MUST SEE!!!!
Russian computer guru Artemiy Lebedev recently went to North Korea, and he’s got the photos to prove it. It’s a four-part series (in a language I can’t understand), but the photos are absolutely AMAZING.
(HT to the individual who emailed me the links)
27 Comments
Those highrises look good from outside, but I have heard that the elevators inside the buildings do not work. Just imagine some people walking up 30 stories. Phew.
great photos. gotta hand it to the women in uniform, especially one with the machine gun. however, lebedev’s fascination with the children’s characters is a bit creepy…
anyone able to figure out the high-heel sign?
Thanks Russia and China for 53 years of absolute misery and heart-break to the Korean people. I hope we Americans can return the favor you provided our friends in North Korea (who are there unwillings) and in South Korea in the very near future. Perhaps, a 10,000 year hiatus on inhabiting any of your Russian or Chinese property due to radioactive contamination would be enough vengeance.
The pictures from Part 1 of an apartment in one of the highrises, looks exactly the same as a farm house in rural South Korea did 30 - 50 years ago, minus the enormous X86 computer next to the ancient jam box. Also, I noticed ENGLISH in North Korea being used on the alcohol bottles and signs in Part I too.
The wrecked American airplane in Part II in the museum just pisses me off. Reminds of me Hanoi Jane, now Baghdad Jane. If North Korea actually had their own airplanes, we could put them in a museum to mock.
The German 1973 Mercedez-Benz police car in Part IV was pretty comical. It ought to be able to out run a criminal’s car, err bicycle.
Life must be really hard there. Err, I mean, so this is what a communist utopia society looks like.
“anyone able to figure out the high-heel sign?”
I assume it’s a warning due to uneven pavement in the sidewalks. In other words, use caution when walking. Just another perk of a communistic utopian society.
I was hoping to see some pictures of the North Koreans cheerleaders that were locked up.
Robert, the Marmotess hasn’t taught you Russian yet?
2 points.
1) People who after looking at these photographs still think that North Korea has the capability of invading South Korea are plain stupid. I bet, in the event of a war, South Korean generals would be communicating with each other over what is called a “handphone” or a “wireless phone” while North Korean generals would be relying on smoke signals or briefcase sized radios. It is time for those who underestimate the South Korean military and believe that they still need American assitance to wake up.
2) Where’s the famine that the Western propaganda is telling me is happening in North Korea? I still see Chubby kids.
They’re fattening the children to eat.
How’re things in sunny San Diego?
the sign with a broken heel shoe is for ” shoe repair” upstairs.
2) Where’s the famine that the Western propaganda is telling me is happening in North Korea? I still see Chubby kids.
You ARE naive.
I think mahathir_fan’s lame comment gets to the root of what’s wrong with all these pictures from North Korea: they only contain stuff the Norks don’t mind being seen. These images are nothing but propaganda fodder for the mahathir_fans of the world.
Those are great!
I thought the shoe meant watch your heel on the escalator, since the shoe looks like an escalator.
I’m not so sure. Compared with images that came out of the North years ago.. these are a big step forward.
I have no doubt he was restricted about where he could take photos, but after looking at all his shots I had to wonder if the DPRK had grown more lax in it’s enforcement.
mahathir_fan,
North VietNam beat South VietNam (4th in the world military ranking at the time in terms of weapon strength). Abundance of money and weapons do not help when NK special force troops land in SK cities and start killing. SK men will flee or just cower in their apartments, full of fear.
When the US pulls out, SK will not be able to defend the country. It is VietNam all over again.
Today’s NY Times article says the US is pulling out.
“U.S. Said to Weigh a New Approach on North Korea”
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05.....amp;emc=th
SK and Japan will not have free lunches any more. All SKs who swear that the US will not leave SK even if they play the anti-American card will now have to defend the country against NK all by themselves. Good luck.
This change in the US stance marks another step toward the China-Japan War. The US will definitely move out of the region, so that these two dogs can fight each other. SK? The fools die.
QUOTE however, lebedev’s fascination with the children’s characters is a bit creepy… END OF QUOTE
You should read captions. He makes fun of this kitch.
QUOTE anyone able to figure out the high-heel sign? END OF QUOTE
It’s explained, too. It means “shoes repair”.
Mr.Lebedev wrote me yesterday that he had to use some tricks to make some of the pics, and sort of fought with his guides (he had three people: a driver and two guides, it is mentioned in the text). This makes mahathir_fan’s remark #2 rather funny. He obviously mean that they will take a fee-paying rich foreign tourist and drive him to some hunger-striken area. Well, perhaps in Dr.Mahathir’s country they do it (I know, I know Malaysia has no hunger!). But this is not what people do in North Korea.
QUOTE minus the enormous X86 computer next to the ancient jam box. END OF QUOTE
The said computer has a label a company which, according to Mr.Lebedev, went out of business years ago (in its captions, too). I cannot resit the temptation and translate the caption for tht picture:
Translation:
Since in enitire country it might well be the only private house which can be visited by a foreigner, the image-makers had a foresight and installed in the living room something remotely resembling a computer. I had a closer check: the main unit produced by the Digital which went out of business some eight years ago, HP keyboard, strange-looking monitor with loudspeakers. For producing better impression, they should connect it to the power suplly, but they did not.
I swear by myself that whoever talk about teaching English and sht when we reunify, I swear, I kill them.
“I swear by myself that whoever talk about teaching English and sht when we reunify, I swear, I kill them”
Uh…what?
I KILL U TOO!!
I think I’ll teach English when Korea “reunifies”. Seeing as I probably won’t be alive when Hell freezes over (it’ll probably take at least a few hundred years), maybe Katz should just come do the job now. Of course, he doesn’t swear on much that he’ll actually do it, so I guess I won’t be holding my breath, or anything.
The dreary concrete buildings reminded me of China away from the glizty business districts and shopping areas.
Thanks for translating that bit about the computer prop, Lankov.
Katz, man — You have issues with people outside your race. Maybe North Korea is the place you oughta be.
Baduk,
South Vietnam lost because US had a low threshold for pain esp. when they are fighting something that they do not understand why they are there.
On top of that, South Vietnam was ripe for a revolution. Too much capitalism is a bad thing and too much socialism is also bad. South Vietnam had too much capitalism with the poor essentially enslved by the rich landowners. The people wanted communist because it gave them the freedom to start a new life, to get an education, and to make something good out of their life vs. to become a slave worker for a landowner without any chance for an education.
America is not the model nation for capitalism. America is the model of how to exploit capitalism to meet the goals of socialism. I have a friend from the People’s Republic of China that wanted to emigrate his parents to the US. I told him he was crazy. When you are old and unable to work, you want to live in a communist country because the government will take care of you. He told me that I was wrong. In America, you get treated much better when you are old than if you live in the PRC. You get beeter health care, medicare, and all sorts of federal money.
Many of these socialistic programs were created in the 1930s, during the great depression when America was then nearly riped for a revolution. America experienced many similar events as China. China has its Tiananmen Incident in 1989, and America has its own ugly chapter- the Bonus March when US tanks turned on their own citizens because it believed that communists had infiltrated the Bonus marchers. Then there were the Putnam arrests, and Gitlow vs. New York where the US Supreme Court explicitly stated the limitations of free speech.
Of course, America refuses to admit that it is using capitalism to achieve socialism goals because it refuses to admit that pure capitalism doesn’t work. Just as China refuses to admit it is trying to do the same, China calls its “Socialism with Chinese characteristic”s or something like that. They have to rename it because they won’t admit pure socialism didn’t work.
I’m glad that President Bush is considering a peace treaty. We think alike. I supported many of his decisions. The main problem with his actions has always been a “third hand” that tries to exploit the situation that he had gotten into to turn America into an empire. He will go into Iraq to bring democracy, but that “third hand” will exploit that situation to put troops there and never pull out, or to install puppet governments that will serve the private interests of the American lobbyists etc. etc..
“Katz, man — You have issues with people outside your race. Maybe North Korea is the place you oughta be.”
To serve as an excuse? What are you doing there?
Just when you thought there were no new ways to insult GWB:
I’m glad that President Bush is considering a peace treaty. We think alike.
Bye, Katz.
Gotta carry out some late spring de-trolling, I guess.
People often decry commercialization of the public sphere, but those city streets are pretty damn boring to walk without any storefronts that haven’t changed their display less than 10 years ago.
Re:
judge judy
May 18th, 2006 at 11:59 am
great photos. gotta hand it to the women in uniform, especially one with the machine gun. …
Comment:
The woman is a DPRK ‘tour guide’ aboard the U.S.S. Pueblo.
Mahathir_fan, you just know everything about everything.
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[...] Courtesy of the Marmot are these pictures which are some of the best photos from inside North Korea I have ever seen. These pictures come from a Russian computer scientist Artemiy Lebedev who recently went to North Korea. The webpage is in Russian, but who cares, the pictures are stunning and worth viewing. Below are all four links to view his photos.Part 1Part 2Part 3Part 4 [...]