The article in question explicitly states Lizard_King seems to believe this to be "based more than likely on a Google translate of the rote reporting of 'notable NK propaganda of the day'" So unless i'm misunderstanding his statement, his claim appears to be this information along with the rest of it was supposedly originally written by official NK propaganda, then translated through Google and eventually posted on the page in question. If that's not what he meant and there's another interpretation of his writing then i hope he can explain it himself. edit: on second thought, i suppose he could alternatively mean that part of information which agrees with his opinion is a statement made by the author of the blog, while the other half that goes against his opinion is "product of the propaganda" etc. That is an interpretation i can't discard, though it's probably worth to keep in mind that the site claims the info comes also from the NK defectors, and so there's possibility some verification could take place.
I'm saying that's a blog post, not a "report". It assembles some data points from the Dong-A article it cites, basically gawkerizing/gizmodding/whatever the original article about some knockoff North Korean tablet that may or may not exist in any significant form to make a Koreaphile's joke about Microsoft and Apple. The DA article in question seems to be primarily sourced on NK press releases, the republishing of which is not in their use propaganda but rather "oh look what they are saying today", and regardless you only have access to a reblogging of it for less than serious purposes. So there are a number of fundamental barriers between you and the claims you make, both in terms of translation of language and interpretation of sources. Going back to the blog, in his own words his repackaging of Korean news is not meant as a main source for people that don't know anything about the Koreas, but rather for people that already have context for the main threads of the discussion. In contrast, you've taken points from the various soft sources uncritically, removed their relevant context (sometimes from the immediately preceding paragraph as with your Reuters link), and then restated them as part of the increasingly incoherent point of view you have adopted. Your interpretations of the value and relevance of your secondary sources aren't useful, and now you're doing the same dumb shit to what I'm saying. There are well-sourced projections and models for NK economics based on the problematic but within the margin of reliability for the subject composite information that is available, which is broadly what Lum is referencing, from actual books on the topic and reports rather "reports". It is unlikely that much of it is going to do any favors for your original out-of-your-ass claim and whatever it is you're going on about now, or the wholly imaginary connection between them.
Looked at Sophie Schmidt's blog post in its entirety, and it seems a well-bounded series of observations from someone who claims no expertise on NK and is trying to share the experience and, in some cases, connect it to what the internet-literate would be familiar with. For instance, her statement about "affording" in context was about the surrealism of having production lines absent a market, not pie in the sky stuff that fundamentally misunderstands that there's no direct parallel between even a modestly liberal economy that works around some variation of supply and demand and what NK does in its tragic mimicry of the forms of progress. I guess you can take issue with snark here and snark there if you want to turn it into an outrage deflection olympics event, but that's your call.
It's depressing to think that many North Koreans spend huge amounts of their income (and risk the wrath of the security police) just so they can be able to watch Gangnam Style.
Actually, if you watch carefully how South Korea is depicted in Gangnam Style it's pretty encouraging.
i remember reading a post someone made on qt3 a few years ago saying south korean soldiers look like the government stormtroopers in a sci-fi japanese anime while north korean soldiers look like they need a sandwich.
Well, malnutrition is rather literally shrinking the North Korean military. Important to note that the South Korean military does deliberately select their tallest broadest soldiers to be stationed at the DMZ. To the point that the soldiers joke with each other during training that if one of them is too tall with too broad shoulders they will definitely get sent to Panmunjeom.
That's the pic I remember, with the three soldiers. Someone had posted how their entire race is shrinking.
Speaking of South Korean stormtroopers, artist's rendition of South Korea's Future Soldier program: I think they may have played a bit too much Crysis.
He's wearing a motorcycle helmet which reminds me of all those lowish budget movies where the stock baddies are just dudes in black jumpsuits and motorcycle helmets. It strikes me as offensively tacky. Offensively tacky!
There's also this rather striking illustrative follow-up: http://www.quartertothree.com/game-talk/showpost.php?p=2146599&postcount=49
And of course, the "businesses" are already getting reviewed. Kumsusan Memorial Palace Pyongyang Zoo (Unicorns!) Hoeryong Gulag Bukchang Gulag Hours of fun to be had.
Those reviews are awesome! Think Dear leader reads them for a laugh? He's been in the real world and knows how things really are. Spot the future despot:
A translation posted on Reddit: Also worth noting that the footage of flames and destruction in New York was taken directly from Modern Warfare 3.
This is just too awesomely funny. http://now.msn.com/north-korea-rele...eaturing-nuclear-destruction-of-new-york-city We need to start dropping pictures of the real world into NK
I'm unclear as to whether the damage is supposed to be caused by an ICBM strike or by the superawesome North Korean space fighter. Anyone got a translation for the text in the video? Anyways, I'm not worried. We'll just deploy the SDF-1.
Great. Now I've got We Are The World stuck in my head. North Korea's sparkly spaceplane program intends to weaponize 80's earworms.
Courtesy of SuperJay via Reddit. Last night, a truly beautiful dream unfolded before my eyes.I was on the Unha-9 rocket, soaring to the universe!In happiness and joy, spaceship Gwangmyeongseong-21, after being separated, flies through the space.Gorgeous hues and stark contrast as seen through the window.I kept pressing the shutter button towards the perfect, green Earth - shining in the dark,and through the lens I could see the unification flag flapping on the united homeland.And as the waves of passion made my camera-holding hand weep,I was able to see a dark smoke rising somewhere in America.It looked like the land of authority, tyranny, and warmongering den of evil was burning in the fire they started.Then it seemed to me as if that the free, peaceful world and entrancing, awe-inspiring universe was blessing our spaceship, Gwangmyeongseong-21.Imagine, people - the spaceship of Joseon, flying through all that is in the universe, tinged by the bright sunshine.My dream will come true.Even the isolation, schemes, and the oppression of the imperialists shall never stop the unification and prosperity of our nation and our people marching to the final victory.
