Kim Jong Ill.
posted on Sep 9, 2008 - View this thread

Photos from North Korea. Photographs from a 2 week long trip to North Korea by photographer Eric Lafforgue.
posted on Aug 14, 2008 - View this thread

Bobby Egan: Restaurateur and Amateur Diplomat.
posted on Apr 10, 2008 - View this thread

According to the English language edition of the Asahi Shimbun, an Israeli airstrike against Syria last September targeted a nuclear-related facility that was under construction with technical assistance from North Korea, according to Israel's prime minister...It is apparently the first time that the intended target had been disclosed to the head of a foreign government. Original Japanese link here. Via the wonderful Marmot's Hole.
posted on Apr 1, 2008 - View this thread

70 year old Pak Doo-Ik will lead North Korea's prestigious Olympic torch bearers to Beijing this summer. In the 1966 World Cup at Middlesborough, Pak scored the goal that lead his team to a stunning 1-0 upset win over Italy (video). Pak Doo-Ik and the team returned home as heroes, but ultimately fell under the suspicion of North Korean leadership. The team underwent "mental re-education" and were exiled, Pak Doo-Ik spending ten years as a forest laborer. Dear Leader Kim Jong-il later allowed Pak to coach North Korea's national soccer team, and a fascinating 2002 BBC documentary brought Pak Doo Ik back to the international stage.
posted on Mar 27, 2008 - View this thread

ViceTV takes a relaxing North Korean vacation (video, in 14 parts).
posted on Mar 24, 2008 - View this thread

Playing with Dictators - an editorial on the New York Philharmonic's decision to play a concert in North Korea. One musician's account of the performance.
posted on Mar 17, 2008 - View this thread

Feeling nostalgic for those old school Soviet shindigs? Westerners are welcome to North Korea's Arirang Mass Games. Tickets are on sale now. Will tourist dollars/euros be the undoing of North Korea?
posted on Apr 12, 2007 - View this thread

Tentative agreement reached with North Korea. The six-party talks in Beijing finally succeeded: under the agreement, North Korea will close its main nuclear reactor within 60 days, in exchange for food, fuel aid, and steps towards normal relations with the US and Japan. The deal still has to be approved by the six governments. Analysis from the New York Times. Background from Richard Bernstein in the New York Review of Books, and from the International Crisis Group. Previously.
posted on Feb 14, 2007 - View this thread

From 1977 to 1983, between 16-70 Japanese citizens were abducted in their home country by agents of the North Korean government. 13-year-old Megumi Yokota was the youngest. This is her story.
posted on Jan 22, 2007 - View this thread

'We don't talk to evil' - in 2003, during the term of former president Khatami, Iran contacted the United States, and offered to end support for Hamas and Hezbollah, and help stabilize Iraq. Cheney said no. Skip forward to the present, and Iran are having tea and crumpets with North Korea.
posted on Jan 18, 2007 - View this thread

Kim Jong Il's Ringtones and Wallpaper and other fine, fashionable accessories for your digital lifestyle. (via waxy.org.)
posted on Oct 25, 2006 - View this thread

Newsfilter: North Korea's response to a toothless UN resolution may be a second nuclear test. With military solutions pretty much off the table, it may be up to rival factions within the DPRK to topple the regime. NK coups have been discussed here before, and the end result may not be as pretty as one would hope, but maybe this time the Chinese have had enough.
posted on Oct 17, 2006 - View this thread

Air samples over North Korea show no radiation "It is possible there was no radiological data. That could be the case if: the North Koreans successfully sealed the site; it was such a small detonation and so deep underground there was no escape of nuclear debris; or the test was actually conventional explosives."
posted on Oct 13, 2006 - View this thread

Fascinating photo set of North Korean life, as taken by a Russian tourist. The degree of "Big Brother" style oversight present via the photo narration is daunting.
posted on Jun 14, 2006 - View this thread

The Ryungyong Hotel is a nearly 1,000 foot tall abandoned pyramid in the heart of Pyongyang that North Korea has officially tried to forget. [discussed previously here] The architecture magazine Domus had over 200 entries to a contest to repurpose the Ryungong, a similar project is also underway elsewhere on the web, though some architects think the effort is a bad idea. [For Domus, use:mefier/mefite]
posted on Apr 27, 2006 - View this thread

The Axis of Evil has some competition — in Ohio. The Bush Administration continues to apply pressure to North Korea about its alleged counterfeiting of $100 notes: This Korean story quotes Amb. Alexander Vershbow demanding physical proof that Pyongyang has destroyed its forging equipment. On the other hand, according to the BBC, South Korea's intelligence service doubts the North is counterfeiting, although it may have done so in the past. Meanwhile, on the homefront, a 16-year-old has been fingered as the mastermind of a bogus bill ring operating out of the boy's home in North College Hill, OH. Oddly, the Cincinnati Enquirer article announcing the bust is chock-full of juicy tips for would-be home engravers: rip off old bills rather than new, don't overlook those colored fibers, and set the wash cycle for delicates. Oh, and don't even think about using scissors: it's a sure giveaway!
posted on Feb 19, 2006 - View this thread

Happy 60th Anniversary, Worker's Party of Korea (.swf)
posted on Oct 13, 2005 - View this thread

The KCNA Random Insult Generator is a fine way to build up your vocabulary for political debates, north korean style, you shameless lackeys!
posted on Aug 14, 2005 - View this thread

Two new pieces from the San Diego Union-Tribune chronicle the dire conditions in North Korea, the last worst place on Earth: "The suffering of the North Korean people does not benefit from the drama that attends well-publicized human rights crises such as Iraq and Darfur. Even when hunger and starvation killed as many as 2 million North Koreans in the mid-1990s, the world took little notice. And the greater toll is the continuing long-term day-to-day grinding down of the hearts, minds and souls of all North Korean people."
posted on May 18, 2005 - View this thread

North Korea has the ability to arm a missile with a nuclear device. "The Pentagon's top military intelligence officer said yesterday that North Korea has the ability to arm a missile with a nuclear device, stunning senators he was addressing and prompting attempts by other defense and intelligence officials later to play down the remarks." Was Bill Clinton right or just an an appeaser?

But don't worry! Our CIA and our military have never failed us yet, and we have wise leaders: "No terrorist state poses a greater or more immediate threat to the security of our people and the stability of the world than the regime of Saddam Hussein in Iraq." -- Donald Rumsfeld, testimony to Congress, Sept. 19, 2002. So, will we be protecting America from WMDs, that is, giving the "Gift of Democracy" in Pyongyang, or just buying off Mr. Kim again?
posted on Apr 29, 2005 - View this thread

"The haggis was pronounced excellent by all that ate it, foreigners and Koreans, including the Vice-Minister." A diplomat describes opening the British embassy in Pyongyang. Direct link (rtf) here.
posted on Apr 26, 2005 - View this thread

North Korea sets BoingBoing up the bomb. All their base are belong to BoingBoing. via joi ito.
posted on Mar 7, 2005 - View this thread

Happy belated birthday, Kim Jong Il.
posted on Feb 17, 2005 - View this thread

We've Got 'Em The North Korean goverment has threatened to "bolster its nuclear weapons arsenal." It is a well known secret that as a charter member of the axis-of-evil, North Korea has an active program to enrich nuclear fuel. And this is not the first time North Korea has made such an annoucement. But why are they are trying to take pressure off Iran?
posted on Feb 10, 2005 - View this thread

The beginning of the end for Dear Leader? This Times (of London) report is filled with telling details.
posted on Feb 1, 2005 - View this thread

North Korea Issues Wartime Guidelines SEOUL, South Korea (AP) - North Korea has ordered its citizens to be ready for a protracted war against the United States, issuing guidelines on evacuating to underground bunkers with weapons, food and portraits of leader Kim Jong Il.
posted on Jan 5, 2005 - View this thread

A trickle of reports coming out of North Korea paint a picture of a regime in its dying days
posted on Dec 29, 2004 - View this thread

oh my. this is not good for business.
posted on Sep 11, 2004 - View this thread

Rev. Moon's submarines, sold to Kim Jong-Il, empower a nuke threat to the West Coast Comment from Atrios: "North Korea Has Dozen Subs Could threaten us with sea-launched missiles. Where'd Dear Leader get them? It looks like he got them from the guy who writes the paychecks of BillGertz, Tony Blankley, Wes Pruden, Andrew Sullivan, Jonah Goldberg..."
posted on Aug 4, 2004 - View this thread

South Korean government bans Kim Sun-Il execution video. Activates government emergency internet monitoring system. Orders web sites and ISPs to comply. "Web sites that fail to follow through the instructions will be subject to shut-down or police investigation". Several South Korean web sites have already been shut down, while other sites, such as Yahoo! Korea, are assisting the government by blocking and censoring their user's email. Meanwhile, a general strike, massive antiwar protests, and a refusal by airline unions may prevent the deployment and supply of 3,000 South Korean soldiers to Iraq, as well as the rule of the current South Korean government. Numerous U.S. websites are being blocked, and one of the sites, Ogrish.com, is under attack from hackers for carrying the execution video. (warning: tragic and traumatic. Windows Media.)
posted on Jun 25, 2004 - View this thread

Pre- and post- explosion satellite images of the Ryongchon train station in North Korea.
posted on Apr 30, 2004 - View this thread

North Korean Nuclear Devices. "Abdul Qadeer Khan, the Pakistani scientist who sold nuclear technology around the world, has told his interrogators that during a trip to North Korea five years ago he was taken to a secret underground nuclear plant and shown what he described as three nuclear devices."
posted on Apr 13, 2004 - View this thread

FilteredNewsFilter: The only headline about North Korea in most of the media is that the U.S. Wants North Korea Working Group Talks to Resume Before the End of April. But, if you live in Australia or parts of Asia, you will have heard about N.K.'s rather shrill official statement claiming that the U.S. is "driving the military situation on the Korean peninsula to the brink of a nuclear war" with "moves to put the strategy of pre-emptive nuclear attack into practice." Fighting words. How come nobody in the 'real media' around here seems to have noticed it yet?
I will withdraw my snark if BOTH stories make the morning papers tomorrow, but I doubt it.
posted on Apr 9, 2004 - View this thread

North Korea Tour.
posted on Mar 13, 2004 - View this thread

BBC documentary interviews ex-North Korean concentration camp boss. Kwon Hyok explains, 'I witnessed a whole family being tested on suffocating gas and dying in the gas chamber. The parents, son and and a daughter. The parents were vomiting and dying, but till the very last moment they tried to save kids by doing mouth-to-mouth breathing.' Now Pyongyang's gone nuclear, can anything practical be done about this? Can it be legitimately argued that we have no moral right to intervene, even if we could, as it doesn't threaten us?
posted on Feb 2, 2004 - View this thread

Cunnilingus In North Korea - Young-Hae Chang. [flash]
posted on Nov 6, 2003 - View this thread

The Hidden Gulag: Exposing North Korea’s Prison Camps (PDF) is a new report by the U.S. Committee for Human Rights in North Korea on North Korea's prison system for political prisoners. Using testimony and satellite photography, the report documents the kwan-li-so (political penal-labor colonies) and kyo-hwa-so (long-term prison-labor camps,) in which hundreds of thousands of political prisoners work as slave laborers, and are subjected to starvation diets and torture. Also documented are the jip-kyul-so repatriation centers along the Chinese border, where forced abortion and infanticide are common. Unsurprisingly, many North Korean defectors are haunted by guilt over loved ones left behind.
posted on Oct 23, 2003 - View this thread

Why does North Korea hate America? Warning: Quicktime video, and NSFW to boot. Anti-American propaganda video made by North Koreans, for North Koreans. Unintentionally funny, or sheer genius? You be the judge.
posted on Oct 13, 2003 - View this thread

Top hyundai Executive Plunges to his Death 4 days ago, amidst an ongoing investigation into a 100 million dollar underground transfer between Chung Mong-hun and the government of North Korea. But then again, its not like the sky wasn't already falling on him.
posted on Aug 10, 2003 - View this thread

Northern Exposure: A North Korean Travelogue
posted on May 9, 2003 - View this thread

Impressive monuments, lousy souvenir stands, and lots and lots of vigilant soldiers. An American living in South Korea takes a once-in-a-lifetime trip to North Korea. 11 pages full of photos including a hundred thousand colored pieces of cardboard, and a sampling of the five billion pictures of Kim Il-sung.
posted on May 7, 2003 - View this thread

Get your Armageddon on. North Korea admits vast nuclear weapon program.
posted on Apr 24, 2003 - View this thread

Young-hae Chang's latest, Operation Nukorea, is shattering, unflinching, and beautifully executed. It's a little tale about consequences, and what happens downstream from decisions not sufficiently considered.

It probably would have brought tears to my eyes even if I did not have family in Seoul. Watch it through to the end.
posted on Apr 18, 2003 - View this thread

ZoomView is a satellite image of Baghdad from March 27th that allows zooming to the level of cars and individual trees and panning around the city. Data loads realtime called "sharpening". Other cool ZoomViews of Basra, Tikrit, North Korea nuclear reactor site, Qualcomm Stadium San Diego.
posted on Mar 29, 2003 - View this thread

Kim Jong Il (the illmatic)'s LiveJournal
3:39 am Dear diary. Bush still doesn’t ‘get it.’ I tried making my feelings clear but he’s too busy ignoring me, he is such a jerk. Everything in his life is just Saddam, Saddam, Saddam and I am sick of it.

On the plus side, I think my hair looked pretty good today. Also I went frolicking at Paektu Mountain and the rainbow came out again. After dinner some of my subjects sang me a song because I invented Outer Space.
posted on Mar 27, 2003 - View this thread

Here are two thoughtful pieces on the North Korean Crisis.

From Foreign Affairs comes How to Deal With North Korea.

From the New York Times comes
Q&A: Should U.S. Launch Direct Talks with North Korea?

Here, by the way, is the fourth footnote from How to Deal With North Korea :

Had the Agreed Framework not been signed in 1994, the North's plutonium-based program would by today have produced enough plutonium for up to 30 nuclear weapons. Critics of the accord should not ignore this fact.
posted on Mar 19, 2003 - View this thread

US Lets N. Korea Get Nuclear Data (Boston Globe) "Transfer Pact Stays in Effect: WASHINGTON - The Bush administration has not suspended or revoked the authority of Westinghouse Co. to transfer documents related to nuclear technology to North Korea, despite the fact that the Asian nation has admitted that it violated terms of a nonproliferation agreement it signed with Washington in 1994, US Department of Energy documents show."
posted on Mar 8, 2003 - View this thread

The Pyongyang Metro.[more]
posted on Mar 7, 2003 - View this thread

An American Visits the DMZ. With the rising tensions on the Korean border, it seems like a good time to get a first hand account on the situation. Insightful observations like, so I went into North Korea. It was a lot like South Korea, maybe colder. And there were more fat Canadians than I expected, especially just after a famine. While you're at his site, don't miss Tim Hoo is a Genius and Ask not for whom The Bell™ tolls.
posted on Mar 4, 2003 - View this thread