North Korean Unicorns Discovered

This seems as good a place as any to link this:

http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=50136263n

It's a story about a dude born in a North Korean prison camp who escaped to South Korea. I've seen stories about him before, but this one is a recent thing done by 60 minutes. I'm mentioning it for a couple reasons:

1) Anderson Cooper is the primary reporter, and I really dig him.

2) The guy's lack of emotion really struck me this time around. He looks more normal in this interview, less shellshocked; and yet there's still not much emotion. It really brought home to me just how damaged* this poor guy probably is, and it makes me realize just how much that regime took from this guy.

3) The former prisoner has a new revelation which he had kept hidden, and hadn't admitted in the previous pieces I'd seen of him: he was the one that ratted out his mother & brother in exchange for a full meal. I'm not sure why that bothers me, but... it does. It sticks with me. And it obviously sticks with him too.

Actually, I take that back. I do know why it bothers me. It highlights just how inhuman the conditions there are. I mean, intellectually I have some idea how terrible things are, but it's the little details like that that really bring it home for me. Maybe other details are what do it for you... or maybe you're a better person than I, and you can fully grok it w/out relying on those little details. But speaking for myself, I need those small touches to help me really understand.


*I don't mean this in an Internet snarky way

From the Borowitz Report, courtesy of the New Yorker:


PYONGYANG —North Korean leader Kim Jong-un surprised Korea-watchers today by abruptly cancelling his nation’s controversial rocket test and launching a fragrance instead.
The dictator’s signature fragrance, called “Number Un,” could be on store shelves in time for Christmas, according to the Korean Central News Agency.
The decision to launch a fragrance rather than a rocket “shows a kind of realism that has been rare in the Kim family,” said North Korea expert Dr. Hiroshi Kyosuke, of the University of Tokyo.
“I think Kim Jong-un most likely said to himself, ‘Given how badly my last rocket did, maybe I’ll just launch a fragrance,’ ” he said.
The official North Korean announcement offered this description of the new fragrance: “Number Un deliriously combines the sweet smells of North Korea’s native unicorns with the irresistible aroma of our Dear Leader himself. This holiday season, every kiss begins with Kim Jong-un.”

Thought you all might enjoy this bit of humer humor.

Is it possible to NOT like kimchi? SO. DELICIOUS.

I actually haven't had kimchi yet. The word used to scare me as a child, though. Mom always threatened me with kimchi.

don't kill me please

Cucumber kimchi is the best though. One of those things I really truly miss all the time here.

I'm putting that on my list of foods to try then.

Shredded radish Kim chee is actually the best.

Don't know where to put this, so I'll put it here. A friend sent me this link that claims PSY, of the infamous Gangnam Style rapped some rather off-color lyrics about the US military (like torturing soldiers) at a live concert in the early aughts. It seems like bullshit to me, but I followed the links to a Korean newspaper article, so maybe there is a kernel of truth? I mean the story I linked is obviously baiting people to get mad at the world or America or rap music or something, but it also brings up the interesting and sometimes strained relationship between the American military in Korea and the people of South Korea, since the lyrics were brought on by an incident in which a US tank ran over two Korean schoolgirls.

lol

Seems like it would be quite hard not to fly in to collective fury with an incident like that.

I have to say that rapping anti-American army lyrics in the wake of the invasion of Iraq is not really worthy of outrage.

Dixie Chicks, anyone?

Two Wongs don't make a right Drudge

My first inclination was to agree with you about your third point, but after watching the interview just now I'm surprised to find myself cutting him some slack. This guy didn't have the slightest idea what a true family is, didn't understand the concept of love, he grew up shielded from reality even more than rest of the North Koreans are. I did raise an eyebrow when they described his escape and his ability to make it north to China, avoid being detained by Chinese authorities and returned to NK, and to have the presence of mind to turn himself into a South Korean consulate. If he was that insulated from the real world in prison, he certainly learned quickly when he got on the other side of the electric fence.

I'm going to point out that there's a real difference between saying soldiers should be killed in an editorial and rapping it. Hyperbole is a part of the form; "fuck the police," etc., etc.

Psy is a rapper; the path from "legitimate grievance over unacceptable behavior on the part of US soldiers" to "US soldiers and their families should be tortured and killed" is the type of hyperbole which is common in domestic rap, so the furor over this is profoundly silly. Or, in the form of a (shitty) rap:

Shit-for-brains
Why aren't you in chains?
Suckin' every dick down the factory lanes

I do not really intend for Matt Drudge to be a slave worker at an industrial fellatio plant - but the hyperbole comes with the territory.

Pffft, that's ridiculous, everyone knows that the industrial fellatio jobs were all sent overseas.

DAMN OBAMA

We should shoot it down.

Eh, I thought this unicorn thread was in the Sanctum. I don't have an opinion about NK satellites, and I don't care about their ICBM capabilities. I just don't live with a fear of NK, but I dislike them for the things I've read. Smacking them on the nose just sounded appealing to me.

But since this isn't Sanctum we don't need to delve into my rationalizations for any of that.

I'm sorry.. I must not have been clear. I wasn't bothered by him; I don't really blame him, for the reasons you listed. I was bothered by... the situation, I guess. Perhaps "disturbed" is a better word. The reason that he ratted out his family, and his discussion of his mindset was incredibly disquieting.

Not really. Is this sort of tea leaf reading new to or irregular for NYT?

I'm no rocket scientist, but it seems like boosting something up into orbit is the easy part of making a ballistic missile. I'd imagine getting it to come down on target is a wee bit tougher.

Orbit is hard. Someone send them the updated copy of Kerbal.

edit: and shooting it down would be silly. If you wanted to bop them on the nose you'd go up, take the thing, bring it back down, then FedEx it back to them.

Well, we did launch our not-so-super secret unmanned DARPA space plane again yesterday.

There's already too much debris in LEO as it is. Tracking it is a major part of successful launches. The last goddamn thing you want is a screw or piece of debris impacting your craft at orbital velocity. For those unfamiliar with the speeds involved, let's just say it would be very, very bad. F=MA, folks. Particularly if it impacts something going at escape velocity.

Tumbling out of control or biding its time?

This made me laugh.
Bring it back and tell them to keep their toys in their own yard.
When they grow up they can play with the big kids!

North Korea has unlocked an achievement: Welcome to the Twentieth Century!

I bet they'll have jetpacks by the year 2000!

http://www.n2yo.com/?s=39026

coming down fast

It's currently climbing. Satellites don't orbit along a perfectly spherical track.

North Korean Videogames Discovered!

http://www.theatlanticwire.com/global/2012/12/lets-play-north-koreas-first-video-game/60199/