Giant Robot Store and GR2 News
It’s not that North Korea has a new cruise ship. Big deal right? A cruise to witness famine? Perhaps it’s a possible suicide trip or a secret military mission all in one. But the photo by Reuters shows something different and revealing. North Korea is doing the Asian Squat. We are used to seeing the photos of marching soldiers, perhaps those cardboard color image crowd “paintings”. Famine shots make it out as well, but the squat with perfect form? We do see variations of heel up and heel down, armpits close to knee, and some aren’t, but this is the latest revelation. The cruise ship? What cruise ship? (Reuters – N. Korea Cruise Ship)
Continue reading
The outside perception of North Korea is understandably pretty grim. Backward, agrarian, repressive, war-like, hard-line communist, these are all terms which can legitimately be used to describe North Korea, at least if the political refugees who have escaped and the foreign journalists allowed to enter the country are to be believed. Yet there is, apparently, another side to North Korea, a technological side, which does have some interaction with the outside world through the internet. And it is a technological side which has actually done business with countries in the Middle East and other nations in Asia. North Korean technology companies have even, reportedly, developed video games for Japanese gaming giants Nintendo and Sony. At the link, you’ll be able to read a piece which gives further details on the state of computer, gaming and online technology in North Korea. Because while it is easy to disdain and vilify Kim Jong Il and the dictatorial nightmare he has perpetuated for his countrymen, it is also easy to feel pain and sorrow for the innocent, everyday people who are trying to make a living and provide for their families under harsh government oppression. But as this story suggests, there may be qualified hope for some freedom for North Koreans through the development, implementation and use of online computer technologies. (Asian Correspondent – North Korean Tech Evolution)
Continue reading
First it’s failed soccer drug tests, then it’s graffiti, but the ongoing lack of food is causing shrinkage… in size. “Today, schoolchildren in South Korea are 15 pounds heavier and tower almost a half a foot over their North Korean counterparts.” The teen army kids can actually be smaller than before to get in. 4’6″ is the minimum height, and really, what are they there for? There’s much more to this article, but perhaps the shrinking in height army might be intentional to make The Dear Leader look Shaq like. (Human Events – N Korea)
Continue reading
We can’t imagine the hassles to which photographer Eric Lafforgue must have been subjected when he traveled to North Korea to shoot photographs. And yet he did so four times between 2008 and 2010. The result is a virtual tour of over 1,100 images which Fotopedia has collected and synthesized into a free application now available for your iPhone or iPad. We’ve seen some of the images in this app, and they’re stunning. They show moments of color and happiness which one might not expect from within a country known to be so secretive, repressive and dangerous. (The Next Web – North Korea iPhone App) We originally read about this story on North Korea Tech, which is a very interesting website if you have any interest at all in knowing more about the so-called “Hermit Kingdom”. And the app itself is available for free on iTunes.
Continue reading
The news we get out of North Korea seems to pretty much fall into two categories: One, cartoonish tales of the glorious achievements of the government, the people and their beloved leader Kim Jong Il; and, Two, disturbing reports about starvation, torture, defection and the world’s ultimate cult of personality. It is easy to guess which types of stories are the truth, but it is very hard for those of us in the West to actually know what is the truth. But perhaps that is about to change. After reaching an agreement with the state-run Korean Central News Agency, the Associated Press has been given permission to open a bureau in the former North Korean capital city of Pyongyang. This will make it the first Western print and photojournalism organization allowed to do so (AP Television News, which established a Pyongyang office in 2006, was the first Western news service of any kind in North Korea.) So perhaps we can look forward to a steady stream of reliable day-to-day news reports from inside North Korea. We have to wonder, though, what kind of hardships and scrutiny Western journalists will face living and working under the watchful eye of such a repressive government. (The Atlantic Wire – AP into Pyongyang)
Continue reading