Exclusive slideshow from Swedes inside North Korea

http://wwwc.aftonbladet.se/ljudbildspel/nordkoreaspelet/


Personally I did turn off the music from the site, and instead I played "DOOM" / Map 05 and 13 while watching the slideshow.

I honestly wouldn't mind going there one day just to take one of their tours. Call it a morbid curiosity of mine.

Are Americans or even EU members allowed?

printz said:

Are Americans or even EU members allowed?

There are a few videos on YouTube and elsewhere of people going there. The first one I saw was this one which explained that it's easier to get in through China.

It's not that it's easier to get there through China; it's only possible to go there through China as a tourist. The whole affair is tightly controlled and very strange. They try and weed out anyone they don't like beforehand through application of alcohol, partying and praising the Great/Dear Leaders.

It's extremely rare to see any footage of NK that wasn't approved by the authorities there. There was a fun story a little while back about the photographers who posed as representatives of a Belgian chocolate company so they could do a little journalistic espionage. They had a scary time.

Brushing the highway with reeds looks like fun.

Daaaamn, this looks fantastic!

MRB_Doom said:

Personally I did turn off the music from the site, and instead I played "DOOM" / Map 05 and 13 while watching the slideshow.

Excellent choices, my good friend.

Looks clean there.

Are those... Dell computers they're using in that computer lab?!

Also this main city looks really nice, and probably actually misleadingly pleasant to live in. I'm more interested in seeing how the rest of the country lives. The majority of people probably don't have it half as nice.

yukib1t said:

There are a few videos on YouTube and elsewhere of people going there. The first one I saw was this one which explained that it's easier to get in through China.

That Vice Guide tour is pretty amazing. I've watched it 2-3 times, and it was a bit chilling every time.

yukib1t said:

There are a few videos on YouTube and elsewhere of people going there. The first one I saw was this one which explained that it's easier to get in through China.

The DMZ must be one of the world's most tense areas. So incredibly scary if something should go wrong there.

Despite the obvious, I'd like to live there. Seems very sterile and desolate. I'd love to take my convertible down one of those wide open immaculate highways.

They're showing you what they want you to see. The country is still a poverty infected hellhole.

Nomad said:

Are those... Dell computers they're using in that computer lab?!

Also this main city looks really nice, and probably actually misleadingly pleasant to live in. I'm more interested in seeing how the rest of the country lives. The majority of people probably don't have it half as nice.

Every picture from NK where I've been able to see the computers has shown Dell computers. This is why it's retarded that America has so many trade restrictions. America isn't preventing anyone from acquiring their technology, but are screwing themselves out of cash and more direct influence.

You think Pyongyang looks nice? It looks grey, empty and full of Stalinist monuments. Yuck. I visited a place in China like that. It was interesting, but incredibly depressing. You'd think a country as rich as China would make their communist museums look a little less communist.

Technician said:

The country is still a poverty infected hellhole.

How do you know? :P

Technician said:

They're showing you what they want you to see. The country is still a poverty infected hellhole.

Forte sunt alicubi inter patriam et limbo? :S

http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/dprk/dprk-dark.htm

Obviously people only live in the capital. As you can see on this map places where people actually live have electricity at night. It makes sense!

Catoptromancy said:

http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/dprk/dprk-dark.htm

Obviously people only live in the capital. As you can see on this map places where people actually live have electricity at night. It makes sense!

Jesus H. Christ. That's pretty fucking dark.

Jodwin said:

How do you know? :P

Uhm, common sense?

You do realize we are talking about North Korea of all countries right?

Places like Camp 22 make it hard for me to see any beauty in a country that has active concentration camps comparable to Unit 731 and Auschwitz II.

Look it up.

You're talking about a nation that has radios with presets on it to songs only about dear leader. Of course that's a hellhole.

Here is a documentary where National Geographic pretends to be foreign doctor's assistants to be allowed to video. The doctors were removing cataracts from preteen children(and adults). Since in North Korea nobody has enough medical training to remove cataracts and children cant get enough nourishment to stop them from forming.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mxLBywKrTf4

hardcore_gamer said:

You do realize we are talking about North Korea of all countries right?

Which is exactly my point: How do you know? We're talking about the most isolated country in the world, which heavily restricts information that it spreads to the rest of the world. Yet, pretty much every non-North Korean source of information has an agenda of their own to spread negative information about North Korea, whether it is true or false.

Oh, most certainly NK is a hell hole, I'm not denying that. But still, there's very few reputable neutral sources of any information regarding the state of things in NK. Much like any news regarding any war or any other conflict: Both sides simply use news as a means to spread propaganda, and you can never trust either one. US sez "We have killed billion Iraqi terrorists!" and Saddam sez "American dogs have killed ten billion Iraqi civilians." Yeah.

Technician said:

Places like Camp 22 make it hard for me to see any beauty in a country that has active concentration camps comparable to Unit 731 and Auschwitz II.

Look it up.

Hoooooooooooly fuck.

How are there really people this fucked up in the world? :[

Technician said:

Places like Camp 22 make it hard for me to see any beauty in a country that has active concentration camps comparable to Unit 731 and Auschwitz II.

Look it up.

Jesus, dude. I knew they had concentration camps, but I pictured them more as a regular prison, not that. O_o

Aliotroph? said:

America isn't preventing anyone from acquiring their technology

That possibility is effectively forfeited the very moment that you outsource its manufacturing elsewhere, and then again there's always reverse engineering. That's why military/sensitive/security critical stuff isn't outsourced. Imagine if e.g. the Chinese made the electronics of M1A1 tanks or F35 jets...the next day there would be a million near-equivalent knockoffs made for a fraction of the price, used to arm pretty much everyone, and taking a shit on expensive taxpayer-funded R&D.

Even mil-spec stuff isn't safe: captured B-29s (and captured/lost military hardware in general) can and has been used as a way to copy competing/enemy technology, even shot-down pieces of drones and spy planes. Hell, they were able to copy the atomic bomb and even the Space Shuttle and the Concorde, in an era where "industrial espionage" actually meant shooting microfilms with small spy-cameras ;-)