Pyongyang's state-run news agency responded over the weekend with a quote from an unnamed ministry spokesman calling Mr. Bush a "dictator," a "cowboy" and a "half-baked man in terms of morality.”
I know they're shadowy Stalinists or whatnot, but they sure keep brinksmanship colorful.
― andy --, Monday, 2 May 2005 21:39 (eighteen years ago) link
― strng hlkngtn, Monday, 2 May 2005 21:42 (eighteen years ago) link
North Korean state television, radio and newspapers have led the grooming drive, urging people to cut their hair short and to dress tidily, the BBC said in a dispatch citing broadcasts from Pyongyang.
Men were asked to have crew cuts with hair growing up to five centimeters (two inches) in a twice-a-month visit to the barber, it said.
http://secure.designerz.com/news-image.php?i=shared/lifestyle/SGE.AAB65.090105183816.photo00.quicklook.default-185x245.jpgA North Korean soldier combs his hair at the truce village of Panmunjom
Not only health and hygiene but also intelligence was cited by the North Korean media as reasons for the crackdown on appearance.
Pyongyang television noted long hair "consumes a great deal of nutrition" and could thus rob the brain of energy, according to the BBC.
But another serious reason came from state radio which said tidy attire "is important in repelling the enemies' maneuvers to infiltrate corrupt capitalist ideas and lifestyle" in North Korea, it said.
The ruling communist party newspaper, Rodong Sinmun, even warned inappropriate appearance under foreign influence could lead to national decay.
"People who wear other's style of dress and live in other's style will become fools and that nation will come to ruin," Rodong was cited as saying.
Some North Korean TV broadcasts adopted a hidden-camera style video of longhaired men on various locations throughout Pyongyang in an unprecedented break with their usual approach.
― andy --, Monday, 2 May 2005 21:50 (eighteen years ago) link
― Shakey Mo Collier, Monday, 2 May 2005 21:52 (eighteen years ago) link
― Ned Raggett (Ned), Monday, 2 May 2005 22:00 (eighteen years ago) link
― donut debonair (donut), Monday, 2 May 2005 22:02 (eighteen years ago) link
― Shakey Mo Collier, Monday, 2 May 2005 22:06 (eighteen years ago) link
― g e o f f (gcannon), Monday, 2 May 2005 22:08 (eighteen years ago) link
― g e o f f (gcannon), Monday, 2 May 2005 22:15 (eighteen years ago) link
― andy --, Monday, 2 May 2005 22:18 (eighteen years ago) link
so we're told, but that's bound to be a generalization, and doesn't get at how such a society sustains itself or functions internally - what do people do all day? is everyone starving to death except for some narrow upper-class echelon of rulers? if things are so horrible, why don't the people rebel? is there any resistance at all, any underground, black market? what is holding everything in place, etc.?
― Shakey Mo Collier, Monday, 2 May 2005 22:21 (eighteen years ago) link
umm....the blood of the proletariat? Guns?
― giboyeux (skowly), Monday, 2 May 2005 22:23 (eighteen years ago) link
But it does have an esperanto section, unlike KFC's.
― andy --, Monday, 2 May 2005 22:23 (eighteen years ago) link
― Shakey Mo Collier, Monday, 2 May 2005 22:25 (eighteen years ago) link
― g e o f f (gcannon), Monday, 2 May 2005 22:25 (eighteen years ago) link
― Hurting (Hurting), Monday, 2 May 2005 22:27 (eighteen years ago) link
Oh absolutely. I still think that--unlike the USSR or China--shit is really, really bad in N. Korea. Someone already linked through this article (the nighttime pic), but it's still worth reading.
― giboyeux (skowly), Monday, 2 May 2005 22:28 (eighteen years ago) link
you only just now found out about this, strongo?!?
― Eisbär (llamasfur), Monday, 2 May 2005 22:29 (eighteen years ago) link
― donut debonair (donut), Monday, 2 May 2005 22:29 (eighteen years ago) link
― Shakey Mo Collier, Monday, 2 May 2005 22:29 (eighteen years ago) link
― Pleasant Plains /// (Pleasant Plains ///), Monday, 2 May 2005 22:34 (eighteen years ago) link
― andy --, Monday, 2 May 2005 22:34 (eighteen years ago) link
― g e o f f (gcannon), Monday, 2 May 2005 22:38 (eighteen years ago) link
― A homunculus of Darby Crash, .... created for the purposes of *EVIL* (ex machina, Monday, 2 May 2005 22:39 (eighteen years ago) link
― g e o f f (gcannon), Monday, 2 May 2005 22:59 (eighteen years ago) link
i don't think that's *completely* true. a number of journalists have managed to get in and get some information out despite having to be herded around by government "translators."
i sort of imagine there not being any public dissent, at all. as for private dissent, well... i get the sense that the people of north korea have been fed a very strict regimen of limited info for over 50 years and thus don't really have much sense of the outside world, or other ideologies they could counterpose to that of their nation's. so if there is private dissent i'm guessing it takes a weird intra-ideological form that we wouldn't recognize or be very happy with.
― Amateur(ist) (Amateur(ist)), Tuesday, 3 May 2005 00:35 (eighteen years ago) link
― mark p (Mark P), Tuesday, 3 May 2005 01:19 (eighteen years ago) link
He left to Japan. His wife was kidnapped from Japan in the 1970s along with about a dozen others. She came from a town next to the Japan Sea, and she was abducted by North Korean agents and whisked back to North Korea. It's another completely bizarre episode.
The American was in the army serving in South Korea in the 1960s. He claims that he was afraid of being sent to Vietnam, so defected to the North. The U.S. army convicted him of dissertion a few months ago, and he served a very lenient sentence that was like community service.
He did an interview with Japanese TV and described his life in North Korea in general terms. His most memorable quote was saying, "I lived like a dog." He also blasted the North Korean government for all the obvious reasons.
― supercub, Tuesday, 3 May 2005 01:19 (eighteen years ago) link
― supercub, Tuesday, 3 May 2005 01:20 (eighteen years ago) link
― mark p (Mark P), Tuesday, 3 May 2005 01:26 (eighteen years ago) link
― supercub, Tuesday, 3 May 2005 01:28 (eighteen years ago) link
(ok, I'll stop now)
― supercub, Tuesday, 3 May 2005 01:29 (eighteen years ago) link
― mark p (Mark P), Tuesday, 3 May 2005 01:30 (eighteen years ago) link
― supercub, Tuesday, 3 May 2005 01:30 (eighteen years ago) link
― supercub, Tuesday, 3 May 2005 01:33 (eighteen years ago) link
― Dan Selzer (Dan Selzer), Tuesday, 3 May 2005 01:45 (eighteen years ago) link
― Hurting (Hurting), Tuesday, 3 May 2005 02:14 (eighteen years ago) link
― Eyeball Kicks (Eyeball Kicks), Tuesday, 3 May 2005 02:33 (eighteen years ago) link
I assume this is the Harper's piece mentioned upthread. It's a pretty hard read.
― Daniel Cohen (dayan), Tuesday, 3 May 2005 08:36 (eighteen years ago) link
― Alba (Alba), Wednesday, 19 October 2005 17:07 (eighteen years ago) link
― Alba (Alba), Wednesday, 19 October 2005 17:11 (eighteen years ago) link
http://www.jonhs.net/freemovies/welcome_to_north_korea.htm
This is good - it's from 2001 so some may have already seen it.
― Hurting 2, Monday, 16 July 2007 03:33 (sixteen years ago) link
also good:
http://www.yhchang.com/CUNNILINGUS_IN_NORTH_KOREA.html
― c sharp major, Monday, 16 July 2007 11:36 (sixteen years ago) link
N. Korea Says It Is Holding Reporters
SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea confirmed Saturday that it had detained two American journalists on charges of “illegally intruding” into the North through its border with China.
The journalists, Laura Ling, a Chinese-American, and Euna Lee, a Korean-American, both working for Current TV, were on a reporting trip along the border when they were detained by North Korean border guards, according to human rights activists and a South Korean news report. Their colleague, Mitch Koss, and their Chinese guide were reported to have been detained by Chinese border guards.
“A competent organ is now investigating the case,” the North’s official news agency, KCNA, said.
― skamokawa WA (jergins), Saturday, 21 March 2009 19:30 (fifteen years ago) link
http://img397.imageshack.us/img397/2667/jong.jpg
http://www.smh.com.au/world/north-koreas-kim-jongil-a-skilled-and-ruthless-ruler-20090405-9t1l.html
― James Mitchell, Sunday, 5 April 2009 14:20 (fourteen years ago) link
An official peace treaty would require approval of 2/3 of the US Senate to be ratified. Plus a lot of the economic cooperation the two countries can do together are limited by the current sanctions against NK.
― Nerdstrom Poindexter, Thursday, 24 January 2019 15:06 (five years ago) link
Some reassuring stuff in Special Envoy to North Korea’s speech yesterday but a little concerned that he claimed KJU agreed to some major steps back in the meeting Pompeo had with him in October that the North Koreans have never actually said they agreed to publicly as of yet.
Biegun: "I don’t mince my words…he is unconstrained by the assumptions of his predecessors. President Trump is ready to end this war. It is over. It is done. We are not going to invade N. Korea. We are not seeking to topple the N. Korean regime."https://t.co/P6QE0FHdkj— Jonathan Cheng (@JChengWSJ) February 1, 2019
― Nerdstrom Poindexter, Friday, 1 February 2019 18:45 (five years ago) link
"North Korea executed Kim Hyok Chol, its special envoy to the United States, and foreign ministry officials who carried out working-level negotiations for the second U.S.-North Korea summit, a South Korean newspaper reported on Friday." https://t.co/NgsQaMnRyv— Kaitlan Collins (@kaitlancollins) May 30, 2019
― ... (Eazy), Friday, 31 May 2019 02:55 (four years ago) link
A good reminder that things can always get worse
― i will never make a typo ever again (Karl Malone), Friday, 31 May 2019 03:19 (four years ago) link
ever timelyHow To (Sp)read a Rumor About North Korea
― XxxxxxxXxxxxxxxxXxxxx (dylannn), Friday, 31 May 2019 13:31 (four years ago) link
Top North Korean official reappears days after purge report
― XxxxxxxXxxxxxxxxXxxxx (dylannn), Monday, 3 June 2019 11:11 (four years ago) link
that link doesn't but here it is https://www.apnews.com/502b038c1720487294e8ea43f5b39d9c
― XxxxxxxXxxxxxxxxXxxxx (dylannn), Monday, 3 June 2019 11:38 (four years ago) link
https://twitter.com/spectatorindex/status/1252419687775744000
North Korea does not have an official line of succession. If Kim Jong Un were to pass away, there would likely be an immediate & intense power struggle.History also teaches us that totalitarian states don’t end if the leader dies. But it could provide opportunities for change. https://t.co/VVQLVDmwZq— Ted Lieu (@tedlieu) April 21, 2020
As if this year couldn't get any crazier...
― Sabre of Paradise (trevor phillips), Tuesday, 21 April 2020 02:20 (three years ago) link
"I Dream Myself Alive" by A-ha, performed by a student accordion trio of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea in Pyongyang 💙 pic.twitter.com/etiKiSHvEa— Comrade Natalie 🇰🇵 (@NatalieRevolts) September 17, 2020
― xyzzzz__, Thursday, 17 September 2020 19:48 (three years ago) link
I don't know how something like this comes to be (the A-ha > N Korea > specific accordians > my eyes journey) but I like it.
― Eyeball Kicks, Friday, 18 September 2020 09:24 (three years ago) link
Love to see Kim defy traditional masculine gender roles of what a leader should look and act like. Between him and Jacinda Adern, the millenial generation looks set to defy stereotypes and deliver progressive government across the globe 🤝 https://t.co/9NSr6C1VXD— doug (@heardougtweet) October 12, 2020
― xyzzzz__, Monday, 12 October 2020 11:55 (three years ago) link
Kim Jong Un had his uncle assassinated. But all is forgiven now that he shed tears in public, thus becoming an icon for progressive values.
― the unappreciated charisma of cows (Aimless), Monday, 12 October 2020 17:31 (three years ago) link
This fit crazy pic.twitter.com/FqvBBB57P9— eĺe💃 (@LesbianDrakeFan) April 16, 2021
― too cool for zen talk (Eazy), Saturday, 17 April 2021 01:03 (two years ago) link
No skinny jeans for Kim
― xyzzzz__, Saturday, 17 April 2021 10:37 (two years ago) link
that's how you dress when you are a 100pts ahead.
― calzino, Saturday, 17 April 2021 11:14 (two years ago) link
That's a solid look I would like to emulate
― Call of Scampi: Slack Nephrops (Noodle Vague), Saturday, 17 April 2021 11:35 (two years ago) link
*takes notes by hand*
yes, JNCOs sir, yes
― Zach_TBD (Karl Malone), Saturday, 17 April 2021 15:39 (two years ago) link
Cool.
This demonstration at the Defence Development Exhibition was bit intense. Video broadcast today on North Korean TV. pic.twitter.com/zehpI6EAEd— Martyn Williams (@martyn_williams) October 12, 2021
― xyzzzz__, Wednesday, 13 October 2021 16:00 (two years ago) link
So I guess our new intercontinental brick missiles won't have the desired effect
― Andy the Grasshopper, Wednesday, 13 October 2021 16:42 (two years ago) link
You don't go to war with the bricks you want, you go to war with the bricks you have.
― Josh in Chicago, Wednesday, 13 October 2021 16:44 (two years ago) link
this will hold me over until the new jackass movie comes out
― nobody like my rap (One Eye Open), Wednesday, 13 October 2021 17:24 (two years ago) link
Just being the usual wet blanket here, but I don't think the point of that demonstration was that brick-breaking is a useful military skill.
― more difficult than I look (Aimless), Wednesday, 13 October 2021 17:39 (two years ago) link
You're saying you want to fight that guy? If North Korea had a dozen more dudes that tough we might as well just surrender right now.
― Josh in Chicago, Wednesday, 13 October 2021 17:42 (two years ago) link
you got my point, while missing my point
― more difficult than I look (Aimless), Wednesday, 13 October 2021 17:45 (two years ago) link
That look from Kim at 0:38: "Tssst, that guy thinks he's so tough... he's not all that."
― Andy the Grasshopper, Wednesday, 13 October 2021 17:46 (two years ago) link
Lol Josh giving Kim exactly the reaction he wants
― A True White Kid that can Jump (Granny Dainger), Wednesday, 13 October 2021 17:59 (two years ago) link
lol that guy going aggro was as choreographed as a Jackie Chan movie. But I do love the idea of Kim thinking anyone would really find that intimidating. Like, oh shit, this guy broke a concrete bar with a flying headbutt! Better not mess with North Korea.would have been better if it was Kim doing the head butting though.
― Josh in Chicago, Wednesday, 13 October 2021 18:16 (two years ago) link
https://thumbs.gfycat.com/BareBaggyLiger-max-1mb.gif
― Donald Fhtagen (Old Lunch), Wednesday, 13 October 2021 19:03 (two years ago) link
imo, the NK military putting on that show in front of Kim was not meant to intimidate SK or the USA nearly so much as to show their dear leader how unflinchingly loyal they are to him. they are saying, "see how we will gladly butt through walls with our foreheads and have rods broken across our backs for you." which explains why Kim was kind of bored by it, since that kind of fealty is demonstrated to him constantly.
― more difficult than I look (Aimless), Wednesday, 13 October 2021 19:22 (two years ago) link
Yet also demanded by him constantly. Be careful what you wish for, I guess!
― Donald Fhtagen (Old Lunch), Wednesday, 13 October 2021 19:27 (two years ago) link
But I think the display is part of a larger PR campaign about NK's military might.. like all these boss new gadgets:
https://www.reuters.com/news/picture/north-korea-shows-off-new-weapons-at-mil-idUSRTXIGLY4
― Andy the Grasshopper, Wednesday, 13 October 2021 19:32 (two years ago) link
Just wait until North Korea reveals it's got the atomic elbow.
― Josh in Chicago, Wednesday, 13 October 2021 19:40 (two years ago) link
The way they loop the applause in all these videos is a lot like laying down in glass.
― pplains, Wednesday, 13 October 2021 20:04 (two years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qxXZF60EPdMlil palate cleanser
― When Young Sheldon began to rap (forksclovetofu), Friday, 15 October 2021 21:28 (two years ago) link
this is just bollocks isn't it https://t.co/yDEYlL0LGo— jamie k (@jkbloodtreasure) November 25, 2021
― xyzzzz__, Thursday, 25 November 2021 09:36 (two years ago) link
This looks like an FBI photo of a Serbian gangster outside his stone mason shop in Wicker Park, 1978 @ericzieg https://t.co/Jdwa0D0j8n— Justin Sherin (@wychstreet) March 10, 2022
― deep luminous trombone (Eazy), Thursday, 10 March 2022 21:20 (two years ago) link
Surprisingly high production value for NK:
BREAKING: North Korea's state-run television shows edited footage of Kim Jong Un guiding the test-launch of what the country referred to as the Hwasong-17 ICBM.Latest story: https://t.co/belL7EdPUl(Video: KCTV) pic.twitter.com/APifRhtJVr— NK NEWS (@nknewsorg) March 25, 2022
― mom tossed in kimchee (quincie), Friday, 25 March 2022 14:38 (two years ago) link
All I can think of is "Elvis impersonator, with missles"
― mom tossed in kimchee (quincie), Friday, 25 March 2022 14:39 (two years ago) link
The bit with the watches can't be real!
― Eyeball Kicks, Friday, 25 March 2022 15:23 (two years ago) link
Well having been extensively exposed to NK video productions when visiting back in 2015 (?), it looks completely legit to me, just with fancier cinematography and better picture quality.
― mom tossed in kimchee (quincie), Friday, 25 March 2022 17:57 (two years ago) link
I seriously can't stop watching it.
― mom tossed in kimchee (quincie), Friday, 25 March 2022 17:59 (two years ago) link
If they are calling it an ICBM, the implication is that it can reach other continents. I suppose they could be cheating slightly, if it can only reach Australia.
― more difficult than I look (Aimless), Friday, 25 March 2022 18:08 (two years ago) link
NK is quite a bit closer to North America than to Australia, though. "Only" the remoter bits of Alaska, granted.
― anatol_merklich, Tuesday, 29 March 2022 17:32 (two years ago) link
Ok
I CANT BREATHE 😭😭😭😭😭😭she had to come up with something real quick pic.twitter.com/6uVnDX1QDY— Dame Fagatha Christie, PhD (@FagathaGagatha) May 10, 2023
― xyzzzz__, Thursday, 11 May 2023 13:08 (ten months ago) link
We had to buy replacement badminton shoes or a racquet or something, and the salesman told us they weren't available anymore. We asked what happened, and he said the company got busted working with North Korea or something!
― Josh in Chicago, Thursday, 11 May 2023 13:27 (ten months ago) link
A person who said they witnessed the event and was part of the same tour group told CBS News they had just visited one of the buildings at the site when "this man gives out a loud 'ha ha ha,' and just runs in between some buildings."
I guess someone still thinks the place is hilarious.
― pplains, Tuesday, 18 July 2023 16:26 (eight months ago) link
Defecting soldiers used to have some propaganda value during the Cold War, and a few settled down in the North. But I imagine now this is more of a headache than anything else for the North.. the guy probably doesn't have a lot of intelligence value, but maybe some diplomatic value if they want something from us. But I don't think he's going to be pampered like they were in the past
― Andy the Grasshopper, Wednesday, 19 July 2023 17:05 (eight months ago) link
It was either this or go back to Texas.
― pplains, Wednesday, 19 July 2023 17:08 (eight months ago) link
Lol
― Andy the Grasshopper, Wednesday, 19 July 2023 17:09 (eight months ago) link
I wish they would let Google street view cars in there
― Andy the Grasshopper, Friday, 27 October 2023 19:20 (five months ago) link