North Korea

every time I spend more than a few minutes reading about north korea (or worse, reading the press releases from the N Korean news agency) part of my brain just cannot wrap itself around the facts. i half expect one of these guys to pop out, smile, say "just kidding!"

i mean:

DPRK People Determined to Remain Loyal Only to Kim Jong Un
Pyongyang, December 12 (KCNA) -- As already reported, the chance and alien elements who had made their ways into the Workers' Party of Korea committed anti-party, counter-revolutionary factional acts. They expanded their forces through factional moves and dared challenge the party while attempting to undermine the unitary leadership of the party.
In this regard, KCNA had an interview with teachers and students of Kim Il Sung University.
Paek Chol, an official of the university, said:
The purge of the Jang Song Thaek group of anti-party and counter-revolutionary elements made our party and revolutionary ranks purer.
It is the height of folly for them, bereft of elementary sense of moral obligation and conscience, to dare undermine the single-minded unity provided by Generalissimos Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il.
A sledgehammer blow should be delivered at anyone who goes against the single-minded unity of our people around supreme leader Kim Jong Un.
The recent case has hardened the people's will to remain loyal only to him.
Pak Kum Sun, a teacher, said:
The group's acts remind me of the past in which some anti-party, counter-revolutionary factionists who had sneaked into the revolutionary ranks challenged the party whenever the Korean revolution was undergoing trials.
The purge of the group represents public mindset to invariably follow the respected Marshal Kim Jong Un.
No one can dampen their strong will to hold him in high esteem as the center of unity and leadership.
Sim Kang Sik, a student, said:
The single-minded unity of the leader, the party and the masses based on the great idea is the most precious treasure that can be bartered with nothing.
No matter how the situation may change, I will follow Kim Jong Un only.

(from http://www.kcna.co.jp/item/2013/201312/news12/20131212-17ee.html)

there is no reason not to believe they are deadly serious about this stuff, esp. given events of the past week. but it's a wonder to think that this mentality could survive even the slightest bit of fresh air.

Uncle Chang Song-thaek executed

13 December 2013 Last updated at 10:01 GMT

North Korea has executed Chang Song-thaek, the once-powerful uncle of the country's leader Kim Jong-Un.

State media said he had been executed after being purged for acts of treachery, and described him as a "wicked political careerist, trickster and traitor".

The White House said it was another example of the regime's extreme brutality.

i figured we covered that already...?

NK looks to me like a place where Stalinism was wildly successful at doing exactly what it was designed to do.

Pyongyang is the most eerie place on earth. There's an extremely sinister atmosphere, made all the more disconcerting by the fact that there was a near-total absence of people altogether. It has a very Stalinist vibe of being designed by some mechanical, non-emotional being and simultaneously devoid of living, breathing individuals.

bad to be a bad uncle

North Korea: still Eerie

don't know if the horrific details of thaek's execution were previously known:

unlike previous executions of political prisoners which were carried out by firing squads with machine guns, Jang was stripped naked and thrown into a cage, along with his five closest aides. Then 120 hounds, starved for three days, were allowed to prey on them until they were completely eaten up. This is called "quan jue", or execution by dogs.

http://www.straitstimes.com/the-big-story/asia-report/china/story/jangs-execution-bodes-ill-china-20131224

jfc

hoax?

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/worldviews/wp/2014/01/03/no-kim-jong-un-probably-didnt-feed-his-uncle-to-120-hungry-dogs/?hpid=z3

Hilarious that anyone believed it

surely all the cats and dogs (and horses and cows and chickens and pigs and rats and squirrels) have been eaten already

believable considering we live in a world where regimes and drug cartels have done even worse things, but the lack of other reporting and the specific number of dogs should have given it away. : |

anti aircraft guns seem a bit OTT too.

Can't they just use lethal injection like a civilised nation would do? Barbarians.

During one of the previous purges it was reported that the official was tied to a pole in field and a mortar shell was fired at him

I don't recall any news outlet disproving that one

I kind of wonder if the insane execution stories are less about outsiders being all "you crazy for this one Kim" and more posturing by the NK regime to keep people in line.

I remember that story too xp

Like, each story seems so outlandish that it provides more support for the next, even more outlandish one

Like how 100s of people were machine gunned in public sports stadiums for watching South Korean soap operas, while their compatriots were made to watch?

Was that real?

Ravenous dogs seems a bit old hat for a progressive forward thinking Maoist regime to be using.

If I were North Korea, I would be very happy having something this ridiculous hanging out there.

i had an angle on this

it's somewhere around here, i swear

I mean, the Korean language does have a name for this type of execution...

Inside the Tale of North Korea Execution by Ravenous Dog

There is no end to shocking stories from North Korea, many involving the myriad cruelties of the brutal police state as reported by defectors. But the latest tale — a news media report that the young North Korean leader might have had his uncle torn apart by ravenous dogs while he watched — may say less about the North than what outsiders have come to expect of it.

Here’s how it all started. More than three weeks ago, a Hong Kong newspaper, Wen Wei Po, published an article saying the North Korean leader, Kim Jong-un, had ordered his uncle, Jang Song-thaek, to be stripped naked, then thrown into a cage where he and his five closest aides were set upon by 120 dogs that had been not been fed for days. The men were completely devoured in front of Mr. Kim, the Hong Kong report said, without naming any sources.

The death-by-dog story got more traction online starting Dec. 24, when a commentary published in The Straits Times, based in Singapore, said the fact that Wen Wei Po ran such a lurid article was a sign of the Chinese Communist Party’s “displeasure” at North Korea. It called Wen Wei Po the party’s “official mouthpiece” in Hong Kong. The writer of the commentary, Ching Cheong, was a journalist for Wen Wei Po before joining The Straits Times. In April 2005, while employed by the Singapore newspaper, he was detained by Chinese security officers during a reporting trip in southern China. Despite protests by other journalists and human rights organizations, Chinese officials imprisoned him for three years on charges of spying for Taiwan.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F1ko4VvuObU

The worst part of the whole Rodman/Former NBA stars tour of NKorea is that the US team lets the NKorea team win every time by a significant margin.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/17/world/asia/lets-stop-all-the-insults-north-korea-says.html?hp

Mr. 100%:
http://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/kim-jong-un-wins-100-votes-north-korea-election-n49011

Decreases barber small talk.

http://hayabusa3.2ch.net/test/read.cgi/mnewsplus/1395672976/19

Not new, but related:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-2XVNFzNlZ8

we called it the 'Chinese smuggler haircut'

Also, for those who find this thread in The Future, another must-read thread concerning ilxor quincie's visit to NK.

https://s3.yimg.com/bt/api/res/1.2/xJl7v7lg.7QaPS34T9n2xA--/YXBwaWQ9eW5ld3M7Zmk9ZmlsbDtoPTgwMDtweW9mZj0wO3E9NzU7dz0xMjc1/http://media.zenfs.com/en_us/News/Reuters/2014-03-31T052816Z_1512288749_GM1EA3V0XG001_RTRMADP_3_KOREA-NORTH.JPG

that's...beautiful?

you think it's hilarious now, but just wait until the exploding assholes attack the west coast.

Also, for those who find this thread in The Future, another must-read thread concerning ilxor quincie's visit to NK.

― I wear the fucking pin, don't I? (Aimless), Wednesday, March 26, 2014 9:26 PM (5 days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

link doesn't work

It's on 77

I need to update! I have specific things to post about but I want to do them justice so I have put it off.

The thing about visiting NK, for me, was like "Army of 1 million Holy Shit"

But honestly, after being there, this place is no threat to anyone. It just isn't. And they know it, and that makes them scared, puts them on the defensive, and results in a lot of sword-rattling bullshit that is just super sad.

I mean when I talk to people who visited the USSR during the Cold War, so many of them say the same thing: the USSR threat was vastly overplayed in Western politics to achieve specific political ends, i.e. massive defense expenditures that were far in excess of the actual threat.

I mean I'm no NK scholar, and not a betting woman (OH WAIT yes I am). *It* (whatever *it* is) will happen in Kim Jong Un's lifetime. There won't be another Kim dictator, is what I feel in my gut after being there.

I think the fears about NK are a lot less that they'd launch a traditional military attack and more that they'd destabilize things? If they attacked anyone in an effective manner it'd be a dirty bomb/terrorist-style attack and not their ridiculous missiles. If they completely collapsed in a short period, the aid effort needed from China/USA or the world community would be huge. China's afraid of a ton of refugees/immigrants.

Yeah, in a fair situation it would be "FUCK U RUSSIA NOW *YOU* HAVE TO FIX THIS." And god, for South Korea it would be a disaster. Reunification under an actual democracy would be like 10000X worse that East/West Germany.

In the end, it is the North Koreans who will suffer most. I think about this every day.

Barber guys OTM

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-27038723

We've got Miley, they've got...

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/northkorea/10272953/Kim-Jong-uns-ex-lover-executed-by-firing-squad.html

― The Bridges of Witchy Woman (Eazy), Thursday, August 29, 2013 11:06 AM (8 months ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Guess she's back?

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/20/world/asia/north-korean-performer-reported-executed-appears-on-television.html?hp

http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/05/22/us-northkorea-firing-idUSBREA4L09Q20140522

A year in pictures of the tyrant, including him inspecting a biscuit and bollocking the meteorological dept for their "many incorrect forecasts".
http://www.theatlantic.com/infocus/2014/06/kim-jong-uns-busy-year/100759/

i hate this thread title

those photos are beautiful

Not much hilarity in death camps, starvation and fear I just went for the most active thread without thinking.