Prisoners in Camp Kim: Article On North Korea

[HOZ]

Very interesting article!

http://www.amconmag.com/2007/2007_11_19/feature.html

Strange, secretive, and desperately poor, North Korea tests the limits of social control.

by Peter Hitchens
PYONGYANG—Here is the locked ward of the political asylum, the place where politics has actually become an official state religion, and power is worshipped, directly and literally, in the form of a colossal bronze idol to which the people come and bow with every sign of reverence. Nothing in the modern world compares with North Korea, though it gives us some clue about how life must have been under the pharaohs, in Imperial Japan before Hiroshima, or in the obliterated years—conveniently erased from memory by blushing fellow travelers—when Josef Stalin was revered as a human god.

[CaptainCrunch]

Awesome find.

I really find that North Korea is tragic. The combination of the governments ability to clamp down on its citizens and their access to the outside world makes them believe that they are one of the wealthiest countries on the planet. At the same time, they are desparate for Aid but most of the Aid goes to the party elite. There's no chance for a counter revolution there because of the years of war that have already occured on their own civilians.

Its funny that Stalin, and Mao and all of the other communist leaders at the time absolutely hated the dynastic system in place there and had a strong dislike for the elder Kim but actively competed with each other for his affection.

That country will eventually become a barren graveyard with very few survivors.

[Fozzie_DeBear]

Very interesting and well written...good score!

[Flashpoint]

Thanks a lot for posting that article. Very thought provoking.

I'm not sure how much I would assume that the famine is over simply because they are feeding the foreign tourists now. I also don't really see how he could write that piece and not discuss the implications of helping to fund a rogue state. It would be front and center in my mind the entire trip.

I expect civil war to rapidly follow the death of Kim Jong Ill. When you have a country run on a cult of personality, you tend to have quite the power vacuum when he dies.

Then again, maybe that's what the elder Kim thought too..

[BlackEleven]

That was very interesting. I don't think I've read an article on North Korea yet that doesn't contain a 1984 reference. And for good reason, I suppose.

[CaptainCrunch]

Originally Posted by Flashpoint

Thanks a lot for posting that article. Very thought provoking.

I'm not sure how much I would assume that the famine is over simply because they are feeding the foreign tourists now. I also don't really see how he could write that piece and not discuss the implications of helping to fund a rogue state. It would be front and center in my mind the entire trip.

I expect civil war to rapidly follow the death of Kim Jong Ill. When you have a country run on a cult of personality, you tend to have quite the power vacuum when he dies.

Then again, maybe that's what the elder Kim thought too..

Remember that Kim Jong Ill has a son who has recently been appointed the title of Party Central, which is very much the same title that his father had before taking power.

In other words the party is now grooming the son as a successor, and because of the security apparatus there which is under the direct control of the dear leader, there isn't going to be a coup.

[HOZ]

Here is where I picked it up. Great site with lots of stuff to read.

http://www.aldaily.com/

[HOZ]

Hey another interesting development in NK!

150,000 watch an execution of a factory boss......read why.



All I can say is leave the cells behind when you visit.

[Julio]

If you want really weird stuff, have a look @ the official news from North Korea here:

http://www.kcna.co.jp/index-e.htm

Very surreal.

[Hack&Lube]

"This was the home of the Great Leader when he was ordinarily alive, kept going in his later years by a special diet of extra-long dog penises"

The personality cult really shows how this kind of politics is simply a replacement for religion, and simply the outgrowth of men's egos when empowered...overall a reflection of human nature gone a similar course to that of many brain-washing, physically entrapping governments and religions under tyrants and prophets.