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Three years in North Korea as a foreigner (2021)

mydiplomaticlife.com

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Re: Three years in North Korea as a foreigner (2021)

#171

Post by maxglute »

why_at wrote: post #96
the_duke wrote: post #9

The post never mentions a date, but this must have been around 2000-2004, since that is when the UK embassy was established. [1] Some things have probably changed since then. A fascinating read regardless. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Embassy_of_the_United_Kingdom,...

Curious if anyone knows of any more recent descriptions about what life is like in North Korea, like in the last 5-10 years. Most things I've read including this article are decades old. How much have things changed there in terms of technology, food security etc?

There's hours and hours of NK footage if you search for North Korea Travel / Vlog in simplified chinese. They tend to have much laxer guides/minders, fluent in mandarin vs western travellers with minders with shit English (and I presume more suspicious / cautious). Very few of Chinese vlogs have auto subtitles which can be translated to english unfortunately. Example:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kZgzAquCs-o&list=PLk70D7sV6Q...

There was a few playlist from central asian travellers and with Chinese business man exploring with more casual minders a few years back but I can't find them. I know a few PRC nationals who made the trip for business, TLDR is NK cities and towns feels like PRC in the 90s with energy of PRC in the 80s. Some of the villages/hamlets seem like PRC from the 70s (which I guess is what most ppl think of NK). Other era reference points probably not helpful for ppl without context of growing up in PRC. So it's worth scrubbing through some of the videos, a lot of it is city and keep in mind NK is 60% urbanized.

Re: Three years in North Korea as a foreigner (2021)

#172

Post by cardanome »

waterTanuki wrote: post #110

> There were a handful of shops that catered for foreigners. All transactions had to be in Euros as possession of local currency by foreigners was forbidden This stood out to me in the article, as most countries incentivize foreign visitors to use local currencies to boost its strength. However, NK seems to have long ago come to terms it's currency will never hold value, so perhaps they instill this rule to boost the…

It is to get their hands on foreign currency.

Plus, many products in the shops for local are probably heavily subsidized and have vastly lower prices.

Re: Three years in North Korea as a foreigner (2021)

#173

Post by thriftwy »

__s wrote: post #40
thriftwy wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They likely go to specialized shops for foreigners where you may only pay with US$-backed coupons, and can purchase most of stuff you can commonly buy in Japan.

> There were a handful of shops that catered for foreigners. All transactions had to be in Euros as possession of local currency by foreigners was forbidden. A lot of the items were imported from China and from time to time, local fresh produce would make a rare appearance. Meat was always in short supply.

Lankov has described the coupon system in some detail. I believe Cuba has a similar system with CUC or had it until recently. I'm not sure at which point NK ditched coupons for Euros.

Re: Three years in North Korea as a foreigner (2021)

#174

Post by cardanome »

shiroiushi wrote: post #155
dheera wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wonder who works in those embassies. Are there some British dudes just living there that go to the embassy every day for work? Where do they buy food? What do their residences look like? Do have spouses and children? Where do they work and go to school? Do they enjoy life there?

Why would anyone in their right mind accept a job like this? It's a lot like taking a job that requires you to live in a prison for several years.

If you read the article, they were allowed to travel freely.

Personally I would have loved the job. Seems like they had lots of free time. Very secure country without much crime. Really not much to worry about, just a bit isolating. Plus some cool stories to tell when you are back home.

Sure, not the type of job for people with family.

Re: Three years in North Korea as a foreigner (2021)

#175

Post by shiroiushi »

cardanome wrote: post #174
shiroiushi wrote: post #155

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why would anyone in their right mind accept a job like this? It's a lot like taking a job that requires you to live in a prison for several years.

If you read the article, they were allowed to travel freely. Personally I would have loved the job. Seems like they had lots of free time. Very secure country without much crime. Really not much to worry about, just a bit isolating. Plus some cool stories to tell when you are back home. Sure, not the type of job for people with family.

>If you read the article, they were allowed to travel freely.

What good is that in North Korea? The whole country is basically a prison, and after what happened to Otto, anyone with any sense of self-preservation should want to avoid the place.

Re: Three years in North Korea as a foreigner (2021)

#176

Post by rvoje »

why_at wrote: post #96
the_duke wrote: post #9

The post never mentions a date, but this must have been around 2000-2004, since that is when the UK embassy was established. [1] Some things have probably changed since then. A fascinating read regardless. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Embassy_of_the_United_Kingdom,...

Curious if anyone knows of any more recent descriptions about what life is like in North Korea, like in the last 5-10 years. Most things I've read including this article are decades old. How much have things changed there in terms of technology, food security etc?

Heres some propaganda: https://www.worldlifeexpectancy.com/cause-of-death/malnutrit... https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/46164212.pdf https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2017-09-14/north-...

Re: Three years in North Korea as a foreigner (2021)

#177

Post by lukan »

cm2187 wrote: post #164
V__ wrote: post #53

I'll preface this by saying that I can't support this with a source, so take it with a grain of salt. An acquaintance of mine knew someone who worked in that German embassy. Apparently, the extreme isolation of North Korea also made it extremely difficult to have any kind of opsec inside the embassy. Since anything could only be brought in through diplomatic pouches it created an attack vector of one. A few days afte…

In a french documentary about the DGSE (French foreign intelligence service), some former DGSE officials explained that when France took delivery of their new embassy in Poland during the cold war, they found it riddled with bugs. The cabling was hidden inside the concrete. They had to dig a several meters deep trench all around the embassy and severe all cables to isolate it before they could test each cable one by…

"I don't know how they ever got comfortable they found every one of them"

If you take opsec serious, you should never be too comfortable.

And as far as I know with embassies and alike, there is the compromise of at least one room, that is very surveillance proof and checked regulary.

Re: Three years in North Korea as a foreigner (2021)

#178

Post by Dah00n »

lordnacho wrote: post #166
OliveMate wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Meanwhile instead of some fancy building, their embassy over here is... Well, a little more domestic. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Embassy_of_North_Korea,_London

The impression I got, from attending a school with a lot of diplomat kids, is that a lot of countries have embassies as a sort of foreign holiday for their ruling classes. Now NK being a bit antagonistic and paranoid might be an exception, but I distinctly got the impression that there were a lot of countries that didn't really do a lot of diplomatic work with the host countries, but the embassy meant they could send…

Also most of the work is done by the CIA and NSA.

Re: Three years in North Korea as a foreigner (2021)

#179

Post by Dah00n »

mcmoor wrote: post #170
Propelloni wrote: post #159

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's weird. On the one hand governments are devious and brutal oppressors of freedom, on the other hand governments are calculating masters of subterfuge faking moon-landings and implanting microtransmitters by vaccination, on a third hand governments are money-wasting incompetent douches who can't even tie their shoes, and on a fourth hand governments are morally bankrupt and do everything to get re-elected. A stran…

"Enemy is strong and weak" seems like a universal trait for any propaganda, I really have no idea why some want to say that it's a special fascism trait.

It is the exact line the US is taking on Russia. “Ukraine need help now or soon Russia will be in SOME_NATO_COUNTRY” and “Russia is loosing hard” at the same time, often in the same “according to government officials…” speak.

Re: Three years in North Korea as a foreigner (2021)

#180

Post by sgjohnson »

lolinder wrote: post #111
mathsmath wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Even in the US, nothing is technically stopping you from walking into a SCIF with a phone most of the time. We used the honor system. I would almost automatically assume that any SCIF in a foreign country was compromised to some degree.

Which would completely invalidate the entire purpose of the SCIF, no? Unless it exists to feed fake info to the locals?

> Which would completely invalidate the entire purpose of the SCIF, no?

Yes. But if you belong in there, nobody is going to second guess you.

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