Comments on: Politics

Politics

semmi — Sat, 22 Jan 2005 10:52:57 -0800

North Korea is the most secretive country in the world today, with its main railway lined with walls so high that its foreign passengers can't see the countryside.

By: the theory of revolution

the theory of revolution — Sat, 22 Jan 2005 11:09:47 -0800

check THIS

By: dhoyt

dhoyt — Sat, 22 Jan 2005 11:19:48 -0800

It's been covered before, but this is also an interesting essay by a grad student who was lucky enough to visit Pyongyang & take pictures with only a handful of espionage accusations. semmi: this would be a good post for keyword tags so that all North Korea-related info could be easily indexed

By: fandango_matt

fandango_matt — Sat, 22 Jan 2005 11:21:14 -0800

Man, that's depressing. And scary. What's up with those text ads at the bottom of revolution's link--"Fly To North Korea!"?

By: kozad

kozad — Sat, 22 Jan 2005 11:49:16 -0800

I was transfixed by the photos of the giant stadium robot cult performance art extravaganza (page 5 of the essay linked to by dhoyt).

By: punishinglemur

punishinglemur — Sat, 22 Jan 2005 11:51:29 -0800

I would love to see a video of that performance, just to see the precision with which it is apparently presented. Those pictures were amazing, yet disturbing at the same time.

By: Eideteker

Eideteker — Sat, 22 Jan 2005 12:08:02 -0800

South Korea is investing heavily in this.

By: Dr. Wu

Dr. Wu — Sat, 22 Jan 2005 12:38:14 -0800

Thanks, semmi and dhoyt - these are really interesting articles. I am very interested to read the book reviewed in semmi's link.

By: fungible

fungible — Sat, 22 Jan 2005 14:09:46 -0800

How "Brazil" of them - if only they had ads.

By: shoepal

shoepal — Sat, 22 Jan 2005 18:33:06 -0800

Enjoyed the article and plan to read Under the Loving Care... Thanks semmi.

By: MiHail

MiHail — Sat, 22 Jan 2005 18:56:39 -0800

This is an "All Things Considered" story about the problems severe malnutrition has caused in N. Korea. It's interesting (in a horrible and gruesome way) to think which will happen first: will the regime destroy itself by destroying its brainwashed citizens, or will the brainwashed citizens decide they're so miserable they must go along with the expected war because they're dying anyway? Insert gripe about mishandled foreign relations here.

By: sour cream

sour cream — Sat, 22 Jan 2005 19:10:41 -0800

Fascinating read. Thanks, semmi; I've put "Under the Loving Care" on my to-read list. BTW, the reviewer (not the author) is Nicolas Kristof, who received a Pullitzer for his excellent book on China (co-authored with his wife).

By: Xoc

Xoc — Sat, 22 Jan 2005 21:11:44 -0800

That may be the reason for it. There might be another reason, though. When I was on a train in Viet Nam, it was pretty frequent that people along the tracks threw rocks at the train. It was dangerous to get too close to the windows, especially if they were open. A high wall would prevent that.

By: stavrosthewonderchicken

stavrosthewonderchicken — Sat, 22 Jan 2005 21:23:22 -0800

Do not mistake shame for secretiveness.

By: fleacircus

fleacircus — Sun, 23 Jan 2005 11:05:46 -0800

The walls might be a defensive measure in case invaders try to drive tanks and trucks up the railways. Makes ambushes easy, and you can knock the walls over to block the way.

By: alumshubby

alumshubby — Sun, 23 Jan 2005 11:40:59 -0800

Yeah, right, like anybody'd invade a totalitarian repressive regime just to inflict democracy or something... oh, wait...they don't have oil...

By: ibmcginty

ibmcginty — Sun, 23 Jan 2005 11:45:39 -0800

From within dhoyt's link, description and a bunch of images from a big festival in North Korea. The performance appears to be as stirring and visually stunning as any you could ever imagine. If you were brought up with this ideology and these images, and no information from the outside world, would you be able to break from it mentally? I'm not sure I would. It's really chilling.

By: gesamtkunstwerk

gesamtkunstwerk — Sun, 23 Jan 2005 12:29:29 -0800

Fascinating links, and a good thread. The whole question of strength is fascinating to me because it is so hard to gauge. I had a pretty good idea that the Soviet Union who disintegrate if the Baltic States left, but I am still flabbergasted at how fast people lost their Soviet identity. Has anyone read the books recommended by Fisher? They don't look like books an academic would recommend. But I'd definitely like to read more about Korea.

By: jedrek

jedrek — Mon, 24 Jan 2005 06:25:00 -0800

This tale, of an Italian making Pizza for Kim Jong Il is also really, really interesting.

By: SisterHavana

SisterHavana — Mon, 24 Jan 2005 09:54:08 -0800

dhoyt, I just spent an hour at work reading your link. It's utterly fascinating, especially the comparison between the DMZ tour you take from the South and from the North.