241–250 of 307 posts
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It's so well known it would be easier for you to source your claim. Or you know, you could source the claim yourself. Obviously you didn't bother before posting. When I say dragons fly over the rainbows, I need to source the claim. When I say that the sky is blue, it's you who needs to look it up if you doubt it so much.
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I'm mostly surprised about the free admission of bribery: > However, I soon found that a bottle of Johnie Walker Black Label handed out at particularly frustrating moments made things miraculously happen a lot quicker. Oh how the North Koreans loved their whiskey.
I'm surprised you're surprised. I guess people from countries with fully functional monetary systems don't have an intuitive view how things work where money are essentially worthless. Most communist countries were like this during the centralized and hence highly disfunctional economy. You were paid a wage but essentially could shove it up your ass coze there was little to nothing to buy with it. Which made barter t…
Aren’t all of these fungible?
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,...
The German Wikipedia article ( https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deutsche_Botschaft_Pj%C3%B6ngj... ) has some more details. Most interesting: unified Germany initially wasn't interested in diplomatic relations with North Korea, so between 1991 and 2001, the only country actually using the building as an embassy was Sweden (although Germany had a "Schutzmachtvertretung" during this time - not sure what that means, but at…
> 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…
Another aspect of it could be that this retards foreigners' capacity to sneak into shops they're not supposed to be in and buy things they're not supposed to buy. Not sure though, as apparently many shops are run pseudo-privately and I imagine any shopkeeper would be happy to accept some foreign currency.
If foreigners can only own foreign currency, and normal citizens can only own local currency, then it makes it a lot harder to bribe the locals!
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?
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True, it would be more toward security leadership in things like CISO roles or equivalent. Yet if one takes them, they will certainly help.
Again, just in case you're interested in a second take on this, no.
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> North Korea can take you with whatever justification they feel like and return you as a vegetable. That’s most/all countries (or their embassies) you visit, no? https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assassination_of_Jamal_Khash...
A big political enemy of the saudi family that been a pain in their ass (rightly so since they are an evil dictatorship) vs random student that just took a poster as a souvernir. Not the same thing. Anyone can be killed in North Korea. 99,99999999999% of people are not on the saudi familys enemy list.
Not the same thing!!!
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> A 2014 UN inquiry found evidence for "systematic, widespread and gross human rights violations" and stated that "the gravity, scale and nature of these violations reveal a state that does not have any parallel in the contemporary world" I don't think having access to luxuries detracts from the danger he was in of being in a country where public executions take place for things as minor as 'fortune telling' or watch…
Allegedly, supposedly... About 60 years ago, Hunter Thompson called out these words as propaganda devices that let you say anything about anyone you don't like without taking any responsibility for it. Nothing has changed in the journalistic standards since then.
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The German Wikipedia article ( https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deutsche_Botschaft_Pj%C3%B6ngj... ) has some more details. Most interesting: unified Germany initially wasn't interested in diplomatic relations with North Korea, so between 1991 and 2001, the only country actually using the building as an embassy was Sweden (although Germany had a "Schutzmachtvertretung" during this time - not sure what that means, but at…
In case someone cares, the term 'Schutzmachtvertretung' contains three words, Schutz = protection, Macht = Power/Might and Vertretung = Representation.