Wrong turn grants glimpse behind NKorean curtain

[homasse]

Wrong turn grants glimpse behind NKorean curtain

The press bus took a wrong turn Thursday. And suddenly, everything changed in the official showcase of North Korean achievement.

A cloud of brown dust swirled down deeply potholed streets, past concrete apartment buildings crumbling at the edges. Old people trudged along the sidewalk, some with

Comments

[bnmc2005]

Is it wrong that I immediately thought of images from America that are quite similar?

[destructo_ray]

Same here. Washington, DC, for sure comes to mind.

[mingemonster]

Yes.

[13chapters]

Doesn't look like any place I've ever been in the US, but it also doesn't look particularly terrible for a developing nation. I've definitely seen worse.

I'm sure it was nonetheless interesting for the reporters to see some real slice of life stuff.

[imnotasquirrel]

That bus driver's gonna get sent to a hard labor camp....

[shirogirl]

That was my fear when I read that honestly. :/

[anus]

My first thought. That or they killed him.

[lickety_split]

And his family :(

[mellawe]

I hope the bus driver and his family are still alive.

[mingemonster]

i hope the driver is ok :/

the article is interesting, though. i had heard about kijŏng-dong, the village built by the south korean border to look pretty to potential defectors, but i didn't know they did that in the real cities

[imnotasquirrel]

Oh, it's definitely the case in Pyongyang, which is North Korea's main "showcase" city. Only the most loyal party members are allowed to live there.

[mingemonster]

for some reason i thought the exclusivity would mean that the whole city was fancy and prettied up

[imnotasquirrel]

Yeah, I'm sure it would be, if they had the resources. But this is the same country that left the Ryugyong Hotel in mid-construction for well over a decade because they lacked the necessary funds.

I think even residents of Pyongyang only have access to a few hours of electricity per day, although I don't have any stats on that. (Just going off other stuff I've read.)

[theguindo]

Only the official guides, always beautiful women in flowing polyester gowns in ice-cream colors, will talk readily.

This always reminds me of the Ba Sing Se episode in Avatar: TLA. "There is no war in Ba Sing Se."

Or, I should say, that episode reminded me of the nK tour guides.

nK's thing is that they want everyone on the outside to believe they're perfect and prosperous, even though they barely have enough resources to keep the country running, and maintaining their facade is a big drain on those already scarce resources. To them, the answer to "our people are suffering" is "hide it."

Folks in my USAR unit always joked that it was a matter of pride, but I think that's absolutely true. They don't want to look weak or incompetent by admitting their methods aren't working, so they hide their shame instead of facing it.

[kaowolfie]

I've always wondered if that wasn't a reference to NK, to be honest.

[theguindo]

Yeah, it definitely felt intentional to me.

[kaowolfie]

There's too many direct similarities - the "interchangeable" female guides in flowing dresses, their sheer terror when the crew sees something they're not supposed to...