Japan Probe has a video and excellent summary of: “a TV news segment that aired yesterday about a 7-day train tour of North Korea. The special tour takes foreigners along the main train line from the Chinese border to Pyongyang, and then passengers get on a special car on a local train line to see the North Korean countryside.” (h/t Seoul Man)
After missile and nuclear tests and uranium enrichment, the U.S. sanctions North Korean firms while Pyongyang reverses, making overtures. It’s not an accident, it’s a pattern of strategic disengagement.
- #Vanity Fair, of all publications, has a lengthy article on North Korea’s counterfeiting operations, including Office 39. Well worth a read. (h/t NE Asia Matters)
- #The Chosun Ilbo has an article about a new book by Chang Jin-song (formerly affiliated with the North Korean Workers' Party) that details Kim Jong-il private life, including the inside scoop on all his lady friends. According to Chang, one unfortunate young lady to get Kim's attention was, "brutally executed after she spurned Kim's persistent advances and fell in love with another man."
- #Gizmodo has an excellent array of Kim Jong-il photos; In Which We Provoke Kim Jong Il in 77 Offensive and Hilarious Ways. Some are sure to become often used classics.
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April 9th, 2007 at 7:55 pm
I managed to record a new report, which aired on Japanese TV yesterday, about goods in China being loaded onto trucks bound for North Korea. I should be uploading it to YouTube today or tomorrow, if I have time.
April 9th, 2007 at 9:34 pm
Sounds good, as soon as you post it, I’ll post something here about it.
April 10th, 2007 at 7:38 am
[...] Life As They Know It. We have two new candid views of life inside North Korea today. First, via Richardson, is a Japanese video of a rail journey in the North (here, at Japan Probe). It’s worth [...]
April 13th, 2007 at 8:46 pm
I finally got around to posting it:
http://www.japanprobe.com/?p=1565
and an interview with Charles Robert Jenkins:
http://www.japanprobe.com/?p=1567