In N. Korea, Eccentricity Well Off the Scale

WP ^ | 02/29/08 | Blaine Harden

[TigerLikesRooster]

In N. Korea, Eccentricity Well Off the Scale

Nothing Seems Too Big When the Kims, Father and Son, Celebrate Themselves

By Blaine Harden

Washington Post Foreign Service Friday, February 29, 2008; A14

PYONGYANG, North Korea -- In closed communist dictatorships, land-use planning often edges toward the far side of eccentricity.

In Albania under Enver Hoxha, the countryside was pimpled with more than 700,000 concrete bunkers. Built to ward off invaders, most became outhouses.

In Romania under Nicolae Ceausescu, a historic quarter of old Bucharest was bulldozed to build a Parisian-style boulevard, an artificial river and a 13-story neo-Stalinist palace that was used for, well, nothing. Before Ceausescu could move in, he was overthrown, lined up against a wall and shot.

Here in North Korea, with a father-and-son dictatorship ruling the roost, eccentricity in land planning has gone unchecked for 60 years. It has gone to the far side, and beyond.

Kim Il Sung, who founded North Korea in 1948, built stupendously large structures to honor himself. So has his son, Kim Jong Il, who took over when his father died in 1994.

And so this week, when the New York Philharmonic flew into Pyongyang for a first-of-its-kind concert, the government offered bus tours to show musicians and attending journalists what the two Kims have wrought.

To explain it in English, the government provided intense men with worried faces. They called themselves "guides." The musicians called them "minders." Their job was to answer questions and prevent foreign visitors from wandering off to see a city that, from a moving bus, appeared to be poor, dark and cold.

[TigerLikesRooster]

N. Korean traffic cop

[TigerLikesRooster]

Ping!

[NCBraveheart]

Just imagine the giant statue of OUR Dear Leader...Obama

[sam_paine]

Wow. She’s so hot she melted the ice around her.

[OB1kNOb]

NOT GUILTY !

[dfwgator]

And today Albania is a staunch ally of the US. So if they can emerge from a nut like Hoxha, there is hope for North Korea once the Kim Il Sung dynasty finally goes to the ash-heap of history.

[DManA]

How could they write and article like this and not include this astonishing creation?

http://theshapeofdays.com/2004/09/07/the-ryugyong-hotel.html

An 105 story shell of a hotel they’ve just abandoned.

[NCC-1701]

"..."They are the faces of the road, and they are chosen for their beauty and their height," a minder explained. "They cheer us up and clarify our minds."..."



I can see that.

[gracesdad]

Well, N. Korea has done one thing right.

[reagan_fanatic]

Wow. I wouldn’t mind it if she minded me.

[ASA Vet]

In N. Korea, Eccentricity Electricity Well Off the Scale.

[NCC-1701]

She’s not your type. }:-)

[MindBender26]

A few years ago, there was a State Library in Pyongyang. It had 100,000 books.

All but 6 were about the “Kims.”

[dfwgator]

"Come and keep your comrade warm..."

[NCC-1701]

I bet it’s minus 10°F in that picture. But, like the good commie she is, she will stand her post and guide what few cars there are in NK on their way to misery and oppression.

You want to bet she’s not there, now that the New York Symphony is gone? She’s probably hacking down some tree for warmth. She was meerly eye candy for the visitors.

[MindBender26]

I understand most of the lights emanating from Seoul and other areas of ROK, but what are the ones from east of the Sea of Japan coastline?

Oil rigs or map displacement error?

P.S. Long time no FReep!

Be well

[ASA Vet]

Fishing boats

[MindBender26]

Wouldn’t take much C4 on a lower floor to drop that sucker.

4 guys with backpacks could do it easily

[MindBender26]

Ah ha!

Tnx.

[MindBender26]

PS, Looked at the “Way to Amarillo” vid on your link. Loved it. Spent 2 years in Amarillo.... it’s a little less pleasant than the country shown in the vid!