Funerals of Korean public figures

[Man of Harveys]

Bear with me on this...they're amazing. I can't YouTube from work but the millions of people sobbing and howling at Kim Il-sung's in 1993 provided some of the most incredible - and very funny - news footage that I've ever seen. Well worth checking out.

And this one: BBC NEWS | Asia-Pacific | Koreans turn out in force for Roh - seems to be coming along very nicely already: 15,000 riot police at the ready, paper aeroplanes hitting the hearse which can't move because someone's bowing down before it, booing of the current President - Koreans are fascinating.

 

[glasfryn]

towards the end of my time in Brighton I spent some time dealing in stamps and ephemera and met some Korean students (from Seol) and they were telling me that they were never told the north even existed until they were 12 years old,they were brother and sister he was at a training hosp in London and she was visiting (she was the most stunningly beautiful girl skin like porcelain.
It is a very interesting country especially the postal history at the time of the war,some of it is extremely rare.

 

[Lady Whistledown]

North Korea is an utterly fascinating, if a touch scary, country.

They're a little island of red fanaticism long after the rest of the world has moved on and moderated itself. A friend of mine went on holiday there two or three years ago- it took him about six months just to get a visa, and they were followed everywhere by state officials, but he said it was an amazing experience. There's just nowhere like it any more, is there?

The secrecy, the overt militarism, the grand gestures and parades on a monumental scale: it's like something out of a George Orwell book.

 

[Lady Whistledown]

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Check out the mosaic displays from the crowd here at the Mass Games in Pyongyang, absolutely mind blowing.

Mind you, I guess the prospect of being shot or imprisoned for getting it wrong is something of a motivating factor.

 

[Man of Harveys]

I think my fascination has a lot today with this channel on Astra - if anyone gets the chance to watch its bizarre offerings, it's well worth it.

Arirang (TV network) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

I saw an American student on it once extoling the virtues of Korean food, something he demonstrated by devouring a LIVE squid in a Seoul market, the creature adhering a sole tentacle to his nose in repulsive desperation as he smilingly consumed it.

But that was nothing compared to the children's gameshow - in English - on which local Korean children struggled to understand one single question, bless them, let alone be able to answer one. Weird, just weird.

 

[Nottseagull]

North Korea is an utterly fascinating, if a touch scary, country.

They're a little island of red fanaticism

"The lady has foolishly attempted to join the conversation with a wild and dangerous opinion of her own".

Indeed she has. NK has borders with at least two other countries. It's on a peninsular, not an island.

 

[Lady Whistledown]

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Another from the Mass Games. The Dear Leader loves this one.

Incredible to watch- imagine the choreography that's gone into it all. A little frightening to think of the crushing hold the powers that be evidently have over their people though.

 

[Lady Whistledown]

Indeed she has. NK has borders with two other countries. It's on a peninsular, not an island.

I used the word "island" figuratively, not literally.

In the sense of its isolation, even from China, which is increasingly distancing itself from the North Korean regime.

 

[Easy 10]

Indeed she has. NK has borders with two other countries. It's on a peninsular, not an island.

I'd venture the lady meant 'island' figuratively, not literally.

*edit*
She can fight her own battles.

 

[Lady Whistledown]

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My favourite North Korean

 

[Set of Tracksuits]

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My favourite North Korean

How I love that film.

Has anyone else ever thought that maybe North Korea is a tranquil paradise and that we are all the victims of an international capitalist conspiracy?

 

[Nottseagull]

*edit*
She can fight her own battles.

We'll see.
(Dons body armour)

 

[Tony Meolas Loan Spell]

Pak Do Ik

My fav North Korean.

Wasnt Big Will by any chance Edna that you are referring to who went?

 

[Lady Whistledown]

How I love that film.

Has anyone else ever thought that maybe North Korea is a tranquil paradise and that we are all the victims of an international capitalist conspiracy?

Exactly: we're only doing what the North Koreans are, after all, ie believing what our media and government tell us

I like the way some of these fanatically oppressive regimes seem to describe themselves in official terms as democratic- as in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, or the old Deutsches Demokratische Republik (East Germany) in the cold war days. Trying to convince the world, or their own people?

I don't know much about the Democratic Republic of Congo, but I presume from the name it may not be entirely so.

 

[Lady Whistledown]

Pak Do Ik

My fav North Korean.

Wasnt Big Will by any chance Edna that you are referring to who went?

Yeah it was, how do you know him?

*don't answer that if he nicked you

 

[Man of Harveys]

I don't know much about the Democratic Republic of Congo, but I presume from the name it may not be entirely so.

According to a John Simpson book I read recently, it's about the most dangerous and unstable country in the world. It makes Somalia seem like Switzerland.

Same can go for political parties of course: the maddest feel the need to fit the word Democratic in there somewhere, like the DUP. The existence of an "information minister" is always a good sign of governmental nutterdom too.

 

[Nottseagull]

... "island" figuratively, not literally.

... 'island' figuratively, not literally.

Had you been defended by Collar Feeler, Edna, I would be accusing you of collusion regarding your notebook entries.....

 

[Set of Tracksuits]

Same can go for political parties of course: the maddest feel the need to fit the word Democratic in there somewhere, like the DUP. The existence of an "information minister" is always a good sign of governmental nutterdom too.

Yeah or the Liberal DEMOCRATS.

Those guys are mental.

 

[Hatterlovesbrighton]

Has anyone seen the posters on Hove seafront extolling the virtues of North Korea as a model state. No CCTV no corruption etc..

It gives a website The Official Webpage of The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) which is funny in itself, though I do fancy a propaganda tshirt (have a look at the shop section)

 

[Lady Whistledown]

According to a John Simpson book I read recently, it's about the most dangerous and unstable country in the world. It makes Somalia seem like Switzerland.

Same can go for political parties of course: the maddest feel the need to fit the word Democratic in there somewhere, like the DUP. The existence of an "information minister" is always a good sign of governmental nutterdom too.

I guess it's inevitable from a propaganda point of view isn't it. Realistically if you're a Dear Leader or similarly monikered autocrat, naming your country the Crushingly Dictatorial, Un-Democratic & Oppressively Secretive Communist Republic of Wherever may well be a step on the road to dissent, wouldn't it?

Still, there's only one way to deal with political dissent: tanks at the ready, Great Leader!