For those of you who have heard of Half Life 2, it almost looks like City 17.

 

 

 

http://www.militaryphotos.net/forums/sh ... hp?t=82755

 

 

 

Russian photographer managed to sneak photos. There's pictures on at least the first 3 pages.

 

 

 

The hotel was amazing. Their economy sucks so bad that they can't finish building a hotel that huge 15 years ago, but they can waste all this money on nuclear research...

A similar thread was posted on the SomethingAwful forums around a week ago, it is scary.

Actually, it's better than I had imagined. The sky view of the city with all the houses was a bit depressing though. And the idea of an abandoned hotel. Poor hotel, I'd fix it up if I had money. :(

A great insight, but the pictures are nowhere near as bad as I feared. However, I doubt even that photographer would want to take a picture of children forced to cannabilism from starvation.

A great insight, but the pictures are nowhere near as bad as I feared. However, I doubt even that photographer would want to take a picture of children forced to cannabilism from starvation.

 

 

 

Exactly! 8-)

A great insight, but the pictures are nowhere near as bad as I feared. However, I doubt even that photographer would want to take a picture of children forced to cannabilism from starvation.

 

 

 

In his defense, most of the pictures were taken in the capital. That's pretty much as GOOD as it gets over there.

Pretty sad too. Because South Korea is a really nice place to live. Seoul is thriving with success.

This was kind of the feeling I got by the end of Atlas Shrugged, which I just finished today. Farmers pushing plows by hand, hardly any lights on at night in the major city, crappy roads ect...

Feels like a totalatarian society with all the control by the goverment, like the roads and how you have to stop all the time, and all the statues.

CNN Presents: Inside North Korea was a great look around the DPRK including Pyongyang. It's so shocking to see how they are forced to live their lives, and how there is no escape from the country. In a world where we pledge democracy, perhaps the worst state of them all has been allowed to oppress their people. Only when they challenge American authority does anyone act, or realize their troubles. Kinda sad :?

Pyongyang.

 

 

 

It's in a different language so any translation to English is an approximation. That means that as far as I know there isn't a 'right' way to spell it. Take for example the chinese rice gruel, some spell it chook, some spell it jook, some spell it juk and so on - they sound the same.

 

 

 

As far as I know.

Pyongyang.

 

 

 

It's in a different language so any translation to English is an approximation. That means that as far as I know there isn't a 'right' way to spell it. Take for example the chinese rice gruel, some spell it chook, some spell it jook, some spell it juk and so on - they sound the same.

 

 

 

As far as I know.

 

 

 

Yeah I suppose, however it still isn't called Pyonyang. The translation is recognized as being Pyongyang. It's like saying since there's no literal translation, so I can call the place Pyonmaynge or something. Pyongyang is viewed as correct. :wink:

That doesn't look bad. They look disciplined, they look appreciative of what they have. Not like where we live, where something like running water can be taken advantage of. If they are invaded, democracy will practically be everywhere. I hope they make a last stand and get a nuclear missle up and running. I'd hate to see in a few years a McDonalds built and a bunch of fat tourists wandering around.

That doesn't look bad. They look disciplined, they look appreciative of what they have. Not like where we live, where something like running water can be taken advantage of. If they are invaded, democracy will practically be everywhere. I hope they make a last stand and get a nuclear missle up and running. I'd hate to see in a few years a McDonalds built and a bunch of fat tourists wandering around.

 

 

 

I would much rather fat people and McDonalds than dead bodies and snipers everywhere :?

That doesn't look bad. They look disciplined, they look appreciative of what they have. Not like where we live, where something like running water can be taken advantage of. If they are invaded, democracy will practically be everywhere. I hope they make a last stand and get a nuclear missle up and running. I'd hate to see in a few years a McDonalds built and a bunch of fat tourists wandering around.

 

 

 

I'd really argue about their appreciativeness, they are appreciative only because that's the best they know about. Since birth they are taught other nations are pretty much crappy capitalistic pigs, and China is their good big brother along with Cuba.

 

 

 

I do agree with you on the Mcdonalds part; I certainly hope to visit North Korea as soon as possible because I realize this nation as we know it might not last for long (we can't be sure if it will even exist from a few months from now on). This nation is politically even worse off than Myanmar, but there's still something interesting about it.

 

 

 

Visiting NK would be a truly unique experience and I'd take it any day without hesitation over visiting Hawaii or some other tourist-ladden hotelfest with prices designed to rob the visitors. It's also a great memory for your children and grandchildren; You can be almost 100% sure that by the time they're adults North Korea wont exist (at least not as it exists now).

I've heard stories about chairman Mao from my mom. Those pictures look like the images that formed in my head when she told me those stories -- big signs (for propaganda), rural farming villages, and people that were happy with what they had. Looks and sounds like exactly like China 40 years ago..

 

 

 

It does look like the people are content with what they have, but I'm not exactly sure if it's because they're happy or they've been "shielded" from the outside world (1984, anyone?).

 

 

 

Or maybe it's because the guide only let the guy see certain parts. I wish someone would get pictures of the restricted areas -- just to see how the QoL is there.

It's certainly what I expected to see, but that doesn't make it any less frightening. To a citizen of a first-world free market economy, the sight of streets without any visible active commerce is shocking. When I visited India, there was accessible capitalism all over the place, even in the villages.

 

 

 

All in all, it smacks of a place that the administration tries very hard to use to appease foreigners' perceptions of their backwards country, but it's quite obvious that a lot of things are set up so that nobody can see the squalor in anything.

 

 

 

That said, it's alarming and disgusting in that regard. Everything seems dead and purely utilitarian. I've seen the slums of Mumbai, held to possess the absolute worst living conditions in the world - and I would pick those over Pyongyang, if only because there you can actually see life, and the people are free enough to set up private businesses and see what the rest of the world is up to, even if very few have the means.

 

 

 

North Koreans really are only happy with what they have purely because they don't know what they're missing out on. The difference would certainly have been shocking for all those North Koreans who escaped and defected to the South.

This has been posted on TIF over 2 months ago, and I still have it favorited, really nice collection of photos.

 

Anyway, it's a poor country, what'd you expect to see? No matter how much military power they have, it's still just another poor country for it's citizens.

 

If I were in a bad day, I'd blame the developed countries for that situation, but I won't bother right now.

Trust me, I've seen much scarier than that...On CNN, even. That's nothing. I've seen dead people in the street and people just walking past them like it normal.

 

 

 

NK sucks.

I posted that at DW in June.

 

 

 

I get reminded of Animal Farm everytime someone mentions N. Korea.

 

 

 

What a [cabbage] hole.

Wow, that was amazing. Really opens your eyes to what other people have to live with.

pyongyang is basically just a big stage....the leader of n korea always describes it as a busy metropolis...but in reality it is almost a ghost town-go on google earth or something like that and look up pyongyang and you will see how desolate it is. Then look up seoul, which is capitol of south korea and you will see that it is a busy metropolis but north korea's capitol isnt

I posted that at DW in June.

 

 

 

I get reminded of Animal Farm everytime someone mentions N. Korea.

 

 

 

What a cabbage hole.

 

 

 

wow yea, i always think of animal farm whenever anything related to communism is brought up...

 

 

 

 

 

no fat pigs, though :?

no fat pigs, though :?

 

 

 

 

 

 

Our Leader, Napoleon!

Anyone else notice that the DPRK officers' hats resemble Kim Jong Il's haircut?