I would love to visit North Korea and write about it, but I can’t. Journalists are almost never allowed into the country. I would need to be one of the lucky few who are given a visa or I’ll have to wait for the government to reform or collapse.
In the meantime, a man I sort of know—Kyle B. Smith—was allowed in as a tourist this summer because he isn’t a journalist. He invited me to go with him, but I was denied permission before I could even fill out the paperwork.
He sent me postcards from the capital city of Pyongyang and wrote a long email describing his trip upon his return. I asked him if he’d be willing to expand that email into a dispatch for this Web site, and he agreed. Here is part one. All the photos are his.
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Welcome to North Korea
Kyle B. Smith
North Korea is on hardly anybody’s must-visit list, but it was on mine.
“Welcome aboard Air Koryo,” the hostess said on one of the small television screens that had descended from the ceiling every few rows, “where we strive to fulfill the socialist ideals of our Dear Leader General Kim Jong Il.”
My heart jumped a little as I realized that this was finally happening. After years of planning the details, researching the important things to see and do, investigating how to actually get there, and worrying that as an American I might be getting myself in over my head, I was finally on my way to North Korea, or the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) as it is formally called.
I sat in a rather new, Russian-built plane and tried making out what the Cyrillic letters said on the trays, aisles, and overhead compartments. As Air Koryo had been banned from European Union airspace for safety reasons, North Korean pride forced the airline to update at least some of its aging Soviet fleet.
I took my camera out and started snapping some photos. “No pictures!” I was politely, but firmly, admonished by a pretty young flight attendant. Though still sitting on the tarmac in Beijing, I figured it would be best to follow DPRK rules as being inside the Air Koryo plane already made me feel like I was under the watchful eye of the Dear Leader.\
You could easily tell who the North Korean citizens were. Each had a pin on his or her shirt, right over the heart, featuring either the beaming smile of Kim Il Sung, the Great Leader and Eternal President of Korea—the only official head of state who is dead—or a more innocuous pin with the North Korean flag on it.
I put my camera away and picked up a copy of the complimentary and unintentionally amusing Pyongyang Times that had been left on everyone’s seats. “Kim Jong Il Gives Field Guidance” was the front page headline. There was a picture of Kim Jong Il wearing dark sunglasses with a pack of wildly-cheering supporters in the background. The story was about how the Dear Leader visited a factory and “solved many problems,” thereby carrying the DPRK to the forefront of global innovation and technology. I turned the page and read about visiting delegations of old-school Western European Communist parties who all had fantastic things to say about the Dear Leader, the electoral system, the international respect it had, and the progress the nation said it had made.
The plane was filled with mostly Europeans. Some were tourists, others were visiting on business. There were some families with children. I wondered what on earth a family would be doing in North Korea. I looked around at all the Westerners on board the plane and I wondered what their stories and reasons were for traveling to this isolated country.
The flight arrived in Pyongyang around two hours later, landing at Sunan International Airport. As the door opened, I looked out the plane and I saw the first of many recognizable sights from the years of picture-stalking of other people’s trips I had done.
I walked off the airplane onto the tarmac and saw the giant, smiling face of Kim Il Sung greeting me. The excitement as everyone rushed off the plane was palpable. Most of us snapped photographs until the airport staffed shuffled all the passengers into immigration and customs.
We all turned over the multitude of forms given to us to fill out on the plane. “Are you carrying a cellular telephone with you?” If so, those need to be surrendered at the airport until you leave the country. You could bring a computer, but there was no Internet in the country. “Are you carrying any published material?” You cannot bring in materials about the DPRK published outside the DPRK. “Do you have a cough?” I guess they didn’t want any sick people spreading germs.
The process to get the visas before the trip was rather thorough so I was surprised we were all individually held up for what felt like a long time at passport control. Maybe it felt like a long time to me because back in the corner of my head I still wasn’t fully convinced that at some point they’d look at my American passport and scream, “imperialist bastard!” and arrest me in order to create another international incident, perhaps one requiring another top US statesman to come over and bail me out. At least I could get to meet Bill Clinton, I laughed to myself as I tried to remain calm. But after a brief time with the official at passport control, my passport was handed back to me without much fanfare. My concern was little more than paranoia. Upon leaving the airport, I looked behind me and realized that North Korea’s main airport terminal was just one large room the size of half of a high school gymnasium. It reminded me of how some of the earliest airports in the rest of the world must have appeared.
The first thing I noticed outside was the oppressive heat. It hadn’t been nearly as hot in Beijing just a few hours earlier. Next I noticed two young guides, a man and a woman, waiting for me. After my brief paranoid ideation with the stone-faced airport personnel, they were a breath of fresh air in the Korean heat. I had been warned that I’d have a no-nonsense, no-humor tour guide. These two looked, by contrast, pretty damn cool. One wore a pin with the Great Leader’s face on it. The other donned a pin with the North Korean flag.
On the ride into downtown Pyongyang, I saw people walking along the road, people in the fields, and some trucks passing by. “May I take pictures?,” I asked the female guide. “Sure,” she said.
I was pleasantly surprised since I had heard rumors that my camera would be next to useless in North Korea. That had turned out to be another unfounded fear. Except for military personnel, I was allowed to take pictures of anything and everything.
As the tour van got closer to the city center, I began to see more signs of life. The cars on the road were never as numerous as in Midtown Manhattan, but I did see decent traffic. Judging from the looks of the vehicles, many were from fellow tour groups, however. To visit North Korea meant I had to book my trip through a foreign travel agency.
I had made my arrangements with Korea Konsult, one of the largest travel agencies specializing in tours to the DPRK, which is based in Stockholm, Sweden. Korea Konsult coordinated my tour through the Korean International Tourism Company (KITC), a governmental body that handles virtually all of the nation’s tourism. You can’t buy a ticket to Pyongyang and just arrive at the airport and flag down a taxi. There is no independent tourism in the nation. The KITC will pick you up from the airport, take you to your hotel, feed you (quite well, to be honest), guide you, and drop you off at the airport or train station for your departure. And I liked that. For once, it was nice to have a trip where I didn’t have to do any of the planning myself and I could just be shuttled around.
During my stay, though, I wasn’t allowed any time alone outside the hotel. I had no opportunity to stroll the streets of Pyongyang. I definitely wasn’t allowed to talk to average North Koreans. I didn’t like that. One of my favorite things to do when going to a new city is to spend hours just aimlessly wandering the streets, learning the layout of the city, and seeing how people go about their daily lives. There would be none of that here.
The propaganda on the road to my hotel was ubiquitous and colorful. Half of it depicted artistic visages of heroic military exploits or hard work by the people. The other half showed the leadership. Of that latter group, almost all were of Kim Il Sung, the “Great Leader” who died in 1994. Kim Jong Il, the “Dear Leader,” though he presently runs the country, appeared to be a little more camera shy as he was not on display nearly as much as his father, though I still saw his picture.
I was surprised to see the number of “nice” cars on the streets. Though I had already been lectured on how the state owns “everything” in North Korea, my guides told me that different color license plates indicated different ownership. One color represented government-owned vehicles. They told me there were in fact some privately-owned vehicles, identifiable, they said, by the color of the plates. They were also identifiable, I thought, by the relative opulence of the car in the otherwise drab panoply of vehicles on the road. I was expecting no cars in Pyongyang, but there is some life and movement. Rush hour there may not resemble Beijing, Istanbul, or Los Angeles at close of business time, but there are numerous buses, trams, cars, and bicycles which ferry people around.
“Look to your left and you’ll see the Ryugyong Hotel!” the tour guide said excitedly. I looked out the window and I saw another recognizable sight: an unfinished pyramid or missile-looking hotel with glass and steel covering part of a concrete shell. Its odd shape would stand out anywhere in the world, and especially did so in otherwise short and Soviet-looking Pyongyang.
“It’s 105 stories and when it’s finished soon it will be one of the world’s tallest hotels. It’s already one of the world’s tallest buildings.” Everything she said was correct, except for the “finished soon” part. This hotel has been under construction since the 1980s, but due to the financial collapse brought on by the fall of the Soviet Union, the building has been in a perpetual state of to be “finished soon.”
We made a quick stop at the Arch of Triumph, Pyongyang’s answer to Paris’. North Korea’s is a little bigger and has more Asian architectural influences. The dates 1925 and 1945 are prominently displayed. The first date, according to North Korean sources, is when Kim Il Sung joined the resistance against the Japanese. The second date, again according to North Korean sources, is when the Great Leader drove them out.
The tour van continued on its way past some apartment buildings dotting the city. They weren’t avant-garde, but they had an undeniable charm to them. Many could use a touch-up, but the people had applied an array of colors to the otherwise plain communist-looking buildings. There were pastel-hued buildings all over the city, something I wasn’t expecting.
And I was hard-pressed to find many balconies that weren’t overflowing with flowers. The streets were clean and nondescript. There were few if any street signs, just revolutionary slogans. I couldn’t read them, but I knew what they were trying to express. I was here, in the nerve center of one of the most closed-off countries and a perpetual thorn in the side of the United States for six decades. And I loved it.
“Your hotel is up ahead,” my guide said.
I looked and saw a sleek modern tower on an island in the river hovering over the rest of the city. Up close the hotel looked a little more faded than it did from a distance, but it wasn’t in shambles. The lobby was interestingly gaudy, with a sloped ceiling that was trying to dazzle with many windows and lights. But it was bustling and lively with many tourists and with an inviting bar nearby. The basement had a massage parlor and a casino where dozens of Chinese visitors noisily and excitedly spent their money. The hotel also had a small communications center where you could call abroad for several euros per minute. There were also computers and for several euros you could send an email from the hotel’s email account (not your own).
“May I have your passport, please?,” my guide said.
I knew they would take my passport until I left. I was curious, though, what my guide said the reason would be. Asking questions like this was part of the fun of the trip.
“It’s so you don’t lose it,” she said.
I wouldn’t lose my passport so easily. I knew that and she knew that but I appreciated the elusive answer and smiled as I handed it over.
After settling in to my room, I got back in the van and the mysterious charm of the city was pulling me in further. “I love Pyongyang,” I whispered to another traveler in the van with me. “So do I,” he whispered back.
I looked out the window as we passed vehicles and pedestrians going about their lives. Some walked. Some were crammed into city buses. Others were working to cut down trees and clear up weeds. What were they thinking? Did they actually like it here? Were they happy? Were they scared? I didn’t know. There was no way I could find out. I had no opportunity to talk to ordinary citizens, and they wouldn’t have talked to me anyway. So I had no choice but to not worry about what they were thinking and pretended that they were all happy, just as I was strangely happy to be in this unusual city.
“We’re here,” the guide said.
I got out of the van and was on my first sidewalk in Pyongyang. I stood on the sidewalk and relished the few seconds I had to be on the streets, just like all the people I saw just minutes ago. I looked up at the restaurant. There was no flashy sign. I looked at the windows. There were no menus posted. I had never seen a restaurant so nondescript.
The Chogryu Hot Pot Restaurant served up traditional Korean hot pot food in a sweltering building. The air conditioning was out, most likely because of a power outage. And it was hot. Very hot.
“I will show you how to cook the traditional Korean hot pot,” my guide said.
The waitress lit the gas below the pot. When I thought the restaurant couldn’t possibly get any hotter, with the open flame mere inches from my face, it did.
First put in the something, then the something else. Then you will add the other thing. Finally, mix it around with the final thing.
I was sweating too much to listen carefully to her instructions regarding the order and timing in which I was to add each ingredient from the dozen or so plates piled with raw meat, assorted vegetables, spices, and chili paste. I feared my lapse of attention would ruin my dinner, but she assured me she’d guide me through the process. Kamsa hamnida, I told her. I had learned my first Korean phrase: thank you.
The hot Pyongyang air felt arctic compared to the steaming restaurant, so I felt comfortable when I made it outside after dinner. Back in the van, it wasn’t long before I heard loud cheers and saw light fill the otherwise dark city sky as the van pulled up next to the May Day Stadium. The Arirang Mass Games were to be performed that night.
I spent 100 euros for a second-class ticket, and I walked inside the stadium after having my ticket checked by a woman in traditional Korean garb. The Mass Games were popular in many Communist nations during the Cold War, but North Korea still has them. They are not “games” at all, but rather an artistic, acrobatic, and dance performance designed to broadcast the success of the regime and dazzle the audience. At least on the second count, they succeeded brilliantly. 100,000 people take part in the show which is performed almost every night from August to October.
The performers include hundreds of dancers who would impress even Broadway audiences, tightrope walkers who effortlessly walk about the audiences and then fall in sync into a net, and, most impressively, thousands of schoolchildren who all flash colored placards on cue, creating a series of moving images for the audience to see. If you didn’t know there were children controlling the “pixels” by rapidly switching placards, you could be forgiven for thinking you were looking at the world’s largest television screen.
I saw pictures of factories, dams, and industrial achievements over the years. They were a lot like photographs in the Pyongyang Times of large factories spitting out large quantities of everything from food to yarn. It reminded me of orthodox communism’s relation to heavy industry. The factory workers were to be the vanguard of the Marxist revolution, and many 20th century communist societies liked to show off their enormous factories and massive output as indices of their success.
One of the reasons the Soviet bloc fell behind the West was because the USSR and its allies were so preoccupied with producing the biggest, and thus showiest, items to demonstrate their superiority over the West that they neglected to see that by the 1980s, the West was being revolutionized by electronics, a field where engineers worked not to produce the biggest things, but labored instead to make their products smaller and at times even almost invisible. The colossal fruits of labor that could be displayed and flaunted to the masses were being eschewed by the West for electronics and information technology while the communist nations were stuck in an early and mid-20th century model of industrial prowess that was quickly growing outdated. North Korea still values large, showy displays while their cousins in the south showcase their own achievements in decidedly 21st century ways: banking, high-tech innovation, and international trade.
The Pyongyang air cooled down on my way back to hotel. When all the visitors arrived, we were told that several tourists in our group needed to give the guides another passport. Some people traveling to the DPRK had second passports with their Chinese visas in them. That meant they could leave North Korea. Our guides wanted to hold on to them along with their first passports. Why they didn’t ask before was beyond me, but what could be done? Those affected offered up some futile resistance, but they eventually caved. Well, all but one of them did. We now had a missing tourist on our hands.
“Where is he?,” our guides asked. We shrugged our shoulders. We tried calling his room, but there was no answer. We looked in the bar, but he wasn’t there either.
Our guides first looked worried, then panicked. If anything goes “wrong” in the DPRK, they are the ones who will be blamed. I didn’t know what would happen to them, exactly, but by the look on their fear-stricken faces, I didn’t want them to find out. I also didn’t want to risk the rest of us getting in trouble.
I looked around everywhere I could for the missing tourist. I passed the hotel bookstore. I had heard somewhere that North Korean bookshops only carried titles by Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il. I didn’t have time to verify that, but I did see some framed quotes by the nation’s leaders.
“The book is a silent teacher and a companion in life – Kim Il Sung.”
“Books are treasure-houses of knowledge and the textbooks for a person’s life – Kim Jong Il.”
I couldn’t find our missing companion and I let the guides know when I got back to the lobby.
“Please, can you check the basement?,” one guide pleaded.
I figured the guide would have already looked down there himself.
“We are not allowed in the basement,” he said.
Odd, I thought. Our missing travel companion was, in fact, enjoying the entertainment venues in the basement. We brought him upstairs and trying not to rip his head off for threatening to get everybody into trouble.
The color returned to our guides faces immediately.
“I am so very sorry about this,” I said, hoping to show them that I understood the gravity of the situation.
“Please speak with him so this doesn’t happen again.”
“I will,” I said. Then I needed a drink.
To be continued.
I was reading one of the greatest pieces on NK that I’ve read in a long time until I got to the “To be continued” part. NOT COOL. When does part 2 come along?
The Arirang Mass Games brought this to mind:
director of the 1927 film “Metropolis”, Fritz Lang: “it was a picture in which human beings were nothing but part of a machine.”
I would love to go to North Korea. It would be like a trip through a looking glass. Even though I know I’d be led around by the nose by tour guides, I’d still like to see what I could.
Here’s the first installment of a very interesting video about a group of foreigners, some true believers some just curious, that visited N. Korea with the Korean Friendship Association, which organizes trips there every year. It’s from a few years ago. I recommend that you view all the installments to the end. It’s fascinating:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C76HqPaA6kw
Here’s another video of a trip there, this one featuring a journalist from Vice Guide. It’s very interesting too, though he definitely didn’t have the same impressions as your friend:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RG4gL3eAHVs.
I wouldn’t have any interest in being herded around this Orwellian, Potemkin sham:
“North Korea television- Yangakkdo Hotel Pyongyang promo”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eCKMJwx7DJY
We have food, and more food; so much food, in fact that we have cleared our restaurants and banquet halls of all other humans to make room for you, our honored, paying guests. Not a single Korean diner will interfere with your enjoyment of our carefully planned hospitality.
It’s damn depressing, actually.
While this pig of a Dear Leader sips the world’s finest wines.
Stark, sterile, devoid of life; like a town evacuated by force.
That’s enough from me.
Compelling stuff. I wonder if his “love” for the city will survive until the end of the trip.
That big unfinished hotel looks like a Bic pen to me.
Looking at the photos – I cannot read Korean, but it sure rings so many bells.
Genuinely fascinating, but the fear in the guides’ faces illustrates the reality of North Korea: it’s the world’s largest prison camp masquerading as a nation.
Interestingly, and just a little chilling, in the picture of the globe it shows the whole Korean peninsula as red.
This is classic
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zexit7Tk1GA
In case I’m in moderation hell (I disturb people here, by say, objecting when bloggers lie and slander) and it’s not just the servers being slow here’s that link again (under a different name, slightly)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zexit7Tk1GA
I am assuming that Part II will present a more unpleasant picture than Part I. But no visit to North Korea restricted by guides will give an idea of what a nightmare living there is for ordinary citizens.
I just did a search for the worst countries on Earth to live. The first site tied North Korea with Somalia as the worst. The second site listed North Korea as the worst, with Somalia second.
I never pass up the chance to read articles about what life is like for most people in North Korea. It’s almost unimaginable.
A good, easy to read book by one person who escaped North Korea is “Aquariums of Pyongyang”. It will give you a glimpse of a hell on earth.
Thanks for the window,also enjoyed Egypt.Great job!
Josh @ 12 (and 13), it was very funny.
Interesting read
The process to get the visas before the trip was rather thorough so I was surprised we were all individually held up for what felt like a long time at passport control.
Treating people like cattle is a control mechanism that’s very common in totalitarian systems. It’s intended to impress upon you how unimportant and small you are in relation to the state.
I was surprised to see the number of “nice” cars on the streets. Though I had already been lectured on how the state owns “everything” in North Korea, my guides told me that different color license plates indicated different ownership. One color represented government-owned vehicles.
And the other colors represent the status in the ruling party of various high ranking members and their lower-ranking cronies. If they were privately owned their families would get to keep them when they fall from grace and get sent to a prison camp, but instead their families are lucky if they don’t get sent to work camp themselves.
There is no independent tourism in the nation. The KITC will pick you up from the airport, take you to your hotel, feed you (quite well, to be honest), guide you, and drop you off at the airport or train station for your departure. And I liked that. For once, it was nice to have a trip where I didn’t have to do any of the planning myself and I could just be shuttled around.
Which explains why he’s impressed by what he sees (which is exactly what his hosts want him to see, no more and no less), whereas I’d be more than a little creeped out being made to sit through a carefully planned and extremely elaborate state-run dog and pony show 24/7 for my entire stay. Lots of people enjoy going to the circus too!
Anyway, Michael, thanks for providing an alternate narrative. I know based on your previous blog posts you probably aren’t comfortable with this presentation but it’s important to know how perceptions can differ
PS: My grandparents visited China in the mid-1970s when it was first starting to open up. They loved it. But what they talked about in such glowing terms was the people. It sounds like Kyle isn’t going to have a chance to form much of an impression about the people of North Korea.
barry rubin seems to be objecting to the revolution in Egypt and wishes for military rule.
I don’t think he’s digested the fact that the current unrest is because the military is partnering with the Muslim brotherhood and that Egyptians understand that if the Muslim brotherhood takes over, that’s the revolution failing.
As you know the Muslim Brotherhood was no more responsible for the (admittedly fairly toothless) Egyptian revolution than the Bolsheviks were responsible for the Russian revolution, they just took power after.
http://hurryupharry.org/2011/11/20/alexandria-burning/
Josh Scholar,
My impression of the current wave of unrest in Egypt, inconsistent with your description, is that the civilians involved are mostly “islamist” who are chanting “allahuakbar” and who are angry at the supreme military council for not yielding enough to the…wait for it…”islamists” in the wings.
The news reports i have read have mentioned the “allahuakbar” but have generally taken care to not explicitly describe and identify the leanings of the protesters, for example, in Tahrir Square, who had their tents burned.
The mb leadership is keeping quiet, apparently encouraging the demonstrations but not loudly, so as to remain in a vague partnership with the military, or at least not be in open defiance of them.
The current wave of protesters do not seem to be the “secularists/liberals” who started the whole tahrir square thing. The current wave wants the mb to take over.
But back to nordkorea.
I found the author’s whispering, on the bus, his love for North Korea, rather creepy. That isn’t meant as an insult. Just an observation.
Don’t really know the worth of a report of a highly scripted and supervised visit. Entertaining to read, but no real insight yet. Maybe in Pt. 2 he slips his captors and gets the real story.
del, read Abu Faris comments in the thread I linked to, there is much more information in the thread than in the post.
Also I don’t remember if that’s the thread, but in one of them he laid out when the various expressions tend to be used. I think one basically says “allahuakbar” whenever you’ve laid a blow in a battle.
Maybe in Pt. 2 he slips his captors and gets the real story.
That sounds like a very irresponsible idea.
One wonders if he, even now, is putting his “captors” in mortal danger.
22 Josh
The literal tranlation is, as many people here know, “God is great”. Some people say that when awed by God, nature if you wish, a thunder, a big wave. In some way not exactly like excaliming in English “great God”. Others when doing a hard task like just when lifting a heavy load, in some way not exactlty like in English “in the name of the Lord” which in Arabic is exactly “bismilla” or even just “Jesus”.
Maybe more like “Praise the Lord” or “Praise God” in English, Rani? “Good Lord” is usually an expression of dismay, and “Jesus” (usually with a verbal exclamation point) even moreso.
Now that I’m reading my own comment over the usages of these various expressions don’t really make much sense. But that’s the way it is. Sounds like an explanation of the Arabic usages is just as confusing.
Michael, I emailed you my post after three failures to post.
Thanks…..
The thing about North Korea I get from these tourist accounts is that it is less brutal repression of tourists and more of an otherworldly experience. This makes sense – why allow tourism if all you are going to do is terrify people?
Del, the administration calls this a balancing act: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/21/world/middleeast/united-states-seeks-balance-on-egypt-policy.html?_r=2&ref=middleeast
It was one year ago since this event: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203710704577051453875149534.html
Not the sinking of the South Korean naval ship.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5iXfLrPZvDevKEmKWFoLG-uaVJfSw?docId=411a19bd6bf14451a957435fb8e2f592
This is a no win for China as they respond to our small contingent of Marines in Australia with a declaration of closer military ties with North Korea. Again, terrible response that only makes US move to Asia even more desired by all the nations surrounding China. Good work Beijing.
Over twenty five years ago I came into possession of a book that has informed my life and ever imprinted upon my consciousness my personal conservatism. Titled, The 4 Arguments For the Elimination of Television, authored by Jerry Mander (yes real name) published around 1970 its a classic book that synthesizes in a very prophetic manner all the dystopian nightmarish realities that have been unleashed upon general society in the last 40 years. In a nutshell the author argues that technology (TV and quite prophetically the internet (this was way pre-Google) would come to so dominate what became known as the information super highway and naturally control and arbitrate what is fact or fancy. Which places into the hands of a elite class the power to determine what is history or myth. Who you is and who you ain,t. This photo-essay of North Korea advocates mightily that the Orwellian literal characters and characteristics are littered profusely amongst the rest of us. Thanks Joanne for providing the You Tube link that accompanied so well with the essay. Orwell’s Animal Farm and 1984 I still hope are taught in middle and high school. Though it was not expanded upon in all their fulness ( read not mature enough), enough was imparted to make sure I repurchased them in recent times. Today is the 49th anniversary of the murder of undoubtedly one of the greatest Presidents in American History, John F. Kennedy. Why, simply God made sure this man was President of the USA when a boatload of really bad people who amazingly thought they were looking out for our best interest, thought nuclear armageddon was a viable option. God is funny that way. If you don’t know this by now, well hopefully soon you will be. Cause life is funny weird and totally unpredictable. Thank God God made JFK. In a post-modern counter intuitive manner JFK,s legacy and modest redemption has gone through a similar and Orwellian makeover much like how the Friendship Society in Korea hagiographies their Dear Leader. The whole spectrum of the political pantheon wants a claim on this mans glory. To God give the glory. JFK gave his best and more.
Rani,
my understanding of “allahuakbar” is that it is intended to mean that the muslims speaker’s “god” is greater than any other “god”, worshipped by any non-muslim. Not “great”, but rather “greater”, a comparative. it is an assertion, or better a demand, of supremacy.
Max
This is a no win for China as they respond to our small contingent of Marines in Australia.
_________________________________________________
Key word (SMALL)
Obama is just doing what ever he can to avoid the real news at home.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/africaandindianocean/egypt/8903443/Egypt-protests-and-the-Arab-Spring-live.html
Well it won’t happen like this in North Korea. I can only wonder to what extent Tantawi is telling the truth.
Dustoff, yes, but even symbolically, the real containment in Asia of China is by Asian countries. The cuts in Congress take a lot of wind out of Obama’s warning.
I forgot to add that I really enjoyed this posting, and found it interesting to see a perspective different from the ones I’d seen before (including in the links I provided in my first comment here). For instance, that the food was plentiful and good, and that there was traffic on the streets.
Just a couple of points. Hunger in North Korea is our friend. It reduces their ability to fight,and it is a potential drain on China. Keep in mind that if you send aid to North Korea the military will eat better no one else will. Keeping 15,000 of our troops in Korea saves South Korea defense spending and increases our defense costs. I spent 13 months in Korea, I like the country, food and people, but it is time they pay their own defense costs. 60+ years is enough.
And to think that Pyongyang used to be called The Jerusalem Of Asia before WWII, because of all the churches. Sad. Also sad that proggs have nothing to say about this, the most wretched and oppressed country in the world.
Forgotten Man: “Hunger in North Korea is our friend.”
No.
Peter and Forgotten Man,
Maybe I come off as arrogant in presuming that I can appreciate both of your positions; you’ll add further thoughts, if you choose to. To imagine the misery and the terror North Koreans live with on a daily basis is heart wrenching. To think that our caving in to their leadership’s extortion, year after year, administration after administration, and perpetuating it, is worse.
Forgotten Man:
There is an article here on PJ Media, referring to “The Opiate of the Intellectuals”. I suggest you read it.
Then look in a mirror.
http://www.globalsecurity.org/wmd/world/dprk/images/nkir-nk-ir-liquids-family.jpg
does not include various cruise missiles and shorter range missiles, depth charges and torpedoes (as well as high explosives, chemical and biological weapons),
http://www.globalsecurity.org/jhtml/jframe.html#http://www.globalsecurity.org/wmd/world/dprk/images/dprk_map_nuke.gif|||
rather old map
hxxp://www.globalsecurity.org/wmd/world/dprk/images/dprk_cw_map.gif
rather old map
hxxp://fpc.state.gov/documents/organization/30781.pdf
The uncovering of the AQ Khan network and the links between North Korea, Pakistan, Iran, Libya, Syria.
http://milaz.info/en/news.php?id=6664
North Korea plays an instrumental part of Iranian/NK/Syrian quest for electronic warfare weapons, missiles, nuclear weapons and technology to the extent this working group with help from third parties can develop these military materials
http://www.aviationweek.com/aw/blogs/defense/index.jsp?plckController=Blog&plckBlogPage=BlogViewPost&newspaperUserId=27ec4a53-dcc8-42d0-bd3a-01329aef79a7&plckPostId=Blog%3a27ec4a53-dcc8-42d0-bd3a-01329aef79a7Post%3a998e715f-995b-4543-bf5c-f5362f456599&plckScript=blogScript&plckElementId=blogDest
Yes, this should have been delayed
http://www.aviationweek.com/aw/generic/story_generic.jsp?channel=defense&id=news/dti/2011/11/01/DT_11_01_2011_p23-382620.xml&headline=New%20Uranium%20Enrichment%20Technology%20Alarms
Thorium would have been smarter. As long as we’re pushing this, NK will continue pushing theirs. This just doesn’t make much sense to me at least.
Oh God
http://www.a1social.com/2011/11/syria-elected-to-u-n-human-rights-committee/
Josh, I’m surprised that you of all people are actually linking to this suspect web site. Why, they are actully *criticizing* our beloved POTUS simply because he rolled over without objection when the Syrian butchers were chosen for the UNHRC. Surely this is a product of the fevered imagination of far-right-wing religious nuts and tea party crackpots like Barry Rubin.
I finally figured out what that soon-to-be-finished Ryugyong Hotel resembles; it’s Hollywood’s depiction of a Buck Rogers-type space ship, circa 1935.
Awesome stuff, it really is another world.
What were the “entertainment venues” in the basement that the guides were not allowed to go to?
http://www.smh.com.au/world/iran-raises-stakes-with-claims-it-has-netted-12-us-spies-20111125-1nz6g.html
@47. CT1504
What were the “entertainment venues” in the basement that the guides were not allowed to go to?
“The basement had a massage parlor and a casino where dozens of Chinese visitors noisily and excitedly spent their money.”
On November 26 the Egyptian Gas line to Jordan and Israel was set on fire for the eighth time. That is a population gone mad, totally mad. Arab spring?
“North Korean ‘Global Happiness Index’ ranks China no. 1, USA dead last”
“China earned 100 out of 100 points, followed closely by North Korea (98 points), then Cuba, Iran, and Venezuela. Coming in at 203rd place is America”
http://shanghaiist.com/2011/0/31/north_korea_releases_global_happine.php
Notice happy everyone seems to be, and the throngs of eager customers; the gas station attendant at the empty gas station is my favorite:
http://www.behance.net/gallery/Welcome-to-Pyongyang/827508
Only unhappy capitalist oppressors smile, I guess.
Thought control and total physical control of a population is possible if the people are separated from all outside stimuli and the carrot/stick is used. N. Korea shows it works but to do it almost all resources must be devoted to the cause. The controllers, party elites, army, police and others necessary for the cause such as the population in N. Korea’s show case areas are well looked after but they know any misstep will be fatal to themselves and their families. The rest of the country is controlled but starves. This level of control by N. Korea is evil and its fruits, nukes & arms to world trouble makers (Iran, Syria, terror groups) are too.
What a sad little place… How utterly tragic compared to South Korea…
Plant the thought that everyone’s a watcher and anyone could report you, or risk being reported as your accomplice, and fear does a lot of the work, saving manpower and expense.