by fulltimestudent 44 Replies latest social current
I've been following this thread with some interest - South Korea is one place I want to visit. In a recent trip to Asia I saw a museum in Vietnam about the atrocities of the American war and there were many pictures of Kim Jong Il. I took many photographs that haven't been released before - ones with him and CAstro, for example.
It would be good if North Korea would change. The people are really suffering up there. :(
Thnx for you sharing your thoughts, Shamus.
I agree, it would be great if life got better for ALL North Koreans. It should be noted that life is already good for many in NK. It is claimed (and, I have no reason to dispute it) that life is brutal for those who displease the regime. Whether or not the claims of extreme torment in prison camps are true, I have no doubt that the regime will punish those who displease (break the rules) the elite.
After all, we see that same attitude in our former spiritual masters, many of whom were quite ready to pick up the first stone to throw at dissenters. And like NK, you could not leave our former spiritual paradise with dignity.
The west can also treat dissenters with torments also, think of the torture of opponents of George W. Bush in Iraq.
It is ironic that South Koreans were treated in more or less the same way for many of the years since the Korean war. The South Korean regimes were often as cruel and heartless as the NK regime was. In fact from my studies, I suggest it can be demonstrated that NK was a better place to live prior to the Korean war than South Korea. NK had more (and better) industry than the south, enough food, and was the mecca for many enlightened Koreans who wanted a socially just state. There seems little evidence of tyranny on the part of Kim Il-sung in those initial years, whereas teh USA's appointed President Rhee Syng-man (in the south) was more evidently a monster.
It is an interesting study to examine the evidence, and reasons for, for Kim Il-sung's transformation into a tyrant.
Hope you get your wish to visit South Korea. You may also find it interesting to visit North Korea, its not difficult to go there, if somewhat expensive. Most academic visitors claim that Pyongyang is a clean, safe city. You can fly on the NK airline from Beijing. But it may be more interesting (if you planned to visit) to fly Beijing and see the remarkable transformation of that city, catch a train to Dandong, seemingly becoming a main contact point between NK and China, and join a tour to NK there. Make sure all your arrangements for NK are in place before you go. You will not need any in advance in China (unless you prefer a tour) - these days, visitors are free to go near everywhere in China.
I'll be another five years at least. ;) China is this year.
Off topic for a moment.
Where are you planning to visit in China? And are you travelling independently or in a guided tour?
I'm travelling independently. ;) The plan is to spend a lot of time there eventually but I just have to see what's going on there on my way to Nepal.
THURSDAY 03 JANUARY 2013
It's one of the few countries in the world that his website can't reach, but Google's executive chairman Eric Schmidt is planning his first trip to North Korea.
The visit, which is being billed as a private humanitarian exercise, could take place as soon as this month.
North Korea boasts the world's strictest internet policies: just 4,000 members of the Pyongyang elite have access to the web, and visitors are ordered to leave their smartphones at the airport. But in a televised address on Monday, North Korea's young leader Kim Jong-Un declared the need for a technology-led "industrial revolution" to improve the country's ailing economy.
In a sign that the reclusive nation might be inching towards openness, Mr Schmidt will travel to Pyongyang accompanied by former New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson, an envoy who has dealt with the North Korean regime regularly over the past two decades. The US government is unhappy about the visit, however; State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said today that its timing was not "particularly helpful." The Kim regime recently arrested a US citizen, Pae Jun Ho, on unspecified charges.
It is not thought that Google has any immediate business interest in North Korea. Lim Eul-chul, a professor of North Korean Studies at Seoul's Kyungnam University, told the Associated Press it was more likely Mr Kim's administration was keen to pick the Google boss's brains about software, such as email and mapping applications. Last year, a group of North Korean officials visited the search giant's headquarters in northern California.
Victor Cha, the Korea Chair at Washington's Center for Strategic and International Studies, wrote in a blog post today that Mr Kim - who was schooled in Switzerland - "clearly has a penchant for the modern accoutrements of life. If Google is the first small step in piercing the information bubble in Pyongyang, it could be a very interesting development."
Mr Schmidt is a vocal believer in the power of the internet to thwart political oppression, and has become increasingly involved in international affairs. In 2010 he hired Jared Cohen, a former advisor to Condoleezza Rice and Hillary Clinton at the US State Department, as the director of Google Ideas: a think-tank that seeks technological solutions to global issues.
Steven Levy, author of In The Plex: How Google Thinks, Works, and Shapes Our Lives, told The Independent: "In the last couple of years, Eric has really become interested in international diplomacy... He has thought more and more about the international impact of technology. Google is a big player in that."
Googlemap lets us see quite a lot of North Korea. Use it when you get a photo story, as in this
First the north section of NK, sometimes you can see the contrast with China, zoom in and compare both sides of the border. Same with the Russian border. The Siberian wilderness shows clearly in contrast with China. So when you get the map up, move north until you come to the very northern border of North Korea, Russia will be at the top of the page, and China to the left. Click on the towns for their names, and on the left of the map there will be some image thumbs of images of the town/city/place. There are some really great images. Anyone want to compare how the reality contrasts with their expectations.
Ok. now for some piks. Leonid Petrov (my teacher) posted these on his FB page today.
http://kdrama.smugmug.com/Travel/DPRK/26307131_nj2xN2#!i=2191537157&k=5jDDHnc
The truth is we know next to nothing about NK. I bet very if not all people could go into any detail about daily life or even name a handful of NK major towns or cities outside Pyongyang.
True enough, mp - but I've discovered in the past year that it is possible to know quite a lot. Its not quite like G.W. Bush and his propaganda team describe it. But then its not like the NK propaganda team describes it, either. So just go exploring.
I'd posted a lot of good stuff about NK on JWS - sad its all gone.
Some news of the Eric Schmidt "expedition" to NK. in his daughter's blog.
Tim Walker, the Independent's writer for the article calls it a 'rare insight into the secretive state.' If Tim had availed himself of the information that can be accessed, including reports from previous visitors (a little of which I've posted here) I think he may have re-written that.
My big complaint about western journalists, they often come across as bloody lazy.
From the perspective of his daughter's blog, Eric Schmidt wasn't given any special access to NK 'secrets'. But then, we would hardly expect he'd be taken on a tour of a 'corrective education' facility, or the latest military facility or even of the rocket research facility.
A few of Sophie Schmidt's comments have some insight. For example, she,
(Quote) "... describes the pastel-shade plasterwork of many of Pyongyang's buildings as "almost playful." She also noted more pedestrians than expected on the city's clean, wide boulevards, including "stylish women in heeled boots and make-up."
Schmidt's delegation was accommodated in (quote) " ... a Spartan guesthouse on the outskirts of the capital, where they had access to just three television channels: "CNN International, dubbed-over USSR-era films, and the DPRK channel, which was by far the most entertaining. My tolerance level for videos of Kim Jong Un in crowds turns out to be remarkably high."
The accommodation aspect is interesting. I feel sure that many official delegations are quartered in much better accommodation, unless, Sophie's home standards are so high, that what is 'nice' for most of us, is 'spartan' to her. Must ask Leonid Petrov about that.
Her comment about Kim Jong-un is also interrsting, (unless she was being sarcastic at that point), she may have observed ( as I think I have) that the 3rd Kim is quite personable and comes across at times as charming, and in control of himself and the situations he is in. His father, in contrast often looked extremely uncomfortable.
