What are /r/northkorea's favorite Products & Services?

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There's a diplomatic compound area where most of the "western" foreign population is located. The compound area has a guard on the entry road, where DPRK citizens need to record their time in/out of the area. Within the area, foreigners can move about freely without accompaniment (although many residents have that privilege extended for the broader city area). There are basic facilities in the area including a restaurant, cafe, grocery store, hospital, barber, etc.

I believe this is the primary entrance / exit: https://www.openstreetmap.org/search?query=39.02172%2C125.78765#map=17/39.02172/125.78765

North Korea's military hovercraft are rarely seen in action, and these photos from a Chinese website, found via a Japanese BBS, show Kim Jong-Un attending an exercise featuring these rarely-seen machines.

[EDIT: I found this Daily Mail article with the same images]

If you want to know a bit more about North Korea's hovercraft fleet, I wrote an article about it a few years ago (which I updated last year): North Korea is Prepping a Hovercraft Invasion Force

The Great Leader and the Fighter Pilot by Blaine Harden sounds like what you're after.

It's a dual biography of Kim Il-Sung (the Great Leader) and No Kum-Sok (the fighter pilot who defected in a MiG and lives in America today). The majority of the book follows the immediate prelude to course of the Korean War.

It's very easy to read and Blaine Harden has good experience to North Korea; he also wrote Escape from Camp 14 (an account of Shin Dong-Hyuk's escape from North Korea).

I meant it just looks like a makeshift day laborer site. Prison camps like Yodok are in relatively inaccessible areas, have checkpoints, guard towers, etc. https://edition.cnn.com/2013/12/04/world/asia/north-korea-amnesty-prison-camps-report/index.html The only way you could "sneak into" one is if you are already incredibly familiar with them, could bribe some high level guards, etc.

How is it his fault lol. Blame yourself incapable of updating yourself.

https://edition.cnn.com/politics/live-news/trump-kim-jong-un-meeting-summit/index.html

I even watched the entire summit live right to the end of the press conference. I'm a Singaporean and am glad it went well.

North and South Korea will sign a peace treaty to formally end the Korean War later this year, 65 years after hostilities ceased, the two countries announced in a joint declaration Friday.

The document, formally called the “Panmunjom Declaration for Peace, Prosperity and Unification on the Korean Peninsula,” was revealed after a full day of meetings and a 30-minute private conversation in the past hour between Kim Jong Un and Moon Jae-in.

“The two leaders solemnly declare ... that there will be no more war on the Korean Peninsula and a new era of peace has begun,” the declaration said.

Fighting in the Korean War ended in 1953 in stalemate, after which an armistice agreement was signed. But a peace treaty never followed, and the two sides are still technically at war.

“There will not be any more war on the Korean Peninsula, a new era of peace has begun," Moon said after signing the declaration.

“Chairman Kim Jong Un and I have agreed that complete denuclearization will be achieved, and that is our common goal.”

https://edition.cnn.com/2018/04/27/asia/korean-summit-intl/index.html

The men washed up on the Sea of Japan coast, even though I when I read "northeast Japan", I thought the men had somehow drifted through the Tsugaru Strait into the Pacific.

Thanks! It was an amazing opportunity. I also wrote a short article for my university magazine if you're interested in reading it: http://issuu.com/shulifemagazine/docs/freshers_2014_digital_version (pages 34-35)

When I went, I sent myself a postcard. You can buy those in the hotel and in numerous tourist shops, and you can mail them from your hotel or from the airport.

If you don't plan on visiting NK any time soon, your best bet would to join a Facebook or VK group of one of the tour companies (example) and ask if someone who is going soon would be willing to send you a postcard.

Edit: if you want, I also have a couple of postcards I bought in Pyongyang, but didn't actually mail. But you probably want for someone to actually mail you one from NK proper.

>"Has there been any evidence that previous meetings resulted in families in the north being exiled?"

See: The Repressive System and the Political Control in North Korea

So, "families in the north" likely ARE exiled. Do you understand what I am saying?

They have to live far away from cities and towns. Being sent to the mountains is a euphemism for being turned into a class enemy and basically, being just one tiny "mistake" away from being removed from the lists of the living (then sent to an Absolute Control Area of a concentration camp or executed - Or starved to death.

While I’m not sure if it’s “objective” I really enjoyed Wendy Simmons’ My Holiday in North Korea. It’s a first hand account from Wendy when she took a vacation to North Korea. It does attempt to have some humor - I remember Wendy attending a wedding which was funny - but there’s also some sad things too, like a visit to a kids hospital. The book was really fascinating.

recommend a book called "The Cleanest Race" which theorizes that NK's whole ideology is racially based: The Cleanest Race

He supposedly drowned in a very shallow wading pool while playing with his older brother.

Nobody saw whatever happened.

Maybe the young KJI was simply beginning his long infatuation with "human experimentation".

To clarify, while the ISS was at 38.5, 127.5 when the photo was taken, the place in the photo is Wonsan at 39.17, 127.47. North is down in the photo.

A cute write up, thanks! I believe, however, that the only possible path is under marshal Kim Jong-un later on, in the 2030s-40s. Think for yourself, the population under the brutal southern regime will collapse (median age 51.1 in 2040), along with it will collapse the economy, mass starvation will ensure, riots... Seoul will welcome the DPRK as salvation.

The only way for the south to engage is to attack the Norh beforehand. But such a war would be unwinnable.

South can't win. North can't lose.

I strongly recommend "Being in North Korea" https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1931368562/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_glt_fabc_KS01A6AYQCPRARJ5GKYA it's excellent and there's a whole chapter on it with some great stories.

Normally nuclear tests that are conducted underground hide alot of the fallout fallout has been seen in Europe and Russia https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/11/10/563286253/mysterious-radioactive-cloud-over-europe-hints-at-accident-farther-east

> and have only found one that clearly is a new, farming centric gulag area so far

I haven't heard of this, you're not referring to the additional area that may have been added to 14 (or the "turtles tail") are you? If thats not what you are talking about I'd be really interested in a link to this new discovery.

Their Anti Semitism had little if anything to do with Jewishness! It had much more to do with the fact that they were something else. Its not well known but did you know that Hitler had several other groups on his "k*ll list"? Catholics, evangelicals, I forget the rest.

If you have the time, pease read Hannah Arendt's "The Origins of Totalitarianism" from the beginning - I'm curious what you think. Its a big book but you wont be sorry. It will open your eyes.

here is the URL https://archive.org/details/originsoftotalit00aren Its free to read online in any of a half dozen formats.

After reading her brilliant book, one of the best political books ever written, I see anti Semitism much differently than I did before.

I think the Nazis anti-Semitism wasn't coming from some visceral place. It was a calculated thing, just like North Korea's persecution by "family background" and scapegoating of "factionalists and enemies of class"

One has to see how they all fit together to make an ecosystem of terror which UNFORTUNATELY is fairly sustainable - with caveats that it inherently wastes lives and time and energy at an incredible rate.

Please read Arendt. She was one of the great minds of the 20th century and that book is her greatest work. It will lay bare te inner workings of totalitarianism like nothing else can..

Bc it's just one example. If you want the full world story you can read this book. The way the scam works in that river is the same ask obey the world

https://www.amazon.com/Overfishing-What-Everyone-Needs-Know®/dp/0199798141

Read this book:

https://www.amazon.com/Being-North-Korea-Andray-Abrahamian/dp/1931368562

I was in a similar situation as you and this book has tons of information I didn’t know about North Korea. Incredibly informative.

Making it through China to the South Korean embassy without means to support you is quite difficult, and as others have mentioned, you can't just walk in.

I'd recommend reading the book Dear Leader for more background information on this. The book is about someone who worked for North Korea's United Front Department who later fled the country and defected to South Korea.

Great idea! I would love to read this.

I hope someone does this for Thae Yong-ho's "Cryptography from the Third-floor Secretariat" as well. The absence of a translation is even more perplexing since the author speaks near-perfect English.

Thanks! Demick's has been on my list for a while, and I was unaware of Kang's book. I'd like to read that too.

I don't expect or want something which entirely avoids the politics (as you said, likely impossible) or glosses over the atrocities and standard of living problems. But I'm not looking for a work bathed on self-righteous tears of outrage either. Sure, I hate the North Korean government. I feel terrible for the people there. But I don't need further macabre descriptions of what's going on there, I already read Escape from Camp 14. I'm looking for something which takes an unsentimental approach to their daily lives.

By the way, why the %$%# has no one translated Thae Yong-ho's Cryptography of the Third Floor Secretariat yet?

Anyway, thanks again for the recommendations!

Unfortunately there will be many other brutalities in 100 years time. That said, you may enjoy her book The Girl with Seven Names, Amazon #1 bestseller in North Korean history.

I mean if you read the book which I recommend to everyone Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea by Barbara Demick. It mentions most NK escape to China across the Tumen river and once they get across they have to deal with undercover NK agents who get them sent back and also Chinese govt people trying to round em up. If I was trying to help North Koreans I'd prob go to the border by NK in China and help out with the network trying to get people to SK, it seems like the organizations helping are like Christian Missionary type organizations. Most NK have a problem getting to South Korea where they get like 20k in resettlement funds if they can get there and are usually accepted. South Korea already has a program for refugees that is pretty robust the problem is getting them there.

USA also wanted to get rid of north korea completely (that's why they pushed so far north if you remember...). I suggest you to read this before making a complete fool of yourself. And yes war is the most horrible thing on Earth, with slavery maybe... I don't know what's worse.

If you think war is ok, I suggest you to read Im Westen nichts Neues which gives a good insight of the tragedy this is for everyone involved.

War is sometimes necessary to protect ourselves, but war is never ok.

edit : typo

Also, this book by Stephen Haggard and Marcus Noland.

http://www.amazon.com/Famine-North-Korea-Markets-Reform/dp/0231140010

Extra points if you check out their book of surveys...

http://www.amazon.com/Famine-North-Korea-Markets-Reform/dp/0231140010

Medical diagnosis, treatment, etc. is far different in North Korea than it is in most of the rest of the world. Comparing cancer data from there with other countries would be highly inaccurate given that their ability to detect, treat, etc. is so lacking.

For a few examples of the state of medicine in North Korea I'd suggest you read the book Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea which follows the lives of 4 different individuals who all eventually defected from the DPRK. One of them was a medical doctor who describes (among other things) how, during the Great Famine in the 1990's was forced to scrounge in the mountains for roots to make medicine with.

I'd also suggest watching the National Geographic documentary Inside North Korea which follows an international medical team that travels to the DPRK to provide fairly basic eye surgery to dozens of North Koreans who are blind. It also gives good insight into just how lacking the medical facilities in the DPRK truly are.

I actually didn't hear this specific rumor. I'd be interested in reading about it if you have a link by chance.

But as usual, rumors about JST's execution and the reasoning behind it ran rampant and little was confirmable. Things like Jang being fed to dogs being reported on shows like it was remotely believable were unfortunate.

There is this story from New Focus International. I personally think pretty highly of NFI and the founder Jang Jin-sung, who wrote an amazing book named Dear Leader so I put a little more stock into their reporting than other organizations.

This is the same article you already linked to making it the third time you have linked it. I don't understand what point you are trying to make. If it's that he was murdered then that article doesnt help your case. It states,with no evidence,that Beria and Kruschev conspired and laced Stalins drink with warfarin. Then goes on to say that the memoir in which this is stated has proven unreliable.

To say he certainly did not die a natural death is inaccurate. There is really no way to know any longer and citing an article that includes " but does not usually produce concomitant hematemesis (vomiting blood)" is itself saying it is not usual but can happen.

Heres an article stating he did die of natural causes. See howthis thing works. It is a mystery and should never be summed up by saying he certainly was murdered. Delayed treatment may have played a role. I'm also sure that there were officials there afraid of being caught in the next wave of purges, but that wasn't a new fear. Being purged was a constant threat especially for Beria as Chiefs of the NKVD always ended up on Stalins bad side. Likely those afraid delayed treatment and that led to his death.

Extremely similiar to how Kim Jong-il delayed treatment to his father and may have attributed to his death. KJI had already relegated his father to a figurehead at best as he (KJI) had taken control through the OGD. You should read Jang Jin-sung's Dear Leader as he explains in great detail how KJI wrestled control from his father well before his death.