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NK is not really ripe for a revolution. Or really very close to it.

And for the guy that noted Rick Steves, it's not so much that they think we're savage imperialists...it's that they think they're racially pure and superior. There's a very good book on this. Most people get NK politics all wrong.

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The majority of the North Korean citizens know their country is poverty stricken and their government is abusive. With the advancement of technology of the past few years, this enlightenment has become especially prevalent. The North Korean people strictly follow the government's directives, as the repercussions for not following them would affect not only the delinquent, but also the delinquent's family. If a citizen does not properly worship Kim Jung Il or complains against government policy and gets caught, he, his family and extended family would be placed in torturous prison. The possibility of such severe repercussions is why the North Korean people don't fight against the government.

The idea that the North Korean people think the American Imperialist are savages or that they believe they are racially superior is completely outdated.

Interesting. Great pics. Thanks!

Interesting. Great pics. Thanks!

What is the likelihood of shagging a n Korean? Novelty points would be through the roof.

Thanks for sharing those pictures. I'm glad to see they made it out to the only club.

Even Beijing has a Hard Rock Cafe I guess they're not quite that progressive in North Korea.

what is the large triangular building?

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What is the likelihood of shagging a n Korean? Novelty points would be through the roof.

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You must have missed the picture of the club.

I am guessing fairly slim.

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what is the large triangular building?

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It is the Ryugyong Hotel. It has been under construction since Soviet times and they stopped work on it after the Soviets fell. It just sat as a shell of a building until about 2 years ago...I believe they got some outside company (something like an egyptian telecom company) to finish it in exchange for something else. So it officially finished this year or last year - but I believe it is probably fairly empty except for a couple of floors.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ryugyong_Hotel

^^^ that user seems legit

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The majority of the North Korean citizens know their country is poverty stricken and their government is abusive. With the advancement of technology of the past few years, this enlightenment has become especially prevalent. The North Korean people strictly follow the government's directives, as the repercussions for not following them would affect not only the delinquent, but also the delinquent's family. If a citizen does not properly worship Kim Jung Il or complains against government policy and gets caught, he, his family and extended family would be placed in torturous prison. The possibility of such severe repercussions is why the North Korean people don't fight against the government.

The idea that the North Korean people think the American Imperialist are savages or that they believe they are racially superior is completely outdated.

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I don't know that anyone has a particularly easy read on what a majority of NKs believe. I do think that the facade has slipped, and quite a bit.

But what you say is not exactly borne out by what defectors say when they get out. They are still amazed at what they were missing. The propanda isn't 100% effective, but there is MUCH that the people there don't know that allows them to doubt.

You don't need to tell me what people believe there. I've read innumerable books on the place (the best of which are Under the Loving Care of the Fatherly Leader, The Cleanest Race, The Aquariums of Pyongyang, the graphic novel Pyongyang and the absolute best, Nothing to Envy)

As to the ideology, my point was more what the actualy ideology is...and what it is is a racial superiority ideology. That's the propaganda regardless of how many people believe it.

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That's the propaganda regardless of how many people believe it.

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It certainly is the propaganda. I doubt very many NK's would believe this if they ever saw the outside world, however.

I'm almost finished with "Nothing to Envy". This is a very very good book and I highly recommend it for anyone wanting to learn about NK and how communism sucks.

Looking at these pictures, it's hard to believe that 10% of the NK population starved to death in 1999. I also lean towards not ever wanting to visit that hell hole. The act alone legitimizes everything wrong with that country and it's leadership. I don't think I could stomach receiving a tour and putting on a smile while knowing that hundreds of thousands of people are sitting in labor camps starving only a few miles away.

Glad I found this thread. The tour your brother took is almost exactly the one Shane takes in the Vice Guide. This is a trip I'd like to take someday, but doubt I ever will.

I'm fascinated by this country unfortunately. You guys are right that its an incredibly cruel regime

This came in the mail the other day

I've a bit of a North Korea buff (as much as an American that's never been can be), but I guarantee the chance to sleep with a girl there is absolutely 0. Sex is a big taboo in regular North Korean life and sex with an American would be pretty much inconceivable.

[This message has been edited by BaylorHistory (edited 10/9/2012 1:19a).]

Interesting excerpt I saw today:

http://blog.skepticaldoctor.com/2010/01/15/classic-dalrymple-the-wilder-shores-of-marx-excerpt-1991.aspx

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It didn't take long to discover that this was no ordinary department store. It was filled with thousands of people, going up and down the escalators, standing at the corners, going in and out of the front entrance in a constant stream both ways - yet nothing was being bought or sold. I checked this by standing at the entrance for half an hour. The people coming out were carrying no more than the people entering. Their shopping bags contained as much, or as little, when they left as when they entered. In some cases, I recognised people coming out as those who had gone in a few minutes before, only to see them re-entering the store almost immediately. And I watched a hardware counter for fifteen minutes. There were perhaps twenty people standing at it; there were two assistants behind the counter, but they paid no attention to the 'customers'. The latter and the assistants stared past each other in a straight line, neither moving nor speaking.

Eventually, they grew uncomfortably aware that they were under my observation. They began to shuffle their feet and wriggle, as if my regard pinned them like live insects to a board. The assistants too became restless and began to wonder what to do in these unforeseen circumstances. They decided that there was nothing for it but to distribute something under the eyes of this inquisitive foreigner. And so, all of a sudden, they started to hand out plastic wash bowls to the twenty 'customers', who took them (without any pretence of payment). Was it their good luck, then? Had they received something for nothing? No, their problems had just begun. What were they to do with their plastic wash bowls? (All of them were brown incidentally, for the assistants did not have sufficient initiative to distribute a variety of goods to give verisimilitude to the performance, not even to the extent of giving out differently coloured bowls.)

They milled around the counter in a bewildered fashion, clutching their bowls in one hand as if they were hats they had just doffed in the presence of a master. Some took them to the counter opposite to hand them in; some just waited until I had gone away. I would have taken a photograph, but I remembered just in time that these people were not participating in this charade from choice, that they were victims, and that - despite their expressionless faces and lack of animation - they were men with chajusong, that is to say creativity and consciousness, and to have photographed them would only have added to their degradation. I left the hardware counter, but returned briefly a little later: the same people were standing at it, sans brown plastic bowls, which were neatly re-piled on the shelf.

I also followed a few people around at random, as discreetly as I could. Some were occupied in ceaselessly going up and down the escalators; others wandered from counter to counter, spending a few minutes at each before moving on. They did not inspect the merchandise; they moved as listlessly as illiterates might, condemned to spend the day among the shelves of a library. I did not know whether to laugh or explode with anger or weep. But I knew I was seeing one of the most extraordinary sights of the twentieth century.

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Dang I came back to check out this thread and all the pictures aren't showing anymore. That stinks.

Those pics being home is not a coincidence

Did NK hack TexAgs?