A remarkable set of photographs by David Guttenfelder sheds rare light on one of the planet's most isolated and secretive nations
It says a lot that a couple of photographs that aren't of enormous statues of Kim Il Sung or taken out of the windows of a hotel/moving bus are newsworthy.
Here's a fun one:
http://www.airlinemeals.net/browse.php?id=1879&start=1&x=1
Airline meals from Air Koryo, the official airline of the DPRK!
Yum!
Dear Leader is in the Far East of Russia for official talks. Russia wants to sell natural gas to S. Korea and the best way to do that is to build a pipeline through N. Korea. Good luck with that.
>Citing a "severe deficit" of food products, Russia said on Friday it would send 50,000 tonnes of grain to North Korea by the end of September. The North has also been seeking foreign investment to improve infrastructure.
The situation in the North is dire as usual. I'm sure Dear Leader has his people in his heart at all times, though...
>He spent the previous day boating on Lake Baikal, the North's state news agency said.
Not even KCNA can make this turd look golden anymore...
>Foreign media were given a rare glimpse inside a North Korean marketplace on Friday, and witnessed thousands of people exchanging cash for a wide variety of goods, as the secretive state experiments with modest change.
>"They can buy as much as they want," a North Korean guide told a group of about a dozen international journalists as he led them through the Rajin market.
Wow, it almost sounds like progress...
>The journalists were forbidden from taking any video or photographs, and from writing in notepads.
NEVER MIND. "We are so proud of our many glorious accomplishmeSTOP TAKING NOTES!"
Koreans tell a lie, I am Japanese.
Korea does not return the stolen statue of Buddha.
South Korea has bilk money borrowed at the time of the World Cup.
Korea has to be compared to Japan at any time.
Koreans have not seen a human being equally.
Hide inconvenient facts Korea.
South Korea has borrowed a lot of money so far, I have not yet returned to Japan.
Lotte and Samsung is a Korean company.
>Kim Jong Un fed his uncle to 120 starving dogs: report
>Jang Song Thaek, the former No. 2 official in the secretive regime, was stripped naked and tossed into a cage along with his five closest aides.
>“Then 120 hounds, starved for three days, were allowed to prey on them until they were completely eaten up. This is called ‘quan jue’, or execution by dogs,” according to the Straits Times of Singapore.
The DPRK is marching towards progress, every day!
btw, does anyone remember that Dear Uncle was China's man in North Korea? Will feeding their guy to a pack of dogs be enough for China to do something? Probably not...
>Panamanian authorities have released 32 of the 35 North Koreans detained since July after an undeclared cargo of Cuban arms was found on their ship, prosecutors said Thursday.
> A search by Panamanian authorities uncovered 25 containers of Cuban military hardware, including two Soviet-era MiG-21 aircraft, air defense systems, missiles and command and control vehicles... [The containers were concealed under more than 200,000 sacks of sugar.]
Arms/drug smuggling is pretty routine for North Korean shipping. Now for the really sad bit:
>Chief prosecutor Ana Belfon said that, "North Korea has not shown interest in its nationals. It was concerned about the fate of the sugar, but not the fate of its nationals."
Source is DailyNK on this one. This South Korean site is run by defectors, for defectors, so it's not exactly neutral.
>The latest round of separated family reunions ended earlier today... Participants from the North are set to return home via Pyongyang, where Party and security officials will question them over the course of approximately two weeks.
>During this time, the North Korean reunion participants are given tours of Pyongyang, which offers the chance to judge whether they have become ideologically suspect, and moreover what items they have returned with from the reunions. Participants must report any cash or products they may have received...
>Approximately $100 received is normally surrendered to the United Front Department in the form of “loyalty funds," while returnees must also pay for their lodgings in Pyongyang... After participants return home from Pyongyang, they must give further payments to those gatekeepers who helped them gain access to the reunion event in the first place: State Security Department officials, the Peoples’ Security Ministry, and Party cadres...
The Party can't even keep its fingers out of the last visit between elderly family members.