and there’s another expression out there which is my favorite: “Semper gumby,” which of course in military-ese means “always flexible.” And these days that’s what it takes to cover the war, even when it means filing from an Internet connection on an airplane 40,000 feet above… wait, lemme go ask the navigator where we are right now… okay I’m back… and we are now… flying back above northern Iraq on our way into Turkish airspace, on our way back to a refueling stop in Shannon where I know we again will see young troops coming and going from this war.

And Doug, utterly exhausted, is still sound asleep. I won’t wake him up.

SEOUL, South Korea – I leave for North Korea in less than a week to cover the New York Philharmonic’s concert in Pyongyang. It is the first time an American orchestra has ever been invited to play in this communist country.North Korea is one of the most secretive societies in the world, and going there for me is a huge professional and personal accomplishment. I was born and raised in the United States, but I am of Korean descent. My parents were born in South Korea and both fled the North Korean army during the Korean War. My dad’s two uncles disappeared during the war and part of my reporting will include the search for my relatives who I believe may be living in Pyongyang.

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — Dozens of polls, pundits and analysts later, the Pakistani elections are over. There are still some political uncertainties, but people are just relieved that things have been less violent than anticipated.Voter turnout was reportedly higher than the last election and with opposition parties on good footing, protestors aren’t taking to the streets and there hasn’t been any notable violence the day after polling.I spent most of the election in a hotel room, making phone calls and being yelled at by unfriendly politicians, a harsh reality of roof-top journalism and bad fodder for a blog. But speaking to interviewees, including politicians, analysts, government officials and Joe Pakistan, things are looking positive.

LONDON, England – If the public following the inquest into the deaths of Diana, Princess of Wales and her lover expected a showdown in Court 73 from Mohamed Al Fayed , they certainly got one.

The billionaire father of Dodi Al Fayed, who died in a car crash with Diana, was testifying in the inquest into the couple’s death. And within minutes, the teary-eyed Egyptian called the August 1997 crash “hot murder.”

“I will not rest until I die. If I lose everything to find the truth,” Al Fayed told the court.

Al Fayed repeated his allegations that the royal ramily was responsible for the crash, that Diana was pregnant and that the couple was about to announced their engagement. Allegations a string of other witnesses have denied.

When an inquest lawyer challenged Al Fayed as to why he didn’t tell everybody as soon as he knew about Diana and Dodi”s alleged engagment, Al Fayed tersely replied, “it was one hour before they were murdered. Am I going to announce it after they were dead?”

He also added his allegation that Prince Philip — the husband of the Queen — couldn’t bear to have a Muslim be stepfather to the future king of England.

Al Fayed then let out a torrent of claims and exhortations: That members of the Royal family were racist and that he deserved a fair hearing in court because he had brought so much business into the UK.

Some of his curt answers actually drew laughter from members of the public watching the testimony via video in an adjourning room.

“Diana suffered for 20 years from this Dracula family,” Al Fayed said, to chuckles inside and outside the court.

Some of the exchanges would be funny, were it not so clear that Al Fayed is still grieving for his son — and is clearly disturbed by suggestions his version of events are “hallucinations.”

The inquest continues…

NEW YORK — I would normally be writing from London or some European city on a quick road trip for CNN.

This month I am in New York temporally covering the markets and business news

Though I was born on the East Coast of the USA, London has been my home for 18 years, so it always amazes me how different it is to cover news in America

The evidence could not be starker than in general news. This week, 24 hours after a multiple shooting, CNN had the brother of the killer on air live talking about his dead sibling. In Europe you would be lucky to have a still photo of the shooter, let alone any video of a family member after the first 24 hours.

The same principle applies in business news, though thankfully its not usually about life and death.

My first week here, we were at the new Gucci store on 5^th Avenue, less than 24 hours before the opening of the luxury brand’s largest store in the world. It was not an exclusive, so the CEO Mark Lee has to take an hour out of his schedule for us and then for each of our competitors. It may be a European brand, but he is San Francisco-born and has an American feel for news. Sure, it was all PR and we were lead around to show how “marvelous” everything was, but he did not shy away from questions about a possible U.S. recession, about the weak dollar and about opening a behemoth when many Americans are spending less.

In Europe we may have been allowed in a store for the ‘pre-launch’ party or something. However, we may have been behind ropes or only allowed access to certain parts of the floor. In addition, we certainly would be forbidden from interrupting the last minute panic all stores suffer. In the case of Gucci, builders were shushed, ladders moved and Gucci-hired photographers from Hong Kong told to get lost so their lights did not bother us.

The difference was even starker the night before Gucci. We covered a “cougar” speed dating evening. “Cougars” are older women (over 35) interested in meeting younger men. In this case, some women I think were over 45 and some of the men were certainly under 25. The twist this night; the women had to be rich, with more than $4 million in the bank. Sure, it is a bit of fluff for a Valentine’s piece, but only a handful of the ladies refused to be interviewed. One, Gail, was happy to spill all for the camera; an honest assessment of why a wealthy older woman who is in fashion would subject herself to a very public evening.

Even if this kind of event would take place in London or Paris, I know we would have few people to interview.

Americans do all seem to be waiting around for their 15 minutes, whether for good news or bad. You can certainly question that. Nevertheless, when it comes to business news, the willingness of companies to co-operate, the willingness of analysts to travel through mid-town traffic for a 15-second sound bite, the willingness of the average person to comment about anything is refreshing. I don’t look forward to March when I get back to trying to get companies to return my phone calls.

CNN's Adrian Finighan (left), Neil Bennet (center-left) and Alysen Miller (right) meet Robert Redford at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.

BARCELONA, Spain — The stands are being dismantled. The delegates are drifting away to prepare for the journey home. Relationships have been strengthened and new ones begun. And so, after four frenetic days, the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona is over for another year.

I sincerely hope to be back. As trade fairs go this one is pretty special. Wherever you are and whatever you do, if you use mobile technology in any way, shape, or form what happened here in Barcelona this week will impact your life

From the phone that you’ll upgrade to, to the software you’ll use. From the applications and content you’ll download to the network infrastructure innovations you’ll use without even knowing it. It all debuted right here at this show.

But while it’s all so very exciting, the journalist in me is frustrated. I could have filled hours of airtime with coverage of what went on here. Being the premier industry showcase, the big fish in mobile technology are all here and freely available to those of us here to cover it.

And while our reporting told you everything you need to know about the main issues of the day, the constraints of TV and the Web mean that I was only able to scratch the surface!

And I haven’t even mentioned the little guys. There are so many smaller companies with fascinating stories to tell and exciting products to push that I’d have needed a whole year of airtime to give you a true flavor of the show. Such is the life of a TV reporter!

So, what did I enjoy most? Well, meeting and interviewing Robert Redford, urbane and articulate as always, was a high point. And chatting with industry big-wigs and CEOs like Sunil Mittal of Bharti, Jim Balsillie of RIM, Samsung’s Geesung Choi. And with Dan Harple of GyPSii, a mobile social networking platform which, I’m willing to bet, will soon be as big a phenomenon as Facebook. Bigger, perhaps.

And of course there were the phones, the new “iPhone killers.” My Palm Treo 650 is looking a little tired and if Apple doesn’t release a 3G version of its iPhone anytime soon I’ll be choosing Samsung’s gorgeous new “Soul.” Or one of Nokia’s new GPS-equipped beauties. And if I can hang on just a little longer I could take possession of the sublime new Garmin GPS phone which will ship later this year.

I loved the mobile software company that was marketing an application that offered real-time translations of both SMS and voice calls, just like the babel fish in “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.”

But, for me at least, the most exciting innovation on show was the Femtocell, the small white box that may sound the death knell for fixed line telephony. Remember where you read about it first.

Time for me to head back to London. So, until February 2009 and next year’s Mobile World Congress, it’s adios Barcelona!

Watch my report on the Femtocell here.

BAGHDAD, Iraq — After four years, I’m standing in a room with the finest press corps in the world. After four years – they’re throwing ME a party.

We’ve been through hell and back … and back again.

From Fallujah, Mosul, Ramadi, Tikrit and to the depths of Baghdad – we’ve literally, spilled the same blood, in the same dirt. Corny? Maybe … But it’s true.

We’ve lost friends, loved ones, and colleagues. I choose not to count those who have died, gone missing – or simply disappeared. And that’s not counting those who have made ultimate sacrifice, and are often forgotten: those in the Iraqi press, choosing to try to make a difference in their own country. The numbers of lost are just too hard to imagine.

Many of my colleagues have not disappeared here in Iraq – they’ve gone “home” and we’ve never heard from them again. Truth is – what is “home” after four years in Iraq? I wonder how any of us can return home.

I’m humbled by a line I saw in a mini-series about World War II: “I wonder how I’ll explain all this when I get back home.” I do wonder how any of us will explain this place.

Our families – they don’t know … and we would not expect them to – how could we? We don’t want them to have the burden of worrying about us. Because if they do, we can’t do our jobs with that on our shoulders along with everything else that we’re faced with.

And the simple, humbling truth is: we believe in this … If anyone didn’t they would not be in this room.

We have had “close calls,” we have made mistakes – we stay up at night, wanting the world to care … But they will never care enough in our minds. So we choose not to sleep.

We miss our families, our loved ones … But there’s something about this story – we cannot shake it. It sticks to you like duct tape – something that is a running joke … Injured? Stick some duct tape on it. Break that piece of equipment? Stick some duct tape on it. We do love our duct tape …

Our tourniquets, bandages, flak jackets, gum, cigarettes, scotch, water, Gatorade, “wily-X eye protection glasses,” boots, radios, “go-bags”, lucky charms and helmets. Don’t leave the bureau without them. Especially the lucky charms – everyone’s got em’ and they work … Until they don’t … Welcome to the embed world. Welcome to Iraq.

We make jokes (bad ones), band together, and look after each other. We’d lay in front of oncoming traffic for any number of our staff members – everyone is equal here in Baghdad. We cut corners, we give the military cigars – and yes, we lie to each other, party together and forgive each other - because in the end – we’re bonded by something we can’t describe.

We love our security – for without them … You’d see nothing from this country. The sound of silence would be overwhelming from a war that could not be covered without the names of many a former Special Forces soldiers; the names of which – you’ll never hear. Talk about a silent sacrifice.

I choose not to name names, not to list those that are forever my friends: rather this simple thought for those who know who they are.

These are the finest people I’ve ever had the honor of meeting, and they know full well; I breathe this story like it’s oxygen … And I will be back again.