North Korean Children

[Chuck64]

I grabbed this off of Digg. I know I'm not qualified to speak on the political climate inside North Korea, our (the USA's) *ahem* strained relationship with them, or how they're perceived elsewhere around the world, so I won't even try.

Still, I thought this video might kick of some political debate:

http://throwawayyourtv.com/2006/03/creepy-north-korean-children.html

When I was in scouts, we did something similar (although nothing approaching that detail) with baseball caps on the deck of the USS Lexington in Corpus Christi. It was a giant U.S. flag with the words "one nation, under God" at the bottom (I was a star btw ), and they flew over in a helicopter and took pictures.

I didn't know it at the time, but it was supposedly used as political propoganda against efforts to remove "under God" from the U.S. Pledge of Allegiance (which of course is a whole other bag of worms). I was probably about 13 or 14.

If anyone wants to take this and run with it, be my guest.

 

[Dr Rock]

i've seen so much stuff like that out of north korea. it's truly a ... remarkable place. :|

 

[B_Danceswithlamps]

That was really bizarre. I wonder how long it took to train all those kids, and plan all that...

Hmmm....
(I smell a conspiracy)

 

[headbang8]

i've seen so much stuff like that out of north korea. it's truly a ... remarkable place. :|

When I lived in Japan, we used to get regular round-ups of North Korean TV. The Japanese are horrified.

http://robpongi.com/pages/comboPOTATOPRIDE.html

The site belongs to an old drinking buddy of mine, and there's quite a few more North Korean clips on there...lots more of "genius children".

Justgoes to show that years of cultural isolation makes you into social oafs. A nation of evil nerds. Be afraid, be very afraid.

 

[Dr Rock]

The Japanese are horrified.

that just says it all, really

 

[PussyWellington]

I have to admit I find their "displays" perversely addictive. The North Asians (with the exception of Japan) are not known for their innovations but are very good at replication (and at a much cheaper price).

North Korea as well as being a huge drug smuggling nation, also produces the most sophisticated and almost undetectable fake US Currency in the world --"The Superdollar".

http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Superdollar&oldid=46055566

 

[jakeatolla]

Its amazing what children will do for food. I imagine The ones who don't get to
participate are the ones starving .

 

[D_Herin_Ghan]

When I lived in Japan, we used to get regular round-ups of North Korean TV. The Japanese are horrified.

http://robpongi.com/pages/comboPOTATOPRIDE.html

The site belongs to an old drinking buddy of mine, and there's quite a few more North Korean clips on there...lots more of "genius children".

Justgoes to show that years of cultural isolation makes you into social oafs. A nation of evil nerds. Be afraid, be very afraid.

That was the saddest thing I have watched in a long time.

 

[ClaireTalon]

North Korea would be a great joke, if it wasn't such a sad topic. I have seen about parades and shows like the one demonstrated on TV often, and while the choreography is amazing, I don't like thinking about how these kids were drilled. I think I saw a report about this in one of the documentaries, and am not pleased at the thought of 6 or 7-year-olds being drilled like Airmen Basics ;-)

I've also once seen a documentary on tourism at North Korea, and a club of model railroad enthusiasts having booked a railroad tour there. What do you expect when you enter a railroad museum? Correct, cars, engines, rails, bits and pieces like timetables, signals, etc. But what did they show at the North Korean official railroad museum? large pictures of their heads-of-state, opening railroad routes and having themselves praised for doing so. After that report, I tried to get a tourist visa, but I guess my US citizenship and former military profession didn't help. Shame.

 

[Dr Rock]

I tried to get a tourist visa, but I guess my US citizenship and former military profession didn't help. Shame.

haha, me too. I even asked the chinese tourism ministry to vouch for me, and still got nowhere. guess i'll never be able to visit tangun's tomb or admiral yi's shipyards this lifetime

 

[ClaireTalon]

haha, me too. I even asked the chinese tourism ministry to vouch for me, and still got nowhere. guess i'll never be able to visit tangun's tomb or admiral yi's shipyards this lifetime

So, we share a like for totally fucked-up places? I didn't try to vouch, but called their Moscow embassy, as well as the one in Beijing and asked, but after they heard about my former profession, it was a flat-out No. Maybe I should ask them to send me the form sheets, and add a photo of me in a party gag present I received for when I had been promoted to Captain - a Soviet Kapitán's uniform. The only uniform of mine where I have five stars on the epaulets.

 

[PussyWellington]

I have to admit I find their "displays" perversely addictive. The North Asians (with the exception of Japan) are not known for their innovations but are very good at replication (and at a much cheaper price).

North Korea as well as being a huge drug smuggling nation, also produces the most sophisticated and almost undetectable fake US Currency in the world --"The Superdollar".

Superdollar - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

I hate to quote myself but, I did go and attend these games in August this year. It was the most spectacular man made event I have ever seen. The mass games are a must see.

For us 'westerners', electricity and the 'digital age' has reached the point of banality. Go and see 20,000 'human pixels' make analogue animation.

North Korea really is the 'vacation' for those idealists out there. Low pollution as there are hardly any cars on the roads, no factories polluting the air, no mobile phone towers as only the 'elite' are allowed mobile phones, no multi national corporations.

 

[vince]

How do the elite use their phones if there are no cell towers?

 

[Bbucko]

How do the elite use their phones if there are no cell towers?

You read my mind. And the peon to pollution could have been skipped, too.

 

[2322]

You read my mind. And the peon to pollution could have been skipped, too.

Particularly since there are no pollution controls in North Korea. The environmental damage done by unfettered strip and pit mining is horrendous as is the deforestation caused by people cutting down trees for use as fuel. Much of the terrible flooding we've read about is due to bad agricultural practices and deforestation. As much as it's a social mess, North Korea is an environmental and infrastructural disaster as well.