South Koreans defecting... ...TO North Korea

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Not true. Where opinions differ is over how much of a threat they pose. The present situation is the result of a carful balance of power and deterrence, which although is relatively stable of itself, is highly complex and requires significant money and effort to maintain. Aside from the conventional issues there is the massive drug trade, counterfeiting and the fact that their scientists keep trying to sell nuclear technology off shore. Then every now and again they kidnap and bombard South Korea. All of that combined with the reality that their citizens are hostages in a nuclear gamble and the human rights abuses makes it of interest to people with compassion for others in trouble and hard edged realists who have to manage the threat.

For myself, I study it as a component in the regional security framework. It's place within that system is anything but benign.

The really scary thing about that picture is that the lights in North Korea that aren't Pyongyang are known concentration camps and gulags.

His anti-Americanism is such that he will defend even the most horrific and bloodthirsty of regimes because they're anti-American... from the comfort of his home.

No chance of him going to live under some of the regimes he defends. I suspect he wouldn't then be quite so keen to defend them if he had experienced them for a while as a local.

Don't mind him.

Anyway: I'm pleased that you helped clear up some of what was going on in the DPRK. It sounds even more ramshackle than I thought.

What struck me was the weird, weird stuff that the North Korean government thought people from the outside world wanted to buy. It really looks as though (from the photos I saw) like they are on a different planet.

I did love the photo he took in what would be a very boring and drab Italian restaurant by Western standards, but would be beyond the wildest possible dreams in terms of your average North Korean.



Again though, even with the human rights abuses - makes it hard to find out about it all because society there is so secretive.



I'm not really surprised - needs will find a way of being met, just like they would in any dictatorship like North Korea.



I suppose it was a small taste of freedom for her. It's probably something that she'll remember for the rest of her life.



It does look like the most appallingly drab place though, doesn't it? And some of the designs of the buildings - Jesus Christ!



So where does the legend of this come from then? Is it something that happens in well-to-do people's houses?



In fact, the people that went there as tourists pretty much said that going as a tourist is something that you have to work out for yourself. I wouldn't want to visit as a tourist.

North Korea sounds truly horrific. South Korea looks like paradise by comparison, and I suspect that the South is less free than I would like.

I had the displeasure to meet Alejandro cao de Benos at Kumsusan Palace, the man was total scum. Unfortunately there are far worse out there than internet contrarians.



Well I saw a North Korean tablet (most likely made in China) on sale in Pyongyang, came with Angry Birds. That being said, they have some pretty awesome beer there and as an Australian it is shame to see it monopolised by such a terrible country.



There are those restaurants. You go to them a lot and then everyone pretends not to notice when the power goes out. Kumsusan Palace was nothing like that, it was modern, marble and ornate on a scale that was totally ridiculous. The interior rivalled Versailles but they confiscate your camera so there are very few photographs of the inside.



It certainly does, the place is very ugly and makes liberal use of concrete. That being said, the People's Study House looks quite nice when viewed from the fountain park (it looks appalling from Kim Il Sung square and is pretty rubbish on the inside). The Ryugyong Hotel also looks quite attractive, it would fit nicely anywhere else. But the interior is not finished and it is too big and opulent for the city, also its dimensions are the same as Orwell's Ministry of Truth (they don't like it when you mention that).



They have pictures of the leaders in their houses and music is played through speakers in the cities. They play it on Air Koryo as well. But propaganda pretty much equals any music there. The Moranbong band is played everywhere, its their answer to K-Pop, they are the only women allowed to wear miniskirts. The only time I heard western music was when they played Yellow Submarine for me at the Study House after I gave a short introduction to my university, what I research and what I was doing there.



Most of the tourists are either sympathisers or adventure oriented, either way I don't think they leave a good impression.



The South has a that can grate westerners but it is pretty spectacular. After about the first week there I would wake up and realise I was still inside the country and then I would wish I was somewhere else. I get the feeling that I was not the only one in the country doing that. It felt really weird crossing into China and feeling free. My first time out, I went to Shenyang and went straight to Pizza Hut.

Six whole Koreans headed North? South Korea must be positively unlivable!! !!

ruveyn

I know! Those six must have been something special to even make the news - rocket scientists, brain surgeons, military strategists, or A-List celebrities, right?

No, they were six ordinary, ignorant laborers looking for work - nothing more.

We get hundreds of their kind crossing over illegally from Mexico every day. Some get sent back, some turn to crime, and some manage to dodge the system long enough to have a few anchor babies and live off public assistance.

Did you know that much of the equipment used to make Taedoggang beer actually comes from Burton on Trent, UK?

Is "Taedoggang" (North) Korean for "Soylent Green"?

"It's In The Water"

This is the dumbest s**t I've ever seen on these forums. The way you downplay North Korea's poverty and corruption is beyond pathetic. You know the NK Government goes out of its way to create the facade of a living city right? That video should be a perfect example of where the NK Government's priorities lie, but I guess all they have to do to fool people like you is have some officials flick lights on and off.

Just because Africa and Latin America are s**tholes and homelessness exists in America, it doesn't mean North Korea is any less of a s**thole itself. But hey, why let the suffering of people in North Korea get in the way of having an axe to grind with America? I guess suffering is ok as long as it's under a left wing regime.

Nice joke, North Korea is like runned like a company town.

And to a far right winger, Nazi Germany was socialist since the Government intervened to control the economy and the people. It must be real convenient to project all extremism on the other side of the spectrum. Scotland must have an illegal immigration epidemic going on with all these so-called Scotsmen who hate haggis.

People in the left are in favor of equality and North Korea is a very unequal society. Vladimir Lenin's philosophy (which North Korea is based on) is anti leftist.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Left-Wing ... e_Disorder

People on the right are in favour of freedom from Government tyranny and Nazi Germany was a big Government dystopia. Therefore Nazi Germany was socialist. It even had a planned economy to match!

Seriously, you're no different than the far right wingers who project extremism on the left wing. Anyone can come up with some broad arbitrary horses**t to define "left wing" and "right wing" conveniently to their liking. A left wing utopia doesn't suddenly become right wing just because it failed in practice.

It's not arbitrary, you called North Korea left wing and you gave no reason why you believe so. People in the left are in favor of more social and economic equality. Are you going to dismiss this fact?

Lenin also called also called people who disagreed with him extremists.

Weak. Pretty much all your arguments have a flip side that a far right winger could just as easily justify labeling fascist regimes left wing under the same logic. Fascism has big Government, a planned economy, and opposition to class conflict. If I defined "left wing" as broadly and arbitrarily as you did, then I can just as easily call Nazi Germany socialist.

Nazi Germany was fascist, and North Korea is also. 'Big' government is a bad description of the left because many in the left don't want any government.