It appears that we expats in Korea are not the only ones doing stupid human tricks - even North Koreans are jumping on the band-wagon in Finland.
It appears that a couple of North Korean diplomats decided to make things harder for themselves when they were asked for their train tickets and refused…….
The police also met with violent behaviour on the part of the North Koreans.
Two customs officials and one police officer were jostled somewhat in the incident. The border guards and the conductor were unhurt.
The police had to use force to calm the situation down, and the North Koreans were taken to Kouvola Police Station to clear up the matter.
6 Comments
Marmot had this post some time ago and OnefreeKorea before that.
Antti had a pretty good run down of this a couple of weeks ago;
http://hunjang.blogspot.com/20.....human.html
And three weeks ago;
http://hunjang.blogspot.com/20.....fight.html
Didn’t the Great Leader ever order this book translated into Korean?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T.....nd_Station
All the Finnish railroad authorities need do is have copies on hand to pass out to any North Korean diplomats using their system; no doubt they will then sit in respectful silence, engrossed in their reading. After all, by riding on a Finnish train they’re treading in the footsteps of giants!
Seems to me I recall a film (Soviet propaganda?) of that same name too, but maybe I’m delusional; nothing in the link about that, nor did I see anything in the first page of google results. Too bad; having a video on hand to quiet the recalcitrant children always works much better.
Edmund Wilson’s book was a Marxist classic, though I doubt it would be acceptable in the DPRK because it doesn’t credit Kim for anything. (On the other hand, apparently hashish is now in the hands of DPRK diplomats, so I could be wrong). You do realize that the Finland Sation referred to in the book is in St. Petersburg, right? These diplomats were going TO Helsinki with their smuggled goods, so… they get their goods in Russia?
It’s good that these fellas get sympathy (”roughed up”) at least in a Marmot’s Hole blog title.
I remember translating to Korean a guide leaflet about how to conduct oneself in that particular train trip from St Petersburg to Helsinki. Wonder if that had helpled, even though it was mainly about the kind of situations in which the said North Koreans felt the need to get physical.
In case anything new comes out of this incident, I’ll do a note on my own site.
“…You do realize that the Finland Station referred to in the book is in St. Petersburg, right?”
Yes. I was thinking of Lenin’s temporary exile in Finland during part of the Russian provisional govt period in 1917; I believe the title of the Wilson book refers to Lenin’s triumphant return to St. Petersburg later that year — coming into the Finland station on the train, if I recall correctly.
So that implied (to me) that he rode at least part of the way back on the Finnish railroad system (?) (Haven’t read the book, just read of it and that was a long while back):
“…After a failed Bolshevik rising in July [1917], Lenin fled to Finland for safety….He returned to Petrograd in October, inspiring the October Revolution with the slogan “All Power to the Soviets!” Lenin directed the overthrow of the Provisional Government from the Smolny Institute from the 6th to the 8th of November 1917…”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vladimir_Lenin
Will have to check a book-length Lenin bio to be absolutely sure that he rode on a Finnish train, I suppose. But — it turns out Lenin had resided for a while in Finland, earlier!
“…In 1907, he moved to Finland for security reasons. He continued to travel in Europe and participated in many socialist meetings and activities…”
Everybody who was anybody took the train back in those days! So — it’s my guess that there must be at least a few train stations in Finland that could put up a plaque saying “Lenin wuz heer”.
Perhaps Lenin’s ghost still strides impatiently up and down the length of clackety-clacking Finnish rail cars, perpetually seeking to return to the Finland station — you know, like that entertaining subway vagrant in the movie “Ghost”.
A good NorK diplomatic “courier” ought to be aware of that possibility (even if he is merely smuggling drugs, instead of energetically furthering the cause of world revolution).
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[...] infringing upon the sovereignty of a dignified member state of the United Nations.” Now, via The Marmots Hole, we learn that diplomats of the dignified member state of North Korea were involved in a scuffle [...]