LA Times staff writer Barbara Demick has been covering North Korea for several years. Her latest article is brief but a must read: “Within hours after our plane left, the lights went out. The cellphone kiosk closed down and the broadband was disconnected. Pyongyang looked again like what it really is: the capital of […]
Apparently, South Korean rice meant to ease the suffering of North Korean civilians was
From the AP, 11 Jan 2008:
President Bush had tears in his eyes during an hour-long tour of Israel’s Holocaust memorial Friday and told Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice that the U.S. should have bombed Auschwitz to halt the killing, the memorial’s chairman said.
Assuming that reporting is accurate, what about the concentration camps in North […]
Why bother micromanaging when you don’t have to oversee anything at all? Compare 2007:
When natural hazards like floods occur in North Korea, the South Korean government sends “humanitarian assistance.” But it has turned out that the government failed to monitor whether the emergency relief aid was being used appropriately.
The government spent 221 billion won […]
Japan Times: N. Korea family was desperate to escape
One was found to be carrying a small amount of amphetamines, saying he needed the drug to keep him awake while steering the boat, according to police.
Kyodo: Japan uncertain when to send 4 N. Korean ‘defectors’ to S. Korea
Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Aso said Tuesday […]
The deadline for North Korea to shutdown the Yongbyon nuclear reactor passed over six weeks ago, yet the North Korean negotiators had the gall to complain about a delay in rice aid:
North Korea’s Chief Cabinet Councilor Kwon Ho Ung told South Korea’s Unification Minister Lee Jae Joung that the South has failed to implement […]
In the mid-1990s, when famine began prompting North Koreans to risk moving back and forth between the DPRK and China with much more frequency, hairline cracks in the Kim regime began to appear. The information flow into North Korea – the antidote to Kimilsungism propaganda – has only increased since then. That combined with […]
One of the top scholars on North Korea, Marcus Noland, has co-authored a new book, “Famine in North Korea: Markets, Aid, and Reform,” with Stephan Haggard. I’ve not yet read the book, but plan to. An excerpt from a Financial Times Review:
The book is framed by the authors’ relatively hardline approach - they take […]
As Joshua notes, this will be at 9:00 PM EST/8:000 PM CST on 5 March. Probably a must see:
…Explorer correspondent Lisa Ling and a camera crew managed to get inside [North Korea] last year, disguised as part of a medical team traveling with a Nepalese eye surgeon helping cataract victims.
Their footage, packaged with interviews […]
Cry or laugh, I couldn’t decide:
Few people raise bigger bunny rabbits than Karl Szmolinsky, who has been producing long-eared whoppers since 1964. His favorite breed, German gray giants, are the size of a full-grown beagle and so fat they can barely hop.
Last year, after the retired chauffeur entered some of his monsters in an […]
Via the Times: "The exhibition features 400 hand-painted posters dating from the peak of the Dear Leader Kim Sung Il's power in the 1950s to the present regime led by his son, Kim Jong Il." The article has only one image, but has several interesting propaganda quotes.
- #Young Korean Herrenvolk engaging in their version of Agoge, at least according to the New York Times. The two Korean schools mentioned in the article are similar to Exeter or Andover in the United States in someways (they are private academies that serve children of affluent parents). But my guess is that the studious atmosphere and intense regimen compare more to the likes of Stuyvesant (my alma mater) in NYC or T.J. in Virginia (both highly selective, but publicly-funded high schools).
- #North Korea claims that on 25 April 1932 the Korean People’s Army (KPA, 조선인민군/ Chosŏn inmin'gun) was formed. However, the more likely accurate date is 08 February 1948. It is celebrated as “Military Foundation Day” in Kimland.
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