Trip report from North Korea

[AndromedaPatFan]

https://sites.google.com/site/sophieinnorthkorea/

Associated comment thread is supportive of the impressions. http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5084171 So are stories from a friend of mine who visited recently.

Very weird place.

[duck]

Like Korean food with less pizzazz and more corn...

The corn is from relief efforts.

[ForWhoForWhat?]

i liked the info, but the layout was a mess. Why the two columns that don't line up?

[lechrus2]

While nothing new was shared, I did like some of the pictures and analogies. I wonder whether North Korea will continue forever in this manner. I imagine people who escape have difficulty adjusting.

[PatsFan2003]

The eLibrary segment is just a little eerie.

Looks great, right? All this activity, all those monitors. Probably 90 desks in the room, all manned, with an identical scene one floor up.

One problem: No one was actually doing anything. A few scrolled or clicked, but the rest just stared. More disturbing: when our group walked in--a noisy bunch, with media in tow--not one of them looked up from their desks. Not a head turn, no eye contact, no reaction to stimuli. They might as well have been figurines.

And this is why 1984 is appreciated by so many people, including apparently the North Koreans.

[lechrus2]

The eLibrary segment is just a little eerie.




And this is why 1984 is appreciated by so many people, including apparently the North Koreans.

In many ways, North Korea is Oceania

[ForWhoForWhat?]

"And under the totalitarian Obama admin with the complicit under reporting of the MSM, America is heading for the same future!"- a cheese-like rant, minus the caps and extra words

[thelittlecheese]

https://sites.google.com/site/sophieinnorthkorea/

Associated comment thread is supportive of the impressions. http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5084171 So are stories from a friend of mine who visited recently.

Very weird place.

Hmm. Those pictures. I know staged govt media when I see it. Looks like the Koreans and Chinese have been training the U.S. Govt and our media very well.

[GreenKelly]

While nothing new was shared, I did like some of the pictures and analogies. I wonder whether North Korea will continue forever in this manner. I imagine people who escape have difficulty adjusting.

You make a good point lech. It must take years to de-progam your mentality.

The first week , I'm sure, is shock and awe.

[lechrus2]

You make a good point lech. It must take years to de-program your mentality.

The first week , I'm sure, is shock and awe.

Not that they'd ever want to leave nirvana, but so profound is the programming I doubt the bulk is even deprogrammable.

[SinkLikeAStone]

The only thing I got out of this is this:

It's good to be a traffic beeotch in the DPRK.

[duck]

Not that they'd ever want to leave nirvana, but so profound is the programming I doubt the bulk is even deprogrammable.

I wish I could find the article the Washington Post published in the late 1990's, at the height of the North Korean famine. My take aways:

Younger NK dude was allowed to work in Vladivostok as an immigrant worker to what was then a Russian-Mafia run city. Vladivostok was very poor then, with the fall of the USSR. NK dude noticed the bums there were fatter than the rich people in NK. He noted even the "hungry" there ate a couple times a day...at home, they were eating tree bark if they could find it. Younger NK dude goes back home, pulls his parents aside and tells them what he saw, and tells them that he fears they are being lied to by the Great Leader. Dad smacks him across his face and yells at him to NEVER speak poorly of the Great Leader again! The Great Leader provides EXACTLY what every citizen needs and every citizen needs to be grateful for such consideration.

Dude escaped to Russia where he told the WaPo his story. So yes, programming can be tough to overcome.

There was so much more to the story, I wish I had bookmarked it, saved it, something.

[Augustus]

I went inside the American sector of the DMZ many times in the early 80's -- mainly guard posts Oullette and Collier. Propaganda Village and the rest of the setting is very surreal.

[Rear Admiral]

The only thing I got out of this is this:

It's good to be a traffic beeotch in the DPRK.

All my life I've been waiting for a fetish and I think I've finally found it! Now, where can I can get my wife one of these outfits? I like the one with the candy-cane billy club/flashlight.