MetaFilter posts tagged with NorthKorea

Robert Park

paladin — Sun, 03 Jan 2010 01:07:02 -0800

On Christmas day, Robert Park walked over the frozen Tumen river from China and into North Korea. He did an interview that was to be released when he had crossed over.

The Economist: The World in 2010

goodnewsfortheinsane — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 17:09:43 -0800

In 2010, Obama will have a miserable year, NATO may lose in Afghanistan, the UK gets a regime change, China needs to chill, India's factories will overtake its farms, Europe risks becoming an irrelevant museum, the stimulus will need an exit strategy, the G20 will see a challenge from the "G2", African football will unite Korea, conflict over natural resources will grow, Sarkozy will be unloved and unrivalled, the kids will come together to solve the world's problems (because their elders are unable), technology will grow ever more ubiquitous, we'll all charge our phones via USB, MBAs will be uncool, the Space Shuttle will be put to rest, and Somalia will be the worst country in the world. And so the Tens begin.

The Economist: The World in 2010. Previously: 2009, 2008, 2007. How did we do last time around? Guest contributions: President of the European Commission José Manuel Barroso lines up Europe's priorities President of Russia Dmitry Medvedev argues for dialogue and cooperation President of the Maldives Mohamed Nasheed wants his island nation to remain above water President of Indonesia Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono would like for Islam and the West to live in harmony President of South Africa Jacob Zuma says Africa should rise to the occasion Director-General of the World Health Organisation Margaret Chan predicts the development of the flu pandemic Managing director of the International Monetary Fund Dominique Strauss-Kahn explains how to prevent another crisis CEO of Yahoo! Carol Bartz believes business leaders should tap into the information flood Chairman of HSBC Stephen Green argues that the financial sector should welcome emerging economies CEO of Fiat Group and Chrysler Group Sergio Marchionne thinks greener cars require bolder action CEO/CTO of SpaceX Elon Musk says the private sector should handle space travel

Just another 100 days, hero!

Burhanistan — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 07:11:04 -0800

North Korea's "150 Day Battle" has been extended for another 100 days. The initiative was ostensibly aimed at ramping up internal production in the face of growing external trade reductions. Some analysts think it's a ploy, combined with recent missile launches , to solidify the base for the next regime.

Freshly Squeezed Juche

Burhanistan — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 14:53:37 -0800

North Korea’s Dollar Store - Office 39, North Korea’s billion-dollar crime syndicate, pays for Kim Jong Il’s missiles and cognac. Why did the Bush White House choose not to shut it down? [via] Global Insurance Fraud By North Korea Outlined - WaPo Time piece on Bureau 39 This is my ~~first~~ 100th post so please be gentle with me.

Bill Clinton to the rescue

CunningLinguist — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 13:08:34 -0800

Bill Clinton makes secret trip to North Korea, wins pardon and apparent release of two captive US journalists. Jailed reporters Laura Ling and Euna Lee, employees of Al Gore's Current TV, were arrested for spying in March and had recently been sentenced to 12 years in a labor camp. The remarkable development is likely to boost to Clinton's battered image. The surprisingly swift resolution of the secret mission made a monkey of some prominent Obama administration critics.

Happy Science, and the Potential Joining of Church and State in Japan

filthy light thief — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 14:02:38 -0800

Kōfuku-no-Kagaku (幸福の科学), also called Happy Science, is a relatively new religious and spiritual movement, founded in Japan in October 1986. The organization is gaining ground world-wide, with the international headquarter office in central Tokyo, 6 local temples located in London, New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seoul and Taiwan, and an additional 37 local offices around the world. The group's leader, Master Ryuho Okawa, has is not limiting the scope of the movement to politics, and in May 2009 the Happiness Realization Party was formed, with over 300 HRP candidates running for the coming general election. To provide background on the religion and political movement, here is a little investigation of Happy Science by MeFi's own shii [via mefi projects] Believers state that Ryuho Okawa attained Great Enlightenment on March 23, 1981 and renounced his business career in the 1980s after being awakened to the hidden part of his consciousness, El Cantare, Eternal Buddha. El Cantare is also known as Elohim, the Supreme God in the Old Testament, and the Mahavairocana Buddha of Mahayana Buddhism. In the United States, Happy Science is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization whose aim is to achieve true happiness by deepening and widening our love, and to reach a higher level of enlightenment based on the teachings of truth by Master Ryuho Okawa. If you're in New York City, you might see ads for Happy Science lectures, meditations and discussions. On the other hand, this (unscripted?) interview with Sohken Kobayashi (the secretary general of the Happiness Realization Party) displays a group less focused on self-realization and more about the stability of Japan versus the forces of the global economy (Kobayashi explains the party already saved the world financial crisis last year by advising the Japanese Prime Minister to fund $100 billions of dollars to the IMF), and reacting to the threat of the secret nuclear alliance among the North Korea, Iran, Pakistan and China. Along with interviews of this sort are propaganda videos, depicting the potential events of North Korea bombing Japan (English summary of the Japanese video). Bonus bits: Full color pamphlets and books being made for Happy Science Uganda Peak inside a Happy Science building in Japan, who aren't too fond of unauthorized photography Happiness Realization Party posters in Kyoto, being posted by HRP candidate Karube Yoshiteru himself

You will drink it and you will like it

adamrice — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 07:01:57 -0800

North Korea's first TV advertisement for beer (BBC article with video).

Life in a North Korean Concentration Camp

thisperon — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 02:03:41 -0800

North Korea's concentration camps reportedly contain over half a million citizens, and is possibly one of the worst cases of systematic human rights abuses occurring in the world today. Ahn Myong Chol, an ex-prison guard, describes the conditions of the inmates of Camp 22, in objective and chilling detail. On medical experiments being performed on prisoners: "....the glass chamber has 3 main subdivisions: one is for blood experiments, another is for poison gas, and the third is for suffocation gas. 3 or 4 people, normally a family, are experimented on. The scientists sit around the edge and watch from above...". Chol's description of camp life, the psychology of being a prison guard and his victims: "If I was in a bad mood, I would find an excuse (to torture.) It's just like pigs or dogs. You could beat them everyday without caring if they lived or died. Everyday. For around 3 years I enjoyed torturing people." Shin Dong Hyuk, a young man who was actually born into a prison camp, is the only known survivor to escape Camp 14. Now in South Korea, he tells the stunning story of what is was like to be born in a prison camp, and the stark contrast of life outside of it. "Mothers get beaten during their work so they come home and beat their kids to relieve stress. We only called our parents mom and dad. There is no caring relationship between the parents and their children like in South Korea. I had never felt it even once."

Kim Jong Il picks a successor

GilloD — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 08:55:59 -0800

Kim Jong Il has reportedly chosen an heir to his throne. And like a lot of stories involving North Korea, there's a mix of world-ending gloom and mad-cap hilarity. Meet the mysterious Kim Jong-un "Little is known about the youngest son, Kim Jong-un, beyond reports that he was secretly schooled in Switzerland under an assumed name, posing as the son of a driver in the nearby North Korean Embassy. He skied Switzerland’s famous slopes, and was a fan of Michael Jordan."

mapping snoops annotate North Korea

nickyskye — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 22:51:49 -0800

North Korea has a reputation as one of the most secretive, authoritarian, repressive countries in the world. But that doesn't stop Curtis Melvin, a PhD student at George Mason University, from trying to shine some light into the country's dark corners l His North Korea Economy Watch site, which includes The most authoritative map of North Korea on Google Earth l Gulags, Nukes and a Water Slide: Citizen Spies Lift North Korea's Veil.

North Korea threatens, again

NoraReed — Tue, 26 May 2009 22:19:31 -0800

North Korea announces it will no longer abide by the ceasefire that ended the Korean war. Previously. BreakingNews on Twitter announces this. Confirmed by Yonhap, Malaysian Insider and Reuters.

North Korea nukes, again

Chocolate Pickle — Sun, 24 May 2009 22:46:57 -0800

North Korea has confirmed that it has performed another nuclear test. Soth Korea measurements say it was magnitude 4.5, compared to 3.6 for the last one. USGS says 4.7 this time. Last year, Joe Biden said that within months of his inauguration, hostile foreign powers would attempt to test Obama. Looks like he was right.

Big Picture Developed in Spare Time

netbros — Sat, 25 Apr 2009 20:12:53 -0800

This week's New York Times Punch Awards notification brought the news that award winning Boston Globe's The Big Picture was developed and promoted largely on Alan Taylor's own time. The most recent entry is a look at life from the other side of the border by Peering Into North Korea.

The Forbidden Railway - a train trip to Pyongyang

dunkadunc — Sun, 05 Apr 2009 08:56:35 -0800

In September of 2008, two Austrians traveled 13,000km by rail from Vienna to Pyongyang - without asking permission and going through the official Koran travel agency. Travelling via Slovakia, Ukraine and Russia, they chatted up North Korean border officials, were invited to eat lunch by North Koreans on the train, spent 36 hours without a guide, reaching areas not normally accessible to tourists. Travelogue with photos: Vienna-Moscow : Moscow-Barnaul : Barnaul-Irkutsk : Irkutsk-Skovorodino Skovorodino-Khabarovsk : Russia-DPRK : Tumangan Kilchu-Pyongyang 1 : Kilchu-Pyongyang 2 : Pyongyang & Mt. Myohyang Arirang Games, &c. : The Demilitarized Zone

"You do understand that you are entering a dangerous area, and that the possibility of injury or death is real."

alby — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 02:11:52 -0800

Bob Harris visits the North Korean border

North Korea Regime Collapse?

stbalbach — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 08:07:01 -0800

North Korea's Kim suffers 'serious' setback from stroke. When Will North Korea Collapse? Should it happen, US, South Korean, and Chinese troops could charge into North Korea to secure its nuclear facilities-and confront each other, says RAND corp and others. However it is "far from certain that the regime would collapse like a puffball", and even John Bolton thinks The World Shouldn't Fear The Collapse of North Korea . But it's all probably a mugs game, In ’97, U.S. Panel Said North Korea Could Collapse in 5 Years, and in 2004 Talk was Swirling of a North Korean Regime Collapse.

...sorry...

Artw — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 20:17:01 -0800

Kim Jong Ill.

Photos from North Korea.

chunking express — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 12:58:23 -0800

Photos from North Korea. Photographs from a 2 week long trip to North Korea by photographer Eric Lafforgue.

"Eat these [bleeping] ribs . . . then tell me about [bleeping] Texas!"

absalom — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 15:15:05 -0800

Bobby Egan: Restaurateur and Amateur Diplomat. Imagine what diplomatic coups real BBQ ribs might pull off.

IDF Hit Syrian Nuke Site Built with NK Help

KokuRyu — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 15:09:47 -0800

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. Previously on Metafilter here, here, and here. A Strike in the Dark, by Seymour Hersh.

North Korea's Soccer Hero

Chinese Jet Pilot — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 15:46:49 -0800

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.

Vice visits the DPRK

kickingtheground — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 08:37:34 -0800

ViceTV takes a relaxing North Korean vacation (video, in 14 parts).

Playing with Dictators

Wolfdog — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 06:15:08 -0800

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.

Make Benefit Glorious Nation of North Korea

oneirodynia — Thu, 12 Apr 2007 09:56:26 -0800

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?

Tentative agreement with North Korea

russilwvong — Wed, 14 Feb 2007 23:29:03 -0800

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.