Man, what's going on with this site that makes every phrase "North Korea" into a link about playing golf there? Some kind of self-link-auto-enhancement plugin gone nuts?
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How to Survive 3 Years in North Korea as a Foreigner
71–80 of 94 posts
Re: How to Survive 3 Years in North Korea as a Foreigner
#72Earlier quoted context omitted.
Why? Because the poor are starving? North Korea has ultra-wealthy ... it works a bit differently but there is massive inequality, and there is extreme wealth.
Because North Korea is such a parody of a country that adding a golf course to it sounds completely surreal to me.
you might want to read about NK >2023, which is quite different from before, of course there is golf courses, cellphones (with Internet, chats...), TV, money transfer, IT schools, ATMs, money changers for USD, cinemas, american movies, markets (with a ton of illicit products from US/EU/China... i.e you can buy USB sticks with ton of movies or music or ebooks), it's changing gradually, millions are living a relatively peaceful life, but a lot are suffering still especially if they don't have family that can go to major cities to send back money, all those aren't only available in Pyongyang contrary to popular beliefs, there is multiple major cities.
There is a huge amount of money invested currently by the gov into making it a better country, it's hard to believe tho.
It's relatively hard to get information without translating South korean forums because the western news just straight up shit on everything related to NK and almost NEVER show anything progressing over there, which is false.
Re: How to Survive 3 Years in North Korea as a Foreigner
#73A diplomatic mission established for the sake of establishing it and staff making the best out of their time there I can somewhat understand, but not tourism into DPRK for the "curious" and leaving money in that state. Going there to play golf would feel like visiting Pol Pot's Cambodia because they have good forest hikes, just be careful not to slip on all the blood seeping out of the ground.
As to the lack of fear of physical harm, this was reported from a very privileged position where that safety was guaranteed by the clearly willing host. As a civilian visitor I wouldn't feel that confident. One odd look or an unfortunate question an official didn't take a liking to, will get you into questioning. So I'm told.
Re: How to Survive 3 Years in North Korea as a Foreigner
#74Earlier quoted context omitted.
Why is it interesting observation? When one invades the country, they of course won't feel safety (like in Iraq), but when they dont invade country, of course it feels safe, because no one is bombing and shooting locals
NK is politically aligned with the red countries, and positioned against US. Especially after the Otto Warmbier accident, some believe that Americans/Westerners in NK are in constant danger (my opinion: O.W. did something stupid while drunk; the accusations were obviously fabricated but the incident was not unprovoked), so to those, it may seem surprising that somebody can feel safe there.
The author is British working for the British embassy, UK-NK relations are strained but not as tense as US-NK relations by a mile. They had mutual embassies though the UK NK embassy no longer has an official ambassador and the NK UK embassy is closed because NK still has tight entry restrictions from COVID-19. US-NK relations are tangentially related at best.
Re: How to Survive 3 Years in North Korea as a Foreigner
#75Earlier quoted context omitted.
North Korean has won, once they had nukes and ICBMs they became untouchable.
"won" is a very strong word for a country that sits economically somewhere between South Sudan and Congo, with a primary "enemy" that started out similarly and is now easily 20 times richer. Self-sufficiency and exclusion from global trade can be very expensive for a nation long-term (a cautionary tale, since those ideals are a bit of a siren call nowadays to many Americans, after getting quite wealthy by doing the e…
The leadership doesn't particularly care, they get to live quite plush lives in their little hermit kingdom and only care about the general population in so far as they need to be comfortable enough they don't risk rebelling. Winning for the Kim family is remaining in power and they've secured their position against outside aggression quite successfully.
Re: How to Survive 3 Years in North Korea as a Foreigner
#76Earlier quoted context omitted.
I was fascinated to learn while visiting they consider themselves ‘at war’ and generations from a unified time still strongly believe in the cause. In tech specifically this leads to some surprising results such as transit planning being very ineffective or broken in google maps due to onshore data storage requirements. Subway alignments are regarded as sensitive info
Indeed the fighting ended in an armistice so the war was never legally declared to be over. Visiting the DMZ between the countries is a surreal experience - part tense stand-off, part theme park.
I wonder what would happen if South Korea simply said they weren’t at war anymore. Acknowledge that yes, North Korea considers them at war with us. However, we consider us to be peaceful neighbours.
Whenever North Korea threatens them, simply reply with how sorry you are their brother nation feels this way, and you wish them a peaceful and successful future.
Leave the DMZ intact of course, but just unilaterally declare you are not actually at war and have nothing but brotherly love for them.
Re: How to Survive 3 Years in North Korea as a Foreigner
#77[deleted]
Re: How to Survive 3 Years in North Korea as a Foreigner
#78Earlier quoted context omitted.
Because North Korea is such a parody of a country that adding a golf course to it sounds completely surreal to me.
you might want to read about NK >2023, which is quite different from before, of course there is golf courses, cellphones (with Internet, chats...), TV, money transfer, IT schools, ATMs, money changers for USD, cinemas, american movies, markets (with a ton of illicit products from US/EU/China... i.e you can buy USB sticks with ton of movies or music or ebooks), it's changing gradually, millions are living a relatively…
How do you know that they are progressing? Where do you get this information?
Re: How to Survive 3 Years in North Korea as a Foreigner
#79Earlier quoted context omitted.
It also starves its citizens in all manner of ways. If the current US admin could do this, they would.
What did you think that bit with the eggs was about?
the difference however is the level of coordination required. NK is top down, while US just has a bunch of oligarchies who may or may not be directly coordinating.
Re: How to Survive 3 Years in North Korea as a Foreigner
#80"North Korea’s border with South Korea is a disputed border as both countries claim the entirety of the Korean Peninsula." - I did not know South Korea felt this way!
South Korea sounds like Ireland. Ireland has a constitutional “firm will” to reunite the island, and people living in Northern Ireland (a part of the UK) can get Irish citizenship.