North Korea

It's related to songbun.

I'm again going to recommend Nothing To Envy for a snapshot of life in 1990s North Korea. It had...very little going for it.

All hail, King of the losers

North Korea takes case against new Seth Rogen film to the UN.

edited 10th Jul '14 2:26:58 PM by DeviantBraeburn

The best bit is that the complaint letter went to the Secretary General, as Ban Ki-moon is South Korean I somehow doubt the Norks are going to get much sympathy from him.

Cracked in NK:

http://www.cracked.com/article_21373_5-things-you-learn-growing-up-in-and-escaping-north-korea.html

Not much new info there, except that part about citizens believing the Dear Leader is subsisting solely upon a single bowl of rice a day in order to "struggle" along with his people. I mean c'mon, the guy's pretty fat, how can they seriously believe that?!

The bowl of rice is a few yards in diameter, is the trick.

Also, you don't have to mention what else gets served with the rice... After all, one bowl gets served first. Followed by everything else... and a top-up.

edited 18th Jul '14 9:28:24 AM by Euodiachloris

@Ricko,

On that point, it's interesting: North Korean propaganda has never cast the Leaders as stern, paternal figures: the theme is more maternal - that's why KJI dressed the way he did. It's why their pictures show them with broad smiles, bouffant hair, and shiny, smooth skin. The rationale behind the "one bowl of rice" thing isn't "see the empathy our leader has with us, he shares our suffering". That would be the act of a captain of soldiers or a king, a paternal act of leadership and charity. But NK's propaganda is far more sinister than that: the reason KJI only ate one bowl of rice was so the regime could say to the people: "your failures hurt the Parent Leader, who sacrifices for you because you are his children and he is More of a Mother than All the Mothers in the World, and until you sort yourselves out, our poor, hard-working leader's, suffering will continue."

The point is to create an emotional dependence on a fussy mother-figure: to deliberately infantilize the North Korean, to the point where he or she hates and fears the outside world, and retreats to the bosom of his or her loving Parent Leader.

edited 20th Jul '14 1:21:07 PM by Achaemenid

Weaponized Creepy Fucking Freudian Bullshit.

Yay.

Not so much Freudian as deliberately simplistic. "The outside world is scary and out to hurt you" is an approach used before in the Stalinist years, I believe, though the specifics were different. But in general, the simpler the set of imagery and messages, the easier it is to get a big clumsy bureaucracy to sing from the same page. It's also the closest you can get to outright deifying a leader as a god-king, even if most other countries use masculine imagery.

Well, if I make my webcomic about Nations as People, North Korea shall be a woman, then.

edited 20th Jul '14 6:17:47 PM by Quag15

http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_slatest/2014/07/22/kim_jong_un_dance_video_displeases_north_korea.html

NK find something else to be mad about. This one's pretty good.

EDIT: Just noticed source is the Chosun Ilbo. Be careful.

edited 22nd Jul '14 4:07:00 PM by Achaemenid

Man, Kim Jong Un should have just ignored it. Now there's going to be thousands of these videos.

Heh that was pretty amusing.

North Korean Cuisine website launched

Apparently one of the most signature dishes in North Korea is a bowl of buckwheat noodles in a cold vinegary broth including a boiled egg, cucumbers and... "meat". Pretty basic of a soup, really, and the meat part depends on whatever the heck you have available. Some other broths do specifically call for chicken or beef, but what you'll also notice is that most of their listed recipes tend to focus around soups or rice bowl combinations. The article also mentioned that North Korean food is much more milder and has less of the strong or "hot'n spicy" impact a lot of South Korean foods tend to have.

North Korea does have a pretty vibrant cuisine - in theory. I can't really take the piss out of cold buckwheat noodle soup when my own country eats deep fried candy bars. Of course, that depends on the Norks getting ingredients.

On the other hand, grey economy restaurants are booming, for those with the cash.

—

Ooh, can I make that great joke?

"I had the meatballs in a North Korean restaurant. They were the dog's bollocks..."

edited 24th Jul '14 5:56:56 AM by Achaemenid

North Korea Resumes Rare Earth Exports to China. A new report says that North Korea shipped $1.8 million of rare earths to China in May and June of this year.

There's a petition with at least a million signatures calling for Pyongyang to investigate again on whether they're still hiding out other abductees from Japan. Tokyo thinks a few more are presumed to be still missing thanks to being kidnapped.

Now I get why Japan has been engaging with NK on a diplomatic level recently.

Kidnapped a second time around, you mean? Abducted *again*, after they were abducted to North Korea?

Nah, there were still some missing people unaccounted for. Don't have names, but the National Police Agency and other LE Os/intelligence agencies suggest that Pyongyang staged their abductions.

edited 29th Jul '14 8:02:01 PM by Ominae

A senior North Korean official at the United Nations says the U.S. reminds Pyongyang of a “mentally retarded patient.”.

In that despite all its faults and problems it's still smarter than him?