All Things North Korea Thread

[China]

A Life Photoessay on N. Korea from 2010:

http://www.life.com/hdgallery/53201/image/ugc1151601/north-korea-inside-a-secret-state#index/0

The comments of the photographer's are interesting, especially this one:

"I fell in love with the North Korean people, really," Knight says. "They were so kind. So thoughtful. And while I would never defend the regime in North Korea -- it's obviously beyond evil -- and while almost any alternative is probably better than what's there now, it's also clear that regime change could cause real harm to the very people it's supposed to help. There will be enormous trauma, like someone waking from a 50-year coma. The regime should change, should become more open -- but a lot will be lost. You have millions and millions of people who have never been exposed to the ravages of the unfettered free market, of corporate greed. Certainly their neighbors, the Chinese and the South Koreans, are intensely competitive, and are simply going to swallow them up. Whatever comes next, I fear it will seriously damage the mental well-being of the North Korean people."

[RVAbrendan]

A Life Photoessay on N. Korea from 2010:

http://www.life.com/hdgallery/53201/image/ugc1151601/north-korea-inside-a-secret-state#index/0

The comments of the photographer's are interesting, especially this one:

Very interesting, and certainly points to bring into consideration. Although, I don't doubt that North Koreans are a very tough people. They live in horrible conditions and are consistently hungry. If they were exposed to the modern world, I think the fact that they will have the opportunity to make a name for themselves, fill their bellies, and explore otherwise unknown culture & technology will overcome the shell-shock of their past-life.

[mcsluggo]

In theory I guess it could actually get worse, but that's very unlikely since things are so bad there.

....

clearly you do not have a good enough imagination....

[Predicto]

Since NK is little more than a puppet dictatorship run by the Chinese, I doubt we'll see much different.

No, it really isn't. China tries to use them, but North Korea runs on its own weird dynamic. The wikileaks cables showed just how much NK embarasses China. But for historic and geopolitic reasons, China is stuck with this "ally," no matter how stupid North Korea gets. Kind of the way we in the US are stuck with Pakistan as our "ally."

Above all, what China wants is stability and border control in North Korea. They don't want the regime to collapse and allow millions of hungry refugees to run across the border into China.

It has to be the saddest place on earth

This I agree with. It is Orwellian.

Edited December 19, 2011 by Predicto

[@DCGoldPants]

No, it really isn't. China tries to use them, but North Korea runs on its own weird dynamic. The wikileaks cables showed just how much NK embarasses China. But for historic and geopolitic reasons, China is stuck with this "ally," no matter how stupid North Korea gets. Kind of the way we in the US are stuck with Pakistan as our "ally."

Above all, what China wants is stability and border control in North Korea. They don't want the regime to collapse and allow millions of hungry refugees to run across the border into China.

This I agree with. It is Orwellian.

Weird....while reading that I thought....."Why hasn't China taken them over?"

I'm sure there are a ton of good questions like international response. But would anybody really be shocked if all the sudden NK announces they are joining China to strengthen themselves for the people...blah blah blah.?

[Predicto]

Weird....while reading that I thought....."Why hasn't China taken them over?"

I'm sure there are a ton of good questions like international response. But would anybody really be shocked if all the sudden NK announces they are joining China to strengthen themselves for the people...blah blah blah.?

I would be incredibly shocked. The Korean people have their own ethnicity, history, language and mythology. They do not consider themselves Chinese at all.

Add in the fact that China doesn't want them.

[GibbsFactor]

Weird....while reading that I thought....."Why hasn't China taken them over?"

I'm sure there are a ton of good questions like international response. But would anybody really be shocked if all the sudden NK announces they are joining China to strengthen themselves for the people...blah blah blah.?

The Great Successor is going to do everything he can to retain the power his father has handed him. Believe that.

Plus, the people there are so brainwashed, it would take generations to get them to be productive modern Earthlings.

The only hope would be for the Great Successor to actually be just that and open his country up a little by little. Let information come in. I fear it will not happen.

The worst thing that could happen is that this young Great Successor, ignorant to the horrors of war, rekindles the feud with the south to "retake" Korea.

[RVAbrendan]

I wouldn't be. The transition into the 'new' regime would pave way to embrace China, and possibly even social media. From what I've read, Kim Jon Eun may be slightly more understanding than his father. He was once noted saying something to the regard of “We have all of this wealth. But what of the average citizen?”

Similar to Egypt, the fear could arise of an even harsher dictatorship, fueling the fire for a peoples revolution and cry for equality. Hey, tis the global season for uprising!

[frostyj]

Pretty much, when you live in total isolation and are told on a regular basis how bad everyone outside of NK has it compared to you, you have a pretty skewed world view.

There are a lot of people in NK right now that are very upset that he's gone.

This is true. Some of the video's that I saw looked as if people were gathered up and told to cry. They were younger, teens to twenty something. Either way it is very strange watch knowing the truth.

[RVAbrendan]

Interesting LA Times Article

According to this article, KJE’s uncle has been involved with the Worker’s Party and is married to KJI’s younger sister. Puppet regime anyone?

Other notables: Kim Jung Eun was described by Swiss classmates as having a crazy love for basketball and computer games.

Kim Jong Il’s oldest son was originally the successor, but was discovered at a Tokyo airport with a fake passport – he was trying to visit Disneyland with his family. Apparently, he’s against the family-inclusive regime.

[TheGoodBits]

Haven't read through the whole thread to see if this has been posted, but here you go.

https://twitter.com/#!/ExJon/status/148820034611978240/photo/1

"North Korea releases official picture of new leader Kim Jong Un. "

[HailGreen28]

The man, the myth, the legend.

[SKINS@THEGOALLINE]

The man, the myth, the legend.

But then, along came Kim Jong-il and one incredible day in 1994, when the Dear Leader of the Democratic People’s Republic of North Korea picked up a golf club for the very first time, and — as witnessed by 17 security guards and reported by the state news agency — shot a smooth 38-under-par round of 34, including 11 holes-in-one.

Read more: http://www.vancouversun.com/news/Jong+golfing+accomplishments+will+never+repeated/5883374/story.html#ixzz1h1QvHPOS

[AsburySkinsFan]

But then, along came Kim Jong-il and one incredible day in 1994, when the Dear Leader of the Democratic People’s Republic of North Korea picked up a golf club for the very first time, and — as witnessed by 17 security guards and reported by the state news agency — shot a smooth 38-under-par round of 34, including 11 holes-in-one.

Read more: http://www.vancouversun.com/news/Jong+golfing+accomplishments+will+never+repeated/5883374/story.html#ixzz1h1QvHPOS

And then went out to bowl a couple of frames and in his first ever game playing bowling the Dear Leader bowled a perfect 300!!

[Corcaigh]

But then, along came Kim Jong-il and one incredible day in 1994, when the Dear Leader of the Democratic People’s Republic of North Korea picked up a golf club for the very first time, and — as witnessed by 17 security guards and reported by the state news agency — shot a smooth 38-under-par round of 34, including 11 holes-in-one.

Because of this I thought his death would have been the main story on ESPN, but there's no mention of it. I guess they are Tiger fanboys.

[Willy Wonka]

Why don't you do a google search on North Korean"Gulags"

Spend about 3 hours reading then come back and apologize

Apologize for what? You're acting like finding it odd to celebrate someones death means I also approve of what the person did while they were alive. For the record, the man, from what I understand, was a very sick human being and I do not approve of what he did or what he stood for. But how you could twist what I'm trying to say into anything else then what I have already said about the subject is really strange.

Edited December 19, 2011 by Willy Wonka

[G.A.C.O.L.B.]

Willy Wonka:

1945, you're the same age as you are now. War has been going on in Europe for six years. It looks like it will be coming to an end soon but who knows what the future holds. Then you hear the news: Hitler is dead.

Happy? Celebrate?

[Predicto]

Let it go. Willy Wonka was expressing a legitimate point of view.

When Osama Bin Laden died, I was happy. But I also felt weird that I was feeling happy that someone was dead. It felt inappropriate to cheer death like that. I believe I said so at the time. So did Henry and several others.

WW has expressed no approval of Kim Jong Il, so there is no reason to press this point forever.

[SnyderShrugged]

Gawker has this factoid list that is awesome!

http://gawker.com/5869210/giant-rabbits-and-double-rainbows-the-10-most-insane-delusions-of-kim-jong+il

Giant Rabbits and Double Rainbows: The 10 Most Insane Delusions of Kim Jong-il

With the death of Kim Jong-il, the world loses one of the greatest self-aggrandizing fantasists of all time. Here are ten of the craziest Jong-il stories floating out there:

1. North Korean schools teach children that Jong-il's birth was "supernatural." He was born in a log cabin inside a secret base on the sacred Mt. Paekdu, the story goes, and his arrival was accompanied by the apparition of a new star. The seasons then spontaneously changed from winter to spring, and a double-rainbow appeared, followed by a talking iceberg. (Western accounts say he was born in a guerrilla camp in Russia.)

2. In 2006, Jong-il learned that a man in Germany breeds giant rabbits. He found them delightful and decided they were the key to solving North Korea's widespread hunger problem:

So Kim gets in touch with 68-year-old Karl Szmolinsky of Berlin, the world's foremost breeder of giant rabbits, and says he wants Szmolinsky to come to Pyongyang and set up a farm to breed these rabbits. For Kim believes that the meat yielded by these rabbits will end his people's starvation. [...]

Undeterred, Kim pays for 12 rabbits, at a cost of about $115 each. He tells Szmolinsky that the rabbits will be kept at a petting zoo in Pyongyang and, in a few months, Szmolinsky will be flown in to help really set up a farm for breeding.

In February of 2007, about five or six months later, Szmolinsky gets a call from a North Korean official canceling that trip. Why? Because, Szmolinsky believes, Kim couldn't resist... and ate the giant rabbits to celebrate his birthday.

3. State textbooks claim Jong-il does not produce urine or feces

4. Jong-il long claimed to be the world's greatest golfer. In 1994, Pyongyang media reported that he shot 38 under par on a regulation 18-hole golf course, including 5 holes in one.

5. As the World Festival of Youth and Students approached in 1989, Jong-il had disabled residents removed from Pyongyang. The government also distributed pamphlets that touted a wonder drug that cures shortness. He then sent the short people who responded to a series of uninhabited islands, in the hopes of ridding his nation of "imperfect" genes.

6. He imprisoned relatives of convicts because he is convinced "the stain of criminality" persists for three generations.

7. The leader had a fear of flying, so he had lobsters airlifted onto his armored train — presumably the same train he died on — when he traveled.

8. Jong-il was Hennessy's biggest single client in 1993 and 1994, spending $850,000 annually on the cognac.

9. In 1978, Jong-il had South Korean filmmaker Shin Sang-ok kidnapped and held captive with his wife for 8 years, forcing the couple to produce propaganda movies for him. He'd take an executive producer credit on all of them. One was a blatant ripoff of Godzilla called Pulgasari, about the evils of capitalism. The couple eventually escaped during a location shoot in Austria. Jong-il later instructed his Ministry of Culture to "make more cartoons."

10. Kijong-Dong is a city built in the 1950s by Kim's father, set on the border as an example to South Korea of their superiority. No one lives there, but every effort was made to make it function like an actual city. The buildings have no glass in the windows and no rooms: They are just concrete shells. It's also home to the world's largest flagpole.

Edited December 20, 2011 by SnyderShrugged

[Reic]

Anyone game to go halvsies on a few McDonald's franchises in NK now?

[Predicto]

Anyone game to go halvsies on a few McDonald's franchises in NK now?

What are they going to pay with? Handfuls of gravel?

[NavyDave]

Anyone game to go halvsies on a few McDonald's franchises in NK now?

Considering the alleged delicacies and food source preferences in N.K., Sales in McDonalds over there may be Ruff

[bird_1972]

What are they going to pay with? Handfuls of gravel?

Does it make me a terrible human that I lol'd at this?

[Passepartout]

Got other things to say about this nutcase and they are all bad. But will spare you the language. Now these people have to deal with his more nutcase of a son.

[HailGreen28]

Does it make me a terrible human that I lol'd at this?

It's preposterous that Best Koreans would want to eat at a McDonald's anyways.