OK, so North Korea might not be enthusiastic about sullying the bloodlines or letting a single drop of ink into the Hangang River, but they will turn Pyongyang into an international city by 2012.
North Korea is creating a commercial street in downtown Pyongyang as part of a large-scale project to turn the capital into an international city by 2012, when its late leader Kim Il-sung marks the centennial birthday, according to Yonhap News.
North Korea broke ground in December to construct a 50-story twin tower hotel, a trade center, a modern department store and office buildings under the initiative of Jang Song-taek, brother-in-law of leader Kim Jong-il, Yonhap reported quoting informed sources.
No word on when work will begin on the forced abortion center to protect the city from being polluted by foreign sperm.
{ 18 comments… read them below or add one }
Pu-hahahahaha…. hahahahaha…. wait, let me catch my breath. Bahahahahaha!!!
Man they must be planning to kidnap a crap load of foreign nationals to get this thing going! Good thing they had all that practice years back in Japan. Or perhaps they’ll just use juche 주체. The can use their self reliant super powers and morph themselves into foreigners, while producing enough to food to feed themselves, and being the best in science and…
Moronic post title.
Hub of Cosmopolitaniciousness
I say build, build and build some more. Pyongyang is beautiful, in an awful, tragic, grandiose way. People are already going there in more and more numbers – not to do business – but just to see the place. It may be that tourism is the wedge that eventually opens the country up.
With respect to #3, I like the post title.
With the human rights atrocities up there, comparing the North to the Nazis is not that much of a stretch. Plus, for hyperbole it’s great.
Hyperbole is what makes commenters such as Baduk and Blueballs such fun. I like it when Robert uses it, too.
#5 on my way in September…hope my $$ will help open up the country rather than prop up the current regime.
*shrug* sounds good to me. things like department stores and such might help build consumerism and commodity fetishism that we see in capitalist nations. it might be the first step in transforming north korea into a china-like country–that is, socialist in name only.
Funny how this article comes after Robert’s excellent work up on Fascist Architecture….
Is that the same Jang Song-taek who was allegedly purged in 2004 “after he tried to build up a military faction to put his own son in power”?
http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/dprk/leadership-succession1.htm
Also in the article—Kim Jong-il’s nephew by adoption is also his step-brother (if I read it correctly).
I mean – half brother, his nephew being a son of Kim Il-sung.
“Socialist In Name Only” = SINO = China. Coincidence? I think not! And by not, I mean so.
What I’m trying to say is:
Jang Song-taek, the Dear Leader’s brother-in-law and also, by adoption, the father of the latter’s half brother, seems to have made a remarkable comeback after allegedly having been purged for making a military take-over bid in 2004.
Isn’t it?
I really wonder what Bruce Cumings would have to say to that. Seeing as this is the same man who once wrote how humane it was to imprison whole families together in the gulags.
North Korea guarantees reproductive health?
this just proves that the Norks are just as wonky in the head as their southern cousins—you can’t just build a bunch of crap and then call it “an international city”—there have to be legitimate reasons to go there, open systems which not only facilitate, but encourage commerce, most importantly … the free hand that allows the whole thing to thrive (and that includes allowing foreigners to drop by for a 2, 3 or 40 years and set up camp).
the sad thing is none of this will happen in either Korea in the next ten years and both economies will continue to slide downward until the north collapses and the south moves in to commercialize the silly remnants and prostitute everything to (mostly) westerners looking for their cosmopolitan experience of the closest thing to Auschwitz in recent memory
From the pictures I’ve seen Pyeongyang looks nice, no traffic or crowds unlike Seoul. I think a department store would be a great idea. I mean think how cheap it would be. Also they have that subway that is really deep. I wouldn’t go there soon, but hopefully if things start to loosen up a bit, it might be interesting.
Jim, Pyongyang is a showcase city that looks like a well polished shell. For all we know there is a huge underground city beneath it. Ever wonder why North Korean animation is fascinated with represententing north Koreans as tunnel burrowing moles? There are many secrets to Pyongyang.
An international city of what exactly?? Koreans? Hardly international, wouldn’t you think? Knowing the north Koreans (and Koreans in general) many foreigners will be excluded and the international city of Pyongyang and it will look more like the multi national coalition of troops that went to Iraq. The US, Britain, England, the United Kingdom, et al.
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