God CaucasianAsian where do you get all those ideas?
This whole deal about communism and NK is surrounded about a large aura of mysticism which grows bigger and bigger in western countries. For example, if someone is indeed tied to a tree and killed with stones in NK, because some damn sadistic guardians wanted to do that and it gets leaked out of NK (i'll even tell you later how it gets leaked) the whole western countries media will exaggerate this to a point where it has nothing to do with reality. And why is it so simple? Because NK can't defend themselves in any way, their media and political/diplomatical power are so small that everyone would ignore their sources.
And you know how that would get leaked out of the so scary prison named NK? Some people in NK will find out, police will find out, an investigation will start, there will be stuff in NK's newspapers about it and that's how it will get out of the country and we will find out and distort it.
The situation in NK is very bad as it is in reality and every smart person should know and understand that there's a limit for it, not to buy the so much aggravated version you're being fed by the media, which has it's own purpose.
Edit: And to start with such truisms that poor nk people aren't allowed to have any decisions, they are being told by the government what sport to do and what path to follow and government/state implication in everyday life telling them who to sleep with is just stupid.
NK adopted a system that existed in many other places, which was very bad but not as inhuman as it's sometimes being portrayed. Read about other countries who went tens of years under this false communist/socialist doctrine.
On November 25 2010 21:16 Pika Chu wrote: God CaucasianAsian where do you get all those ideas?
This whole deal about communism and NK is surrounded about a large aura of mysticism which grows bigger and bigger in western countries. For example, if someone is indeed tied to a tree and killed with stones in NK, because some damn sadistic guardians wanted to do that and it gets leaked out of NK (i'll even tell you later how it gets leaked) the whole western countries media will exaggerate this to a point where it has nothing to do with reality. And why is it so simple? Because NK can't defend themselves in any way, their media and political/diplomatical power are so small that everyone would ignore their sources.
And you know how that would get leaked out of the so scary prison named NK? Some people in NK will find out, police will find out, an investigation will start, there will be stuff in NK's newspapers about it and that's how it will get out of the country and we will find out and distort it.
The situation in NK is very bad as it is in reality and every smart person should know and understand that there's a limit for it, not to buy the so much aggravated version you're being fed by the media, which has it's own purpose.
Edit: And to start with such truisms that poor nk people aren't allowed to have any decisions, they are being told by the government what sport to do and what path to follow and government/state implication in everyday life telling them who to sleep with is just stupid.
NK adopted a system that existed in many other places, which was very bad but not as inhuman as it's sometimes being portrayed. Read about other countries who went tens of years under this false communist/socialist doctrine.
Pika chu - have you ever watched any N.K. witness interviewed (refugees)? Maybe that's how some stuff get leaked. Those people have their faces blurred due to they are scared to death to say anything eventhough they are in China. North korean government has special agents there and they would be brought back and executed together with their whole families if they get caught. I am with you that a lot of stuff is aggravated nowadays, but i don't think it is the case of North Korea. I actually think things might be even worse, so we know nothing.
Well, they got 12 years of hard labor. What do you think they mean by hard labor? Do you think that hard labor would mean that they are filling pot holes in Pyongyang, the city where no one owns a car?
Once again, I urge you to understand the severity of what is going on in North Korea.
My favorite documentary has footage by a man who who sneaks a camera into North Korea risking his life filming what is really going on.
On November 25 2010 21:16 Pika Chu wrote: God CaucasianAsian where do you get all those ideas?
This whole deal about communism and NK is surrounded about a large aura of mysticism which grows bigger and bigger in western countries. For example, if someone is indeed tied to a tree and killed with stones in NK, because some damn sadistic guardians wanted to do that and it gets leaked out of NK (i'll even tell you later how it gets leaked) the whole western countries media will exaggerate this to a point where it has nothing to do with reality. And why is it so simple? Because NK can't defend themselves in any way, their media and political/diplomatical power are so small that everyone would ignore their sources.
And you know how that would get leaked out of the so scary prison named NK? Some people in NK will find out, police will find out, an investigation will start, there will be stuff in NK's newspapers about it and that's how it will get out of the country and we will find out and distort it.
The situation in NK is very bad as it is in reality and every smart person should know and understand that there's a limit for it, not to buy the so much aggravated version you're being fed by the media, which has it's own purpose.
Edit: And to start with such truisms that poor nk people aren't allowed to have any decisions, they are being told by the government what sport to do and what path to follow and government/state implication in everyday life telling them who to sleep with is just stupid.
NK adopted a system that existed in many other places, which was very bad but not as inhuman as it's sometimes being portrayed. Read about other countries who went tens of years under this false communist/socialist doctrine.
Pika chu - have you ever watched any N.K. witness interviewed (refugees)? Maybe that's how some stuff get leaked. Those people have their faces blurred due to they are scared to death to say anything eventhough they are in China. North korean government has special agents there and they would be brought back and executed together with their whole families if they get caught. I am with you that a lot of stuff is aggravated nowadays, but i don't think it is the case of North Korea. I actually think things might be even worse, so we know nothing.
Romania was almost 40 years under dictatorship in an totalitarian state with the same "excuse" of communism/socialism. People running out of the country always spread a much worse image than what was really going inside. They were talking about mass murders happened on the streets, famine and some other which simply exaggerated how bad it was.
I know people have a tendency of exaggerating things and especially when not confronted with any other version and it gets spread from source to source to source the news becomes more terrible, more dramatic, more sensationalist.
im convinced that NK has huge issues and is one of the worst places on earth live at, but at the same time it is pretty obvious that the public image of "NK = hell on earth" which is distributed in the western media is very exaggerated.
oh, and to that troll who asked "we dont like their system and they dont like ours - how do u want to decide on the superior one?":
i´d say choosing the country where the smaller percentage of the population dies of starvation is a good starting point......
I kinda agree with Pika Chu. Bulgaria has the same communist, totalitarian regime as North Korea for 45 years and things were not at all so bad as one may think.
Regarding the documentary in the OP, I must say that this guy has two documentaries about Bulgaria which are pure super-hyper-mega exaggerated bullshit.
i´d say choosing the country where the smaller percentage of the population dies of starvation is a good starting point......
that would be NK then when you look at africa
well, i indeed believe that the majority of inhabitants of north korea are better off than the majority of ppl in the worst african countries. like... somalia, liberia, maybe zimbabwe.
On November 25 2010 04:30 bonifaceviii wrote: Reunification will happen eventually, but probably not soon.
The culture between the countries are ridiculously different, despite being right next to each other. South Korea has very little to gain from reunification. It's not that it "probably" wont happen soon. It won't happen anytime soon.
It's the "same" situation that happened in Germany with the end of the WW2..
There was a communist east germany and a capitalist west germany!
40 years later who was better? who had better lifes? who had a better education, health system and who had a better future?
We all know capitalism is not a perfect solution especially uncontrolled and unregulated capitalism but come on comunism has proven itself to be impossible and a utopia!
If you compare NK to SK you it's like comparing two equal countrys but one stoped in time for 50years..
Did west germany won anything from east germany? not really.. did they enjoy the reunification? of course.. familys were united, people could return to their lands, towns and still enjoy peace and prosperity!
I hope it does happen but it won't happen until a NK leader cares for his country and people or the people rise up and take charge for their future!
hope the "Crazy Leader" Jr. understands this and makes a change!
I can't remember the name of the documentary, but I saw one about a North korean handicapped boy grown up in Denmark returning to N.K with his small theater group to perform and act with North Koreans.
U got to know the N.K culture through their many taboos, scenes where the boy asked where all the North Korean Handicapped persons were hiding, their reaction just made the situation crystal clear.
Anyway, I just watched the first 5 minutes of the american documentary and I couldn't really stand it, even if n.k is a horrible dictatorship such a prejudice view isn't the road u ought to take with a documentary. which in my eyes shows more about their culture from the inside, the very human reactions from westerners to the military parades and their faces during forced salutes to Kim Il Sung and most of all the Koreans reactions to a handicapped theater when it's existence is never seen in public.
So if anyone has seen the documentary I mentioned please link it to the rest of TL!
i live in Czech republic so i know what you mean, but it is little bit out of bound to compare "our" totalitarian communism regime to North Korea...We had plenty of food compared to them and the country itself was prospering, many people were actually happy the way it was, the only major problem was that you could not have any bigger private property or business running and your choices were markedly limited compared to nowadays. Well there were more issues of course, but you can't compare that to N.K.
@Ricjames - It's really great to have an eyewitness perspective from another regime which people might want to compare to NK. I think that's really interesting.
I'm pretty sure that the people who manage to escape from NK don't try to "exaggerate" the situation in their country, by and large. Based on personal experience, Koreans tend to be pretty proud people - the kind who would rather say everything's fine than show any sign of unhappiness or dysfunction at home. I also think there's a point at which enough people have enough life stories that corroborate with each other where you can safely draw some kind of picture of what's going on (with supporting evidence, of course). I don't think it's an exaggeration to say that NK is one of the largest human rights crises in the world today because of the living conditions of most of the populace.
On November 26 2010 03:23 Ricjames wrote: i live in Czech republic so i know what you mean, but it is little bit out of bound to compare "our" totalitarian communism regime to North Korea...We had plenty of food compared to them and the country itself was prospering, many people were actually happy the way it was, the only major problem was that you could not have any bigger private property or business running and your choices were markedly limited compared to nowadays. Well there were more issues of course, but you can't compare that to N.K.
I definitely agree with this.
The differences between the World War II & Cold War era communism regimes to the one prevalent in North Korea is mind boggling. If I were to compare the two, I would say North Korea is Nazi Germany on steroids.
For instance, just a few examples... During the separation of East and West Germany, if you were stuck in East Germany, you would be pressured under communism and German Warfare tactics. You would be forced and subject to read and listen to propaganda in the news.
The way this is different from what is happening in North Korea today, is that those in East Germany were old enough where they could remember what life was like before they were put in such conditions. As well as, they could tune into British, American, and even West German radio stations, to know what the real world is like.
North Korean citizens are not allowed to know of any outside politics, or news. If you are caught changing the antenna on your TV or radio to catch a Russian, Chinese, or South Korean station you and your family would be subject to prison camps and death.
The other main reason why these two are vastly different, is that we know what is going on. When the world found out that Nazi Germany had concentration camps, the world was shocked. The country leaders knew little of what they were, but the rest of the world, the general population had no idea. So when people found out just how evil some people could be, they were astonished. Then people began to question as to why we didn't do anything earlier. How did we let it get so bad?
The United States and the European Union had agreed to never allow such a thing to take place. However, we know of the concentration camps in North Korea. We know of the human rights that are denied by people every day. However no one is doing anything.
South Korea even tries to hush it down, as they are looking for a future of re-uniting the two Koreas, and addressing such things they believe may bring bad politics. They instead focus more on a tiny island that South Korea and Japan are arguing over for fishing rights.
There are many things today that are going wrong in the world. Darfur, the children's army in Uganda, the human trafficking in eastern europe, tsunamis, earthquakes, and hurricanes, all of these are going on today in addition to North Korea.
However, North Korea is the single human rights deprived nation that is getting close to no attention. This is why it's such a big deal.
I was born in Soviet Union, and spent the half of my life in communism, and the other half in capitalism. All I can say is 90% of posters here mentioning communism are trolls with majority from western countries. Excuse me, but it's true. You are really brainwashed if you make judgements by school education, "documentaries", youtube videos, fox news etc. Please, pretty please, never ever judge things you haven't seen with your own eyes or felt with you own skin... I can't say anything about NK because I've never been there, nor my friends or relatives whom I can trust.
p.s. sorry for bad english I was taught in totalitarian soviet school
AlJazeera has just uploaded a documentary called "101 East - Learning Liberty" to youtube. It's about defectors from the North who are now living in the South (I'm only 5 minutes in).
I thought that it doesn't need its own thread but might still be interesting for people to see.
I know this thread is pretty old, but I didn't want to make a new thread for this video I found though. The video is from 2008's Gumball 3000. Basically Gumball 3000 went into North Korea for the 2008 year. Here is the video. That's the first part and then the second part is to the right as you can see.
If you don't know what gumball 3000 is, it's basically a race between mostly people with exotic cars, from one location to another. A lot of famous people are in this race as well.
EPT
