we should all get on livestream or ventrilo or something and watch Pulgasari to commemorate his passing.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pulgasari

I'm sooooo ronery!

Well I hope that means NK is one step closer to coming out of the dark ages and the peninsula stepping back fmixed from total annihilation. Mixed metaphor notwithstanding.

The people of North Korea seem to be devastated. Check out the video about halfway down.

http://news.sky.com/home/world-news/article/16133036

Why are they standing? Why are they all crying the same?

it's doubtful that things will improve:

"(Kim Jong-un, the son) may feel it necessary in the
future to precipitate a crisis to
prove his mettle to other senior
leaders or deflect attention from
the regime's failings."

agreed, bill. nk is probably going to get worse before it gets better... the thing about dictatorships is that when that
leadership position is left open, a power struggle is bound to ensue with the most powerful figure finally filling the
void. and it's unclear just how much power that kim jong-un has... i've heard reports that some military generals may
oppose jong-un.

It's mandatory that they show devistation for his loss. I'm sure some truly are but it's a fact that many are acting it up.

Is this a bad time to ask if anyone wants to start a Korean fansub group ?

I want to watch the third season of Project Runway: Korea but no english subtitles are available !

http://kimjongillookingatthings.tumblr.com/

and of course: http://kimjongunlookingatthings.tumblr.com/

All true? No idea how old this is.



/downloading Pulgasari

I'm dying here at his facts, fucking awesome

I think I remember reading that rabbit thing was just a cover for some elaborate feast for Kim Jong and his buddies. There's some pretty good coverage about North Korean run slave labor camps in Russia over at VICE. The first 3 parts are mostly fluff but the last four parts are worth a quick watch.

It's not mandatory, it's how they are really supposed to feel. What I mean is that if you don't feel that way, you're probably gonna end up detained for years somewhere. Same thing happened when Kim Il-sung passed. The thing is, it's such a terror based ruling that you're so afraid your neighbour or your friend (hell! even your spouse or chikldren) will tell on you (that you're not crying over the dead leader) and you have to at least seem devastated by it.
And it's kind of what he allegedly did to all short people. If the government puts you in jail, off you go with all your relatives (bloodline going upwards, downwards and sideways) because you all have the same tainted blood.

Sorry, but that is a fairly disgustingly American-centric infographic.
Boarding on the offensive.

I'm not saying anything for or against DPRK but that is such a pile of self aggrandising nationalistic bullshit it makes me ill. Complete with an image of Stalin.
Drive fear into the hearts.


This thread makes me miss Alice.

I agree with backtrack.

If you have some facts disproving what appears above, by all means, enlighten us.

Frag started by questioning if the collection of information was true or possibly outdated...

also, I think the word you are looking for is "bordering".

I'm sorry but as a very skeptical American, who many republicans would probably call un American for my dislike of our government, NK is a fucking travesty. They sell their own people into slave labor in Russia, millions starve while The Beloved Leader lives like a king. The list goes on and on. You don't need to be American to be disgusted at dictatorships and human rights violation. While that poster or whatever is obviously propaganda, it doesn't make the situation in NK any better or worse. That county speaks for itself and everyone should be disgusted with what its citizens have to endure. The simple fact is that if you lived in NK, you would not even be able to participate in this discussion (unless you were being paid to promote . That says it all to me and I am the dead opposite of a flag waver for any government or system of rule.

Not sure about the validity of the poster but have you read some of the biographical information released from North Korea? A lot of them are far fetched claims that seem humourous but when you take into account the oppressive dictatorship...they make sense. We tend to place a certain mythology with our leaders. Look at George Washington and Lincoln.

It's hard to find information without some sort of bias. Especially if it's an editorial note, article or book. Fortunately we live in an era where we can look in some many different places that if you don't like one you can look into the other. However, in this case I believe that many sources (American or not) would agree on the general panorama of this info.
Some of the information even comes from the official NC government's site, I believe it was said somewhere they removed KJI bio some hours after his death, but some of this facts where there.
I think the person who made the poster was trying to make an educational comparison and which better way to do it than with facts of a place where the target audience could relate to? This kinds of charts/graphics always have info like this depending of where they are made, be it US, UK or Mexico.
The truth about the facts? We'd have to do a research about it and find out. But even before seeing this, I have known some of them (about NC) to be true. And had my doubts about some, for instance the per capita GDP, I had believed it to be even less. ANd I believed NCs army was the largest in the world, not the 4th. But didn't really knew the numbers for US, China or India.

At the end, it's always about what you do with the info you get.

Oh yeah, cheers for that, I'll try harder when I proof read in the future. I'm glad you were still able to understand the general idea I was trying to get across, even with that glaring mistake.


It's not so much whether information is or is not true, more the way it's presented.
I did double check, because I was amazed that the US's literacy rate was as high at 99%. It seems to fluxuate to around 97% at times, but still much higher than I would have expected.
Saying stuff like "in xxx country you wouldn't even be able to read this" is a bit rich, considering the SOPA which is currently threatening the US's ability to "read this."
Claiming that xxx country is under tyrannical or military rule and unable to voice their concerns, is amusing when you look at the Homeland Security (and I could stop there, but I'll finish the thought) and how they helped organised a nationwide strike on various Occupy camps. Most with extreme force considering the threat.
Suggesting that xxx country spends xx% of it's GDP on the military is conveniently overlooking the fact that the US still spends more money than anyone on weapons, and still manages to have a fairly high percentage of sick, homeless etc folks roaming around which the government blatantly does't give a shit about.
But all that's ok, because instead of just one political party, the US has a whopping two that have any real chance of getting into national office.
One could argue that rather than "prisons" the US has corporate run detainment camps, where they contain a higher percentage of their population than any other country in the world. Those places certainly aren't centres for rehabilitation.

I'm just putting it out there.

The DPRK is not somewhere any of us would wat to live, and it's in a terrible state. But hoping on some pious horse when none of this has really been news for decades is just a bit silly.
The saddest thing of it all, is that we know that we can't do anything about it, so instead of trying we pretend to care while simultaneously laughing at pictures of Kim Jong-il rocking out with Deftpunk and Moby.

edited because arguing on the interweb is dumb.

I would suggest that you may have missed my point in it's entirety.
One can always reply with something akin to "well at least this doesn't happen here" that doesn't make it ok, or acceptable. But cloak something in a flag called Freedom and watch while it strangles us.


I'd rather not get into an Occupy debate, ya know I will, but I'd rather not.
Though I do find it incredibly interesting that it hasn't mentioned here at all.

Congratulations, you live in a country where you can express your opinions and political views without being sent to a slave labor camp. Now, I challenge you to get out of your computer chair and go make a difference in the world if you feel that strongly about your anti imperialist hipstermatic rhetoric. Let the rest of us get back to inane conversations about our pretty toys and taking shots at a dead dictator, thanks.