Quote:
Originally Posted by Oil Stain
Of course not, but frankly if you were on a guided tour in Vancouver they wouldn't parade you down East Hastings Street either. They will try and show you the parts of the city that they are proud of.
We all know that North Korea is a totalitarian regime with what essentially amounts to a royal family using the country as their personal playground.
Its not all dismal living conditions for the entire country however. It's all relative of course, but in comparison to some other underdeveloped countries, life in Pyongyang may not be the worst existence. If you are comparing the living conditions in Cambodia, India, Yemen, Afghanistan or any other number of failed states to North Korea, then North Korea is the victor there.
In no way would I ever want to live in a place like North Korea with its lack of freedoms, but to say there are zero bright spots there is not accurate either.
The city itself is clean and orderly. The people are educated and take pride in themselves and what they do. The character of the people and culture has more in common with Japan/Taiwan/South Korea than they do with the Chinese or other Southeast Asian Nations. If North Korea were able to throw off the shackles of the Kim regime I would be very surprised if they didn't become a strong, successful state in short order.
|
There are several pretty fascinating books about the North Korea show cities.
People are paid to walk from destination to destination or take the same bus over and over again to look busy and productive and happy.
Just like they take you to show schools where the kids take classes for hours at a time every day on how to smile and put on shows for foreigners.
They're fed a little bit more to give them a healthier look.
What tourists see are a facade. Even the rare eastern block diplomats are taken to show factories that don't really manufacture much of anything but they look busy. The stores are stocked, but if you go in day after day after day the store won't change.
They won't show you the real truth of people in the country basically eating grass or paying huge rates to buy food on the winked at black markets.
Those laborers that aren't working in man killing mines or on collective farms are basically sold to the Chinese and Russians for hard currency to go and work in those countries clear cutting forests or mining.
As far as that country being self reliant, North Korea got the short end of the stick in the split, its resource rich in terms of metals and ores but as far as being able to grow their own food to a self supportive level there's not enough truly usable farm land.
There's a reason why your tour guides are strict of where you go, its because the where you go is strictly controlled by the government. One person that worked in the show area, wrote in his book that at the end of every day of riding the bus back and forth was "debriefed" by an intelligence agent for hours at a time about his contact with the Westerners.
Look I get the curiosity and the thrill of visiting a country like North Korea, but all you did was buy a bunch of liquor and watches and food that only benefits the leader of that country and his hanger ons.