wow, I just watched an "Explorer" on National Geographic Channel last night on North Korea, and, no offense to you, but it's disgusting. Everything about it-the malnutrition, the obsession with the "Great Leader", the mindless anti-American sentiments, the isolation, the hypocrisy of Kim Jong, and the hate for South Korea.
The 7 year olds are something like 22 pounds lighter than the world average, and some inches shorter.
They are completely brainwashed into thinking that their leader is a god, and they have pictures of him on practically every wall in the country, and must respect him in every way (even in that you have to take only a full picture of the leaders portraits).
The only way they got into the country to film it was by posing as a crew making a documentary on an eye surgeon on 1000 people (propaganda of course), and then when he healed them, when they could first see, the first thing they did was go and bow down to a portrait of Kim Jong and praise him (one person said she would work harder in the salt mines now that
he had helped her (even though he had nothing to do with it)).
All of their songs are either about their leader or hating Americans. One of the nursery rhymes was something like "The pathetic Americans fall on their knees, and beg for mercy"
. The Korean War was 50 years ago, almost as long as WWII, and yet they are still brought up to hate Americans. That's like Germany or Japan or Italy still holding a major grudge against us from WWII (so much that almost everyone wants to kill us).
They oppress their own people by putting them in what is practically concentration camps. They interviewed a guard for one of them that escaped and he said that he saw fellow officers shoot people for minor offenses like trying to catch rats to eat. They put entire families in prison for one persons offense, and murder them if one of them tries to escape the country.
They have no internet, cell phones, or "real" news. It's ridiculous. And yet, the "Great Leader" himself gets luxurious AMERICAN imports to satisfy whatever his needs are, in one of the most hypocritical acts I've ever heard of, considering he brainwashes his entire country into hating America.
The demilitarized zone, while interesting, is completely ridiculous. It is literally an inch high, 6 inch wide, concrete line that separates the two sides in between two buildings, each having guards on the other side. The North Koreans have 3 guards for each "portal", two of them have to stare at eachother to make sure the other doesn't run across to the South Korean/US joint forces (although theres nothing that would really stop them) (look at the pictures here, it's hard to describe)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Korean_Demilitarized_Zone
When they have to get a message across the border, the US and Koreans literally have to stand at the edge of the line and yell it through a loudspeaker, and receive no response (even for something, like on the program, a North Korean soldiers body floated downstream after a flood and they wanted to return it), because the one phone that connects the two sides, made in 1962, the North Koreans never answer. They have one room for meetings between North Koreans and South Koreans/US, which is accessible to both sides (the blue buildings on each side of the portal in those pictures), and when the South Koreans open the door in it, they have to hold each others hands to make sure they don't get pulled over to the other side.
I would say that I don't mean any offense to North Koreans, but a) None of them can see this anyways, considering they are isolated and an entire country of brainwashed citizens, and b) I do mean offense, this is just ridiculous.
I don't, however, mean any offense to Jeku, and I do see how he finds it interesting, but I would never support a country (even through tourism) like that. It's worse than visiting Nazi Germany during WWII. I hope you have fun on your trip anyways
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