North Korea

N

nasum

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So I think this is one of the most fascinating parts of the world. Completely isolated like a rainforest tribe, but with the technology handy to be a threat (though how credible of one is debateable) to their neighbors. The whole country is awash in propaganda and families have portraits of the dear leader and not of themselves. It's simply amazing.

One of my new favourite websites is a propaganda news outlet:
http://www.kcna.co.jp/index-e.htm
It's an interesting read to say the least. Not only that, but it's coded in what appears to be the internet from 1995...

The land of darkness:
north-korea.jpg


That speck of light you see is the capital, Pyong Yang. The rest of the country is just nothing.

With a Lat of 39.9.10, they're roughly equal to northern Missouri but the climate is totally different due to winds from Siberia during the winter and monsoon season during the summer.


Feel free to share thoughts, opinions and facts.
 
It just strikes me as odd that the people have never fought back against the regime. I wish that they could experience what it feels like to be a free people, and hope at some point the rage inside all of them boils into rebellion.
 
I wish I could find the video again. I once watched this excellent documentary shot inside NK. The part I remember best is where a doctor from Nepal helped someone with severe vision problems (can't remember what exactly). After the bandages were removed and they were able to see, they thanked the dear leader. Not the doctor who did this for them, dear leader. They got up and thanked a portrait of Kim Jong-il.

See, many people have this idea that religion doesn't exist in NK, and that isn't true. They worship the Kims.
 
nah, it's his kid now.

That video is a NatGeo Expose thing and it's on nflx right now. It's simultaneously hilarious and sad.

I think the lack of revolt is because of the rewards given to those who are loyal. High ranking people live like kings and they've got gulags that keep people in line. If you're a dissident, you usually just get killed but your family has to live in a prison camp. That's your entire extended family...
 
They're so well brain washed that most of the them could not be convinced that their government does anything wrong. The younger ones, maybe, they haven't been indoctrinated as long. But there is little to no chance of convincing the older population. Sure the loyalists know it's mostly bullshit, although ?I'm sure they're buying it a little as well. Technically I believe Kim Il-Sung is still considered their leader, despite being dead for years.
 
[quote name='perdition(troy']It just strikes me as odd that the people have never fought back against the regime. I wish that they could experience what it feels like to be a free people, and hope at some point the rage inside all of them boils into rebellion.[/QUOTE]

Well there a lot of reasons for that. I'm a bit of a North Korean obsessive (a cutting edge weeaboo!) so let me just gloss over it.

Basically, if you're born a North Korean you are fucked. Unless by pure luck you are born into the elite then your existence is a daily struggle for sustenance. Supermarket? Lol. What the fuck is that? No time for fighting when you can't even eat.

Poor education that only gets you to roughly the end of grade school, radios installed in every house blasting propaganda that cannot be turned off, big brother watching everything you do, a paranoid culture of fear that punishes even the slightest redress, etc. Feels bad, man. It's worse than many other regimes throughout history in a lot of ways. Couple this with the fact that the entire infrastructure is controlled by the loyalist military and that the country is pretty well fortified via tunnels and bunkers. You get the idea. There's also NO outside support for a rebellion and it would not end pretty.
 
If there ever was a real attempt at rebellion the government would most likely fall. If for no other reason than you can't have much of a country if you kill a large majority of the population, who are you going to rule over? Besides that, I don't see the major industrial countries of the world just sitting back and watching, it would be the Korean War part deux.
 
An internal rebellion/civil war has next to no chance of being successful. Any hint of conspiring against the regime and you're thrown into a work camp (which is basically prison).

The brainwashing is so engrained across all ages in their society that it will take generations to undo.
 
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They have a great subway system. They only show off two stations and one wonders if the rest of it even exists. Reminds me of the Los Angeles subway!

My opinion that the "subway system" in North Korea is used more for defense/military than transportation.
 
[quote name='Spokker']They have a great subway system. They only show off two stations and one wonders if the rest of it even exists. Reminds me of the Los Angeles subway!
[/QUOTE]

"It's some kind of large hollow tube, completely devoid of human life..." Ah, it's the Los Angeles Subway"
 
Yeah I'll never understand people.

Why doesn't NK rise up?

Why do people believe in austerity?

Why would poor and middle-class Americans voluntarily vote Republican?

It's ponderous man.
 
Ignorance. I don't mean ignorance as it's often used, as a synonym for stupidity, I mean actual ignorance.
 
[quote name='camoor']Yeah I'll never understand people.

Why doesn't NK rise up?

Why do people believe in austerity?

Why would poor and middle-class Americans voluntarily vote Republican?

It's ponderous man.[/QUOTE]


[quote name='Clak']Ignorance. I don't mean ignorance as it's often used, as a synonym for stupidity, I mean actual ignorance.[/QUOTE]


Because they live in a system if you get caught, your whole family get punish? They also live in a system where your friends and family will report you if they suspect of anything?
 
It's government enforced ignorance, they aren't able to really know what is happening outside. They know what they're told, and that's about it.
 
For the first time since 2010, a North Korean soldier made it across the DMZ, full of landmines and soldiers, to South Korea after he killed two superior officers.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-19855313
A North Korean soldier has defected to the South across the two countries' heavily armed border, South Korean officials have said.

The soldier said he shot dead two officers before crossing over just after noon (03:00 GMT) on Saturday.

Correspondents say defections across the land border are rare, with the last soldier fleeing in 2010.

More than 20,000 North Koreans have gone to the South in the last 60 years, mostly via China and SE Asia.

The two countries are still technically at war after the 1950-53 conflict, which ended in a ceasefire not a peace treaty.

About a million soldiers and a million land mines line the Demilitarised Zone.

The soldier was quoted as saying that he killed his platoon and company commanders while on guard duty.

A defence ministry official said six gunshots were heard and guards saw the soldier cross the demarcation line on a western section of the tightly guarded border.

They used loudspeakers to establish that he wanted to defect and guide him to safety, they added.

The official said he was in protective custody and was still being interrogated.

There has been no confirmation of the North Korean casualties and no unusual activity observed on the North Korean side of the border.
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I just read somewhere that they are in the Year 100 instead of 2012 because they go by the birth of Kim II Sung.
 
So how does that work? Does he get to stay? Does he get charged with murder despite the fact that he would have been killed for attempting to defect?
 
[quote name='Knoell']I just read somewhere that they are in the Year 100 instead of 2012 because they go by the birth of Kim II Sung.[/QUOTE]
Is that any crazier than basing the year off of a religious figure that might not have existed?:roll:

What makes "2012" so much more special than "100?"
 
[quote name='Knoell']I just read somewhere that they are in the Year 100 instead of 2012 because they go by the birth of Kim II Sung.[/QUOTE]

Japan and Taiwan also use the same thing. Right now it is Heisei 24 for Japan and Minguo 101. Of course the Gregorian calendar is still commonly used so they can be on the same page as the rest of the world. But really of all the things you could make fund of North Korean, this is something that been done for hundreds of years in Asian.
 
[quote name='dohdough']Is that any crazier than basing the year off of a religious figure that might not have existed?:roll:

What makes "2012" so much more special than "100?"[/QUOTE]
I there is little to no doubt Jesus of Nazareth (as a man) existed. He was mentioned in numerous non-biblical manuscripts as well as in the Koran. The doubt lies in whether or not He was the son of a one true God. But in either case, you do have a point.
 
[quote name='PottyPops']I there is little to no doubt Jesus of Nazareth (as a man) existed. He was mentioned in numerous non-biblical manuscripts as well as in the Koran. The doubt lies in whether or not He was the son of a one true God. But in either case, you do have a point.[/QUOTE]

Great username.
 
[quote name='62t']Japan and Taiwan also use the same thing. Right now it is Heisei 24 for Japan and Minguo 101. Of course the Gregorian calendar is still commonly used so they can be on the same page as the rest of the world. But really of all the things you could make fund of North Korean, this is something that been done for hundreds of years in Asian.[/QUOTE]

Actually this has been criticized as an attempt to add a sort of divinity to his reign. They have also named him the "Eternal President"

Your examples aren't much the same either, as one marks the reign of an emperor and the other marks the start of a revolution.

Also I thought it warranted a footnote in the topic, because of what these people have done to their country, and how they are so infatuated with forcing people to adore their "great leader", that it only makes sense for them to take this one step further.
 
[quote name='dohdough']Is that any crazier than basing the year off of a religious figure that might not have existed?:roll:

What makes "2012" so much more special than "100?"[/QUOTE]

You have a despot and his family that is infringing on many peoples rights, and you have a man that you say may not have existed 2000 years ago.

Not to mention the spread of the Gregorian calendar was a result of the need for uniformity.
 
In response to North Korea's continued attempt to develop long range missiles, the US has assisted South Korea and Japan with their own missile range limits. South Korean missiles are now capable of reaching a distance of up to 800km, bypassing a previously imposed limit of 300km first established in 2001.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-19861583
 
[quote name='Knoell']You have a despot and his family that is infringing on many peoples rights, and you have a man that you say may not have existed 2000 years ago.[/quote]
So what? How is one better than the other? Why not use the birth of Buddha?

Not to mention the spread of the Gregorian calendar was a result of the need for uniformity.
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It was the result of despots and their families infringing on peoples rights, imperialism, colonization, and making people convert to christianity.
 
[quote name='dohdough']So what? How is one better than the other? Why not use the birth of Buddha?


It was the result of despots and their families infringing on peoples rights, imperialism, colonization, and making people convert to christianity.[/QUOTE]


Your bigoted vendetta against Christianity is duely noted.

Back to the actual conversation, all I am saying is that the move to switch the calendar was just one of many acts by the Kim's to subjegate their people.
 
[quote name='Knoell']Your bigoted vendetta against Christianity is duely noted.[/quote]
Really? I didn't realize that asking you why basing the year on Jesus is better than basing it on a person like the Buddha and that somehow translates into saying that christianity is somehow inferior to buddhism? HAHAHAA...yeah...ok man...

Back to the actual conversation, all I am saying is that the move to switch the calendar was just one of many acts by the Kim's to subjegate their people.
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So what would you say if the Gregorian Calendar was used in the same manner? Cause guess what...it was.
 
Most Christians seem to have the same attitude towards their beliefs that Jesus from Big Lebowski had about himself, in that you don't fuck with him. But boy, they don't mind fucking with any other religion's god.
 
......Wow, I was talking about the fact that you relate an entirely peaceful religion to a line of despots who are purposely keeping their people down and subjegated. Anytime anyone relates Islam to violence, or oppression it is supposedly bigoted, so I figured I would return the favor.

I am not even sure what the hell Clak is talking about. You guys seem to have strong opinions about a man being evil that you claim never to have existed.....
 
[quote name='Knoell']......Wow, I was talking about the fact that you relate an entirely peaceful religion to a line of despots who are purposely keeping their people down and subjegated. Anytime anyone relates Islam to violence, or oppression it is supposedly bigoted, so I figured I would return the favor.[/quote]
So...trolling then...? Because your current points are all over the fucking place and isn't even remotely related to your initial post about how their date system is based on a previous head of government and how ridiculous it is.

As for entirely peaceful religion, I'm guessing you don't know jack shit about little blips in history called THE CRUSADES.

You're the one that's saying that spreading the Gregorian Calendar was a non-violent exercise and contrasting it to the North Korean date system; not me. You "throwing it back" is like starting a conversation about tennis and screaming out "pork belly sammiches suck!!!" because I said I liked bacon, but not pork belly in a previous conversation. I know that makes no sense because you don't.

I am not even sure what the hell Clak is talking about. You guys seem to have strong opinions about a man being evil that you claim never to have existed.....
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Uhhh...that's your persecution complex talking and a strawman. I can't think of any time or place where I, nor Clak, said that.

Btw, it's spelled subj-U-gated.
 
[quote name='dohdough']So...trolling then...? Because your current points are all over the fucking place and isn't even remotely related to your initial post about how their date system is based on a previous head of government and how ridiculous it is. [/QUOTE]

My points are all over the place?

[quote name='dohdough']Is that any crazier than basing the year off of a religious figure that might not have existed?:roll:[/QUOTE][quote name='dohdough']

What makes "2012" so much more special than "100?" [/QUOTE]

You would think you could admit that the move to do this was to create a sense of eternity and divinity to the Kim's. Oh wait, you did:

[quote name='dohdough']So what would you say if the Gregorian Calendar was used in the same manner? Cause guess what...it was. [/QUOTE]

But instead of agreeing with my original statement that this was a ploy by the North Korean government, you bring up your unhealthy obsession and hatred for Christianity and compare it to this. Who cares if we disagree about the Gregorian calendar, that wasn't the point.

I am glad you could agree with me though......while telling me how wrong I was originally.....while agreeing with me.....

[quote name='dohdough']
As for entirely peaceful religion, I'm guessing you don't know jack shit about little blips in history called THE CRUSADES.
[/QUOTE]

Ohhh, but I thought such things didn't reflect the religion as a whole remember? Those were only the extremists ;)

[quote name='dohdough']You're the one that's saying that spreading the Gregorian Calendar was a non-violent exercise and contrasting it to the North Korean date system; not me. You "throwing it back" is like starting a conversation about tennis and screaming out "pork belly sammiches suck!!!" because I said I liked bacon, but not pork belly in a previous conversation. I know that makes no sense because you don't.[/QUOTE]

Show me some evidence where the spread of the Gregorian Calendar was an instrumental tool in forcibly converting people to Christianity. Otherwise you could say Bacon was too, because some people don't eat bacon but the Christians were eating it, and Christians converted people unwillingly, so bacon is a tool of Christianity!!!! ;)
 
[quote name='Knoell']My points are all over the place?

You would think you could admit that the move to do this was to create a sense of eternity and divinity to the Kim's. Oh wait, you did:[/QUOTE]
Holy fuck balls...you're initial post is on this very fucking page. Are you that fucking full of shit?

Did you NOT make a comment about how ridiculous it is for North Korea to be at year 100 as if 2012 was so much better?

But instead of agreeing with my original statement that this was a ploy by the North Korean government, you bring up your unhealthy obsession and hatred for Christianity and compare it to this. Who cares if we disagree about the Gregorian calendar, that wasn't the point.
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No, your point was to say how ridiculous it is for them to be in the year 100 or whatever while touting the superiority of the Gregorian system as if it's the "best" because it's the most common while ignoring the centuries of colonization that made it that way. Hacking up my posts doesn't change that.

I am glad you could agree with me though......while telling me how wrong I was originally.....while agreeing with me.....
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You mean by removing all context from my posts, you can make it appear that way.

Ohhh, but I thought such things didn't reflect the religion as a whole remember? Those were only the extremists ;)
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I've always said that religion was a tool of the power elite. The fact that you think you have me here is even more silly when historically, Muslims were far more tolerant then christianity, but I guess that means jack shit when you couldn't give a flying fuck about history. It's not like I've never gone into deeper motivations.:roll:

Show me some evidence where the spread of the Gregorian Calendar was an instrumental tool in forcibly converting people to Christianity. Otherwise you could say Bacon was too, because some people don't eat bacon but the Christians were eating it, and Christians converted people unwillingly, so bacon is a tool of Christianity!!!! ;)
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You show me how religion wasn't a tool of colonization first. Or did indigenous people just decide that their god/s were stupid once they heard about some dude named Jesus.
 
[quote name='dohdough']Holy fuck balls...you're initial post is on this very fucking page. Are you that fucking full of shit?

Did you NOT make a comment about how ridiculous it is for North Korea to be at year 100 as if 2012 was so much better?

No, your point was to say how ridiculous it is for them to be in the year 100 or whatever while touting the superiority of the Gregorian system as if it's the "best" because it's the most common while ignoring the centuries of colonization that made it that way. Hacking up my posts doesn't change that.

You mean by removing all context from my posts, you can make it appear that way.

I've always said that religion was a tool of the power elite. The fact that you think you have me here is even more silly when historically, Muslims were far more tolerant then christianity, but I guess that means jack shit when you couldn't give a flying fuck about history. It's not like I've never gone into deeper motivations.:roll:

You show me how religion wasn't a tool of colonization first. Or did indigenous people just decide that their god/s were stupid once they heard about some dude named Jesus.[/QUOTE]

Wow, Do you not understand the concept of this thread? People were bashing North Korea and how they are keeping their people down, and that they are indoctrinated to "love" their leader. I thought it was interesting that one way they are achieving this indoctrination was that they did this. They want everyone thinking about their "Leader"

[quote name='knoell']
I just read somewhere that they are in the Year 100 instead of 2012 because they go by the birth of Kim II Sung.
[/QUOTE]

Maybe you are just confused because I mention 2012, however I had no thoughts about the Gregorian calendar at all at the time. I was merely connecting the two to make it easier to understand.

Jump the gun much? If thats touting the Gregorian calendar system as if it was the best system ever then "you got me".....However, I was just going by the current standard, but I guess I was way out of line....

I'm not going to get into the whole Muslim vs Christian thing with you again. You have your views and I have mine. Just live by your own rules for once.

As for your last paragraph, why are you still pushing the religion issue? I ask you a question specific to the topic, and you turn around and ask me a question that has nothing to do with the topic, or even your accusations of the Gregorian Calendar being an evil Christian tool. You seem to just want to argue how bad Christians were in the past.
 
Rebellion isn't much of an option, as I understand. Defection or attempted defection will result in lifetime hard labour convictions for your entire family, getting your hands on a weapon would probably be impossible and foreign intervention would be very difficult to attain as the nation is nuclear-armed and very unstable. Seems (almost, lest I eat my hat) impossible.
 
[quote name='Clak']I wish I could find the video again. I once watched this excellent documentary shot inside NK. The part I remember best is where a doctor from Nepal helped someone with severe vision problems (can't remember what exactly). After the bandages were removed and they were able to see, they thanked the dear leader. Not the doctor who did this for them, dear leader. They got up and thanked a portrait of Kim Jong-il.

See, many people have this idea that religion doesn't exist in NK, and that isn't true. They worship the Kims.[/QUOTE]

i saw this. very good documentary
 
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