Author Topic: New York "Tourists" Slip Into North Korea  (Read 1425 times)

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Offline Chris_

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New York "Tourists" Slip Into North Korea
« on: March 21, 2008, 04:57:58 PM »
New York "Tourists" Slip Into North Korea

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Getting into North Korea was one of the hardest and weirdest processes VBS has ever dealt with. After we went back and forth with their representatives for months, they finally said they were going to allow 16 journalists into the country to cover the Arirang Mass Games in Pyongyang. Then, ten days before we were supposed to go, they said, “No, nobody can come.” Then they said, “OK, OK, you can come. But only as tourists.” We had no idea what that was supposed to mean. They already knew we were journalists, and over there if you get caught being a journalist when you’re supposed to be a tourist you go to jail. We don’t like jail. And we’re willing to bet we’d hate jail in North Korea.

But we went for it. The first leg of the trip was a flight into northern China. At the airport the North Korean consulate took our passports and all of our money, then brought us to a restaurant. We were sitting there with our tour group, and suddenly all the other diners left and these women came out and started singing North Korean nationalist songs. We were thinking, “Look, we were just on a plane for 20 hours. We’re jet-lagged. Can we just go to bed?” but this guy with our group who was from the LA Times told us, “Everyone in here besides us is secret police. If you don’t act excited then you’re not going to get your visa.” So we got drunk and jumped up onstage and sang songs with the girls. The next day we got our visas. A lot of people we had gone with didn’t get theirs. That was our first hint at just what a freaky, freaky trip we were embarking on...

In this photo Shane Smith decides to go eat at the hotel's restaurant where he was the only customer to show up that evening. During his meal, the 20 North Korean women waiting on him set up food on all of the surrounding tables to make it look like there is "plenty of food" in this collapsing regime. Outside the restaurant starving rural workers are too weak to show up at their jobs.

http://www.vbs.tv/video.php?id=1438428757


I haven't watched this yet.  Just found it, but it looks fascinating. 
If you want to worship an orange pile of garbage with a reckless disregard for everything, get on down to Arbys & try our loaded curly fries.

Offline Chris_

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Re: New York "Tourists" Slip Into North Korea
« Reply #1 on: March 21, 2008, 04:59:07 PM »
North Korea Is Starving

In the countryside, workers are receiving no food at all and aren’t showing up for work because they’re too weak to plant crops.
Even the capital of Pyongyang for the first time is experiencing food shortages.

-- "This may be the single most significant event in North Korean history, because if it’s true, the regime is finished." -J. Stanton.


http://freekorea.us/2008/03/20/the-beginning-of-the-end-food-shortages-reach-pyongyang/
If you want to worship an orange pile of garbage with a reckless disregard for everything, get on down to Arbys & try our loaded curly fries.

Offline bijou

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Re: New York "Tourists" Slip Into North Korea
« Reply #2 on: March 21, 2008, 05:17:04 PM »
Thanks for those links Chris, this looks as if it is a much more far reaching famine than before.  I have just started reading the second link.  Scary stuff.



Offline Chris_

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Re: New York "Tourists" Slip Into North Korea
« Reply #3 on: March 21, 2008, 05:38:15 PM »
I'm on episode six now.  There is almost no electricity in any of these buildings.  If they're lucky, they may have flushing toilets.  Some of those buildings look like they were put up 50 years ago and forgotten about.
If you want to worship an orange pile of garbage with a reckless disregard for everything, get on down to Arbys & try our loaded curly fries.

Offline Chris_

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Re: New York "Tourists" Slip Into North Korea
« Reply #4 on: March 21, 2008, 05:39:21 PM »
Oh, and LOL at the DPRK narrator trying to pronounce "impregnable" in episode 1.  :rofl:
If you want to worship an orange pile of garbage with a reckless disregard for everything, get on down to Arbys & try our loaded curly fries.

Offline Chris_

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Re: New York "Tourists" Slip Into North Korea
« Reply #5 on: March 21, 2008, 05:51:25 PM »
Oh, and LOL at the DPRK narrator trying to pronounce "impregnable" in episode 1.  :rofl:


Kim Jong Il: Now you see, the new world is inevitable.
Lisa: It's what?
Kim Jong Il: Inevit - inevitable.
Lisa: One more time?
Kim Jong Il: Inevitable! Things are inevitably going to change! *******it, open your ****in' ears!

If you want to worship an orange pile of garbage with a reckless disregard for everything, get on down to Arbys & try our loaded curly fries.

Offline Ptarmigan

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Re: New York "Tourists" Slip Into North Korea
« Reply #6 on: March 21, 2008, 07:01:35 PM »
North Korea is 1984. Only difference is, Kim Jong-Il makes his presence known. Famine and death is a common sight, while the commies live like kings.
Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake.
-Napoleon Bonaparte

Allow enemies their space to hate; they will destroy themselves in the process.
-Lisa Du