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"1989 Festival of Workers and Youth proves NK's awesomeness"
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09 Mar 2014, 23:31
This has been a common argument here. I've just learned how to see this in context:
North Korea was so awesome, it forced 150.000 people underground!
Also, read the rest of the article, it's awesome.
Quote:In the short space of two years, 50,000 buildings had been hurriedly built in Pyongyang in time for the World Youth Celebrations of 1989. The tragic consequences of this superhuman effort was that construction absolutely ceased in every province of North Korea after these two years.
The small remaining amounts of cement, steel and timber were gathered and reserved solely for the regime’s first priority: military infastructure such as power plants and strategic installations. Even when the regime’s own elite demanded the construction of personal apartments, the only way forward was to agree on an otherwise unthinkable 70/30 split in ownership with the private sector. The regime’s elite provided land and manpower, while the private sector brought in construction materials from China.
The new and expensive buildings were shared out or sold among Party officials and the mercantile elite; no other Pyongyang resident could dream of moving into these newly constructed apartments. When the Party elite sensed the situation might escalate into violence, the Pyongyang City Council allowed underground dwellings, although it technically broke wartime regulations.
The number of underground dwellings grew explosively – especially during the freezing temperatures of North Korean wintertime – and competition for underground space became fierce. The Pyongyang City Council decided in the end to officially issue licenses for underground living. According to the Wartime Evacuation Planning Committee study of 2002, the number of households with an underground dwelling license was 150,000.
http://newfocusintl.com/north-koreas-of ... -parts-12/
North Korea was so awesome, it forced 150.000 people underground!
Also, read the rest of the article, it's awesome.
Last edited by Mabool on 10 Mar 2014, 00:50, edited 1 time in total.
09 Mar 2014, 23:56
This is obviously stupid because this problem would have been solved with the 1990's famine. Don't you think so?
10 Mar 2014, 00:08
The famine was a relatively short part of the timespan since 1989, so no. Famines also don't change shit about the fact that the DPRK should be trying to achieve some sort of growth, which implies moving people from tiny huts in shithole villages into modern apartment buildings.
10 Mar 2014, 00:33
Mabool wrote:The famine was a relatively short part of the timespan since 1989, so no. Famines also don't change shit about the fact that the DPRK should be trying to achieve some sort of growth, which implies moving people from tiny huts in shithole villages into modern apartment buildings.
Comrade, you can't convert those who do not wish to hear.
The big thing people don't understand is that NK is about maintenace of the current status quo. Hence the strongmaning, the cult of personality, the general nuttiness and reliance on keeping the countryside in the literal dark while also being the world's largest importer of Hennessy cognac. It's about keeping the bureaucratic elite in their position and not changing, and if that means the nation stagnates as Kim Jong-un gets smart phones, then so be it.
10 Mar 2014, 00:51
Sorry, the original link I included in the OP was wrong, it led to an incomplete version of the article. I've corrected this.
10 Mar 2014, 01:25
Another great piece of info from the last "socialist" state on Earth
http://newfocusintl.com/the-double-live ... h-koreans/
http://newfocusintl.com/the-double-live ... h-koreans/
10 Mar 2014, 16:06
somewhat wrote:while also being the world's largest importer of Hennessy cognac. .
Do you have a source on this? I'm pretty interested.
10 Mar 2014, 17:24
Kirov wrote:
Do you have a source on this? I'm pretty interested.
http://www.cnn.com/2003/US/01/08/wbr.kim.jong.il/
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... randy.html
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/co ... 00388.html
Also: apparently Madeleine Albright from he 90's visits.
10 Mar 2014, 17:49
Quote:The famine was a relatively short part of the timespan since 1989, so no. Famines also don't change shit about the fact that the DPRK should be trying to achieve some sort of growth, which implies moving people from tiny huts in shithole villages into modern apartment buildings.
So no what? When there is a famine people die, and you have more available housing at your disposal. 4 years of famine it is said, from 1994 to 1998, and you call that "short part"?
Moreover the arguments are once again stupid, but this website is dedicated to anti-Pyongyang propaganda. If you can buid 50 000 buildings in two years, how can you stop building the next year?
10 Mar 2014, 18:08
somewhat wrote:http://www.cnn.com/2003/US/01/08/wbr.kim.jong.il/
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... randy.html
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/co ... 00388.html
Also: apparently Madeleine Albright from he 90's visits.
Where in any of these articles does it say that the DPRK is "the world's largest importer of Hennessy cognac"?
10 Mar 2014, 18:35
Kirov wrote:
Where in any of these articles does it say that the DPRK is "the world's largest importer of Hennessy cognac"?
Poor memory. It was actually Kim Jong-Il who was the largest consumer of Hennessy Paradis cognac
http://blog.foreignpolicy.com/posts/201 ... t_customer
http://listverse.com/2010/05/30/top-10- ... m-jong-il/
Still, 700k USD in imports of Hennessy when that could have been spent on, I don't know, cement. Seriously, the country doesn't even have a planned economy any more. It has nothing. It's a giant grey market.
10 Mar 2014, 18:48
"listverse.com"
The FP blog links to an article that says "For two years in the mid-1990s, he was the world's largest buyer of Hennessy Paradis cognac, the company said at the time" but that's it. Either way $700k is really not a lot of money when you're running a country, even if it's the DPRK, because if you're the DPRK, with all the sanctions, what can you even buy? Nobody is going to sign a contract for $700,000 worth of rice because the logistics of the deal would probably cost as much as that, same with everything else. At least with cognac, you can put it in a plane or train and it won't take up that much space.
The FP blog links to an article that says "For two years in the mid-1990s, he was the world's largest buyer of Hennessy Paradis cognac, the company said at the time" but that's it. Either way $700k is really not a lot of money when you're running a country, even if it's the DPRK, because if you're the DPRK, with all the sanctions, what can you even buy? Nobody is going to sign a contract for $700,000 worth of rice because the logistics of the deal would probably cost as much as that, same with everything else. At least with cognac, you can put it in a plane or train and it won't take up that much space.
10 Mar 2014, 18:56
I don't see why buying Cognac is bad. Kim built an amusement park in Pyongyang, they could have bought ciment instead. Do you want them to live like monks?
10 Mar 2014, 19:19
OP-Bagration wrote:I don't see why buying Cognac is bad. Kim built an amusement park in Pyongyang, they could have bought ciment instead. Do you want them to live like monks?
Well, yes, 700k on luxury goods imports in the middle of a fragging famine is stupid. It's not about living like monks or not. It's about spending less on something less luxurious. Buy some damn brandy for 70k, not cognac for 700 if you absolutely must booze up.
But wait, this is the DPRK praise brigade who will support without question the hermit kingdom and all its batshit policies because it has a red star on its flag.
10 Mar 2014, 20:54
DPRK Praise Brigade? Fantastic. DPRK-PB looks nice too.
I guess we should just join you in using the Daily Mail as a source on Korea.
I guess we should just join you in using the Daily Mail as a source on Korea.
10 Mar 2014, 21:12
Dagoth Ur wrote:DPRK Praise Brigade? Fantastic. DPRK-PB looks nice too.
I guess we should just join you in using the Daily Mail as a source on Korea.
That should be how the Daily Mail sells itself.
The Daily Mail: Still more Credible than Rodong Sinmun, and less likely to put you in a gulag
10 Mar 2014, 21:20
That you used credible and Daily Mail in the same sentence says nothing good. Also I can guarantee that Rodong Sinmun knows more about the DPRK than anyone in the west.
But no post some more silly imperialist propaganda points.
But no post some more silly imperialist propaganda points.
10 Mar 2014, 21:31
Dagoth Ur wrote:That you used credible and Daily Mail in the same sentence says nothing good. Also I can guarantee that Rodong Sinmun knows more about the DPRK than anyone in the west.
But no post some more silly imperialist propaganda points.
Somebody should make a Stalinist bingo. It would be won every day on this forum. Parotting "imperialist lies" ad nauseam is not an argument. The source of the Daily Mail was the Hennessy Cognac Company.
How can Rodong Sinmun know more? It fragging expunges people who have fallen out of favour from the historical record. Hell, just go to the KCNA website and try to find mention of the guy who just got purged. How can you praise this garbage? Yes, in fact, the Daily Mail actually is more credible than this nonsense which should tell you something.
Holy crap listen to yourselves people! I got a bleeding DPRK "history" book. Not a single source cited. "The Great Leader Comrade Kim Il-Sung" yes, that exact phrase, occurred no fewer times than an average of 8 times a page. Per page. And these were small pages. Book's called "Thirty Years Under the Red Star" Pyongyang 1986 if you want to find it. You can't make this shit up. That regime is the worst totalitarian 1984 bullshit and I cant' believe I honestly here people praising it like it's the best thing since sliced bread
10 Mar 2014, 21:44
Sounds like cultural insensitivity to me on your end. It's funny how anti-DPRK "Marxists" either go with being willfully chauvinistic re: Korea, or claim defense of Korea is support of Juche, or even better being an organ of imperialist propaganda among leftists.
I guess it's not imperialism when you don't like a certain country.
I guess it's not imperialism when you don't like a certain country.