North Korea

http://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/kim-jong-un-closely-inspects-hello-kitty-set-orphanage-n234301

ah, the one with the humping stuffed toys in the corner of the room:

http://media4.s-nbcnews.com/j/msnbc/components/slideshows/_production/ss-141026-kim-jong-un-orphanage/ss-141026-kim-jong-un-orphanage-04.nbcnews-ux-1024-900.jpg

remember when 99% of people who had something to say about 'the art of killing' didn't realise the killer bros were laughing at the documentary bros because yeah well

http://i.imgur.com/BLvzIuI.jpg

all of them always with the little notebooks ready at hand

They really think they're pulling it off. Gets me every time.

This is like something from the Baytown Weekly Skylight:

http://i.imgur.com/h0JLXiP.png

that's his wife there in green supposedly eh

oh that's his wife? so that's why she's notebook-less

why do they clear everyone out of every single place he visits, don't they work rope lines in north korea, press the flesh a little

btw schlump linked this very good photo/video essay on photo-breezing recently

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2015/06/10/world/asia/north-korea-photos-video.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=photo-spot-region®ion=top-news&WT.nav=top-news&_r=0

that video in the middle was literally like, the internet, that is all it is now, that and comment boxes

why do they clear everyone out of every single place he visits, don't they work rope lines in north korea, press the flesh a little

fwiw, the airport hasn't opened yet.

But boy did those two back there get busy.

http://i.imgur.com/clplLy4.jpg

That skyway looks very ... narrow.

http://i.imgur.com/MygW6VN.jpg

http://imgur.com/mmqgFW3.jpg

http://nomad2007.blog.sohu.com/304479350.html

That airport and the (old, I guess) Pyongyang airport I experienced have so little in common that I don't even know where to start.

There were no chairs, for starters. Definitely no coffee shop. There was a gift counter, but it was unstaffed so I don't think anyone managed to buy anything there.

I can't remember if there was a baggage carousel, but I'm pretty sure not.

Want to show these pics to my spouse but then I'm afraid we will have to go back in order to see the new airport.

oops, too late. He saw them. I know I will end up back in DPKR one day. At least this time I will have a better idea what to pack.

not that long ago, i watched a Nagisa Oshima film from the late 1960s called three resurrected drunkards. the story was about how three young Japanese guys go for a swim one day and their regular clothes are replaced with Korean military uniforms (don't remember if the uniforms were South Korean or North Korean). they have to walk around dressed up like Korean soldiers, which is bad for them b/c of Japanese anti-Korean bigotry.

i know that there was a period in time when North Koreans kidnapped Japanese people on beaches in Japan. i wonder if this was going on at the same time as or after three resurrected drunkards was filmed.

I believe the kidnappings were in the late 70s, around about the time director Shin Sang-ok and actress Choi Eun-hee were kidnapped & put to work making Godzilla ripoffs

as featured in this book I have not read but have heard good things about
http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51DqoDFuU7L._SY344_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg

these books are both good

http://www.amazon.com/Great-Leader-Dear-Demystifying-North/dp/9749575695/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1436420378&sr=1-1&keywords=great+leader+dear+leader

http://www.amazon.com/Under-Loving-Care-Fatherly-Leader/dp/0312323220/ref=sr_1_18?ie=UTF8&qid=1436420420&sr=8-18&keywords=north+korea

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/aug/07/north-korea-to-turn-clocks-back-by-30-minutes-to-establish-own-time-zone

I say the Americans, Australians, Indians and who knows who else should do the same and get off Greenwich Mean Time.

Mr Choe was executed after he 'expressed discomfort against the young leader's forestation policy'

Close to 70 officials have been killed under Kim Jong-un's rule, Yonhap says.

http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnnnext/dam/assets/150513104648-01-kim-jong-un-0513-exlarge-169.jpg
Kim stands on the snow-covered top of Mount Paektu in North Korea in a photo taken by North Korean newspaper Rodong Sinmun on April 18 and released the next day by South Korean news agency Yonhap. Kim scaled the country’s highest mountain, North Korean state-run media reported, arriving at the summit to tell soldiers that the hike provides mental energy more powerful than nuclear weapons.

No, this is a great look. The government wouldn't have allowed it to be released if it wasn't.

http://i.imgur.com/kcn9byj.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/M7uO8Mr.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/LKSqiyl.jpg

v dapper, with the unbuttoned jacket, henley shirt, hands rakishly in pockets, straw fedora
real misery on little guy’s face :(

Is he standing on a landmine in that last pic?

lil general

hmmm

https://twitter.com/RubinReport/status/684564391782518785

thought maybe this was about a nuclear natural disaster like fukushima (tho presumably much worse bc north korea is a basketcase) but apparently "Officials at the Korea Meteorological Administration in Seoul reported a magnitude 4.2 tremor and said that the tremor pattern looked “artificial,” not likely to have resulted from a natural earthquake."

oh boy!

Successful h-bomb test, apparently

That would put them ahead of much of the nuclear club.

http://www.nknews.org/2016/01/north-korea-says-it-tested-hydrogen-bomb/

officially non hilarious

Officials and analysts in the South say that the estimated yield, or energy, from the explosion appeared to be too small to be that of such a weapon. - NY Times

so, prob just a really beansy entree

officially non hilarious

Chinese still finding North Korea hilarious.

The hashtags "Fourth Korean Nuclear Explosion" and "Another DPRK Nuclear Test"

汉字 always seems like so much fun

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/23/world/asia/north-korea-american-arrested.html

The University of Virginia student, Otto Frederick Warmbier

heading over to Great Real Names now

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/northkorea/12135252/North-Korea-bombards-South-with-used-toilet-paper.html

A government spokesman described the North's psychological warfare methods as "immature".

learned Stalin's lessons well:
http://news.yahoo.com/north-koreas-army-chief-staff-executed-report-005503170.html

No new friends

https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/worldviews/files/2013/12/04004192.jpg

haha

north korea was the only realm from Game of Thrones that survived to the modern age

Is it just me, or does it seem like DPRoK's saber rattling is getting less traction than it ever has?

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/may/31/north-korea-praises-trump-and-urges-us-voters-to-reject-dull-hillary