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Kondoru Unfeathered Biped Joined: 05 Dec 2003 Total posts: 5788 Gender: Unknown |
 Posted: 12-04-2013 08:43 Post subject: |
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| Is his employed by their tourist industry? |
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gncxx King-Size Canary
Great Old One Joined: 25 Aug 2001 Total posts: 13555 Location: Eh? Gender: Male |
| Posted: 12-04-2013 17:48 Post subject: |
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| No, but going on holiday to NK is a very Andy Kershaw thing to do. Of course he brought back music. |
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| ramonmercado Psycho Punk
Joined: 19 Aug 2003 Total posts: 17931 Location: Dublin Gender: Male |
| Posted: 13-04-2013 22:23 Post subject: |
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Oops Apocalypse!
| Quote: | All nerves: Japan issues false N. Korea missile alarm instead of quake alert
Get short URL Published time: April 13, 2013 09:39
Edited time: April 13, 2013 20:19
http://rt.com/news/japan-nkorea-false-alarm-808/
A Japanese official mistakenly issued a pre-prepared alert announcing the launch of a North Korean ballistic missile instead of sending a message concerning a recent earthquake in western Japan.
A reported 87 airport offices in Japan received emails on Saturday saying that North Korea had launched a ballistic missile. The messages were sent by mistake, the country’s transportation ministry later explained.
An official at the Osaka aviation bureau was going to send out a letter asking if any of the region's airports had been damaged by the 6.3-magnitude earthquake that earlier hit the western part of the country, injuring dozens.
Instead, the official mistakenly dispatched a pre-prepared alert about a North Korean missile launch.
At least one domestic flight was delayed due to the false alarm, though the mistaken email was retracted six minutes after it was sent, AFP reported.
This wasn't the first time Japan has raised a false alarm about a North Korean missile launch: On Wednesday, the Japanese city of Yokohama sent a message to its Twitter account's 40,000 followers saying that North Korea had launched a missile.
The tweet had a blank space where the exact time of the launch should have been pasted in, indicating that the message was posted prematurely. The message was visible for 20 minutes before the city retracted it.
Japan has lately been on high alert, with Patriot missiles stationed in Tokyo to protect its people from an expected mid-range missile test launch by North Korea.
On Friday, Pyongyang warned that Tokyo would be its primary target if war broke out on the Korean Peninsula, blaming Japan for its “hostile posture.” It also threatened a nuclear strike against the island nation if it intercepts any North Korean test missiles. |
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| rynner2 What a Cad!
Great Old One Joined: 13 Dec 2008 Total posts: 21362 Location: Under the moon Gender: Male |
| Posted: 20-04-2013 07:46 Post subject: |
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North Korea accepts ShelfterBox disaster relief equipment
Vital disaster relief equipment has been distributed to people in North Korea by the Cornwall-based charity ShelterBox.
A typhoon and flooding last summer is thought to have killed about 100 people and left more than 20,000 homeless.
North Korea's government, which had rebuffed many offers of international help, permitted access to Shelterbox through the Foreign Trade Ministry.
Two hundred boxes have been distributed and a further 1,000 are being prepared.
The charity said additional boxes, which include a 10-person tent, sleeping bags and cooking equipment, should be sent to the country within the next few days.
If it is considered safe, the charity hopes to send response workers to the count[r]y early next month.
Tensions between the Democratic People's Republic of Korea and the rest of world have been rising since it announced in January that it planned to conduct a "high-level nuclear test" and rehearse long-range rocket launches aimed at the US "arch-enemy".
Following the nuclear test in February, the UN Security Council imposed sanctions on cash transfers and travel for the country's diplomats.
After threatening a pre-emptive nuclear attack on the US and war on neighbouring South Korea, North Korea said it intended to restart facilities at its Yongbyon nuclear complex.
It also issued a warning to foreigners to leave both North and South Korea to avoid the threat of war.
Alf Evans, the charity's operations director, said to ensure the additional equipment is distributed it has to "tread carefully" with state officials.
"Things you think are normal are not normal and things they think are normal to you are very unnatural," he told told BBC News.
"You have to make sure your actions don't jeopardise the fact that we want to get the aid to the people.
"Anything else you have to do - as long as it doesn't compromise ethics - is what you have to do.
"Bowing, biding your time and being polite when you should be out with the aid is what you have to do because if you don't it will cause offence and it won't happen."
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cornwall-22214408 |
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| ramonmercado Psycho Punk
Joined: 19 Aug 2003 Total posts: 17931 Location: Dublin Gender: Male |
| Posted: 08-05-2013 01:51 Post subject: |
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Full text at link.
| Quote: | White Power and apocalyptic cults: Pro-DPRK Americans revealed
American homegrown terrorist groups are the chosen favorites of Pyongyang
BY NATE THAYER , MAY 6, 2013
WASHINGTON D.C. – In September 2003, John Paul Cupp, the 22 year old son of a fundamentalist Christian preacher from Indiana received a message from the government of North Korea.
“Upon the authorization of the Central Committee” it read, Pyongyang “extends militant greetings to you who extend warm support and solidarity to the Songun policy of our respected Marshal Kim Jong Il, treasure sword of our nation.”
The “formation of the Songun Politics Study Group USA has been reported to our Central Committee and, through it, to the Workers Party of Korea….Now your organization has been introduced to the entire Korean nation in the south and the north We are very pleased to have a revolutionary organization and comrades like you in the land of the United States, the bulwark of imperialism and determined to further the relationship with you in depth,”
Rodong Sinmun, the official voice of the ruling Korean Worker’s Party (KWP), reported the news on September 11, the two year anniversary of the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center in New York.
The message from Pyongyang promised to send further information “by DHL” to the address of “Comrade John Paul Cupp.” What North Korea didn’t mention was at the time was John Paul Cupp had no address because he was homeless and living in a tent under a highway in Portland, Oregon.
“My father is a loser. He lives in Lynn Haven, Florida,” wrote Cupp on an online family genealogy thread in October 1999. “I moved to Portland to join the communist party and get my poetry published. I am 19 years old.”
By the time Cupp vowed his loyalty to Pyongyang and was made Chairman of the newly created Songun Politics Study Group USA, his evolving political ideology embraced white supremacy, pro Islamic Jihadists, virulent anti-Semitism, and launching domestic terrorism to achieve the armed overthrow of the U.S. government.
John Paul Cupp (c) in trench coat when he was homeless living in Portland Oregon in the early 2000’s when he became the chief U.S representative of the Pyongyang sanctioned group of U.S. supporters of North Korea. North Korean media heralded Cupp as a “prominent U.S. public figure.”
In recent years, the North Korean government has joined in alliance and found common cause with American citizens from the violent armed fringes of both the political far right and left who are members of registered U.S. domestic terrorist organizations, have been convicted for violent racial attacks, claimed to have sent Anthrax chemical warfare agents to the President of the United States, been sentenced to mental institutions for threatening to assassinate sitting U.S. presidents, and been imprisoned for plotting terrorist attacks on U.S soil.
“Comrade Kim Il Sung and Dear Leader Comrade Kim Jong Il are the two greatest human beings in the entire history of the world”
Several have made official visits to North Korea as the invited guests of the Pyongyang government.
The American political activists of the pro North Korean political organizations created by Pyongyang in the U.S. include leaders of armed white power groups accused of trying to spark violent race wars, ; Americans fighting for the creation of a U.S. state populated exclusively by white people; supporters of the extermination of the Jewish race; who applaud the 9/11 and Oklahoma City terrorist attacks; and others who hold as their ideological mentors the religious suicide cult leader Jim Jones, Pol Pot, Osama Bin Laden, and the assassins of three U.S. presidents and civil rights leader Martin Luther King.
John Paul Cupp with SKS rifle in 2009 with confederate flag in the background. Photo taken in 2009 while he was advocating white supremacy and head of the official U.S. Songun Politics Study Group
But according to North Korean official propaganda, these American citizens and the Pyongyang government they view as their ideological mentors agree on one thing: The Kim family dynastic leadership are the greatest political thinkers of our times.
“My personal opinion,” John Paul Cupp said in a 2007 interview, “is that great leader Comrade Kim Il Sung and Dear Leader Comrade Kim Jong Il are the two greatest human beings in the entire history of the world. For us, it would be impossible to even wake up in the morning should we lose the ability to cherish them.”
Within months of creating the pro-Pyongyang group, Cupp was regularly featured in North Korean propaganda as a ”prominent U.S. public figure,” who was the leader of a broad U.S. movement with deep loyalty to the Kim family’s global political vision.
http://www.nknews.org/2013/05/06/white-power-and-apocalyptic-cults-pro-dprk-americans-revealed/ |
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| Mythopoeika Boring petty conservative
Joined: 18 Sep 2001 Total posts: 9109 Location: Not far from Bedford Gender: Unknown |
| Posted: 08-05-2013 21:03 Post subject: |
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| Cupp? More of a mug, I think. |
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| rynner2 What a Cad!
Great Old One Joined: 13 Dec 2008 Total posts: 21362 Location: Under the moon Gender: Male |
| Posted: 11-05-2013 08:29 Post subject: |
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It's football, Jim, but not as we know it...
North Korea's silent football matches
By Tim Hartley, BBC News, Pyongyang
Foreign visitors to North Korea are allowed to attend sports matches alongside their minders. But football in this secretive republic has little in common with the passion and glamour of the Europe's major leagues.
The game was a sell-out, though you would never have guessed it.
As we entered the 50,000-seater Kim Il-Sung Stadium below the watchful eye of the Eternal President and Great Leader, not forgetting his son, the Supreme Leader Kim Jong-Il, there was no-one to be seen.
There were no queues, no turnstiles and certainly no hotdog stands or programme sellers.
But once inside it was a different matter. Every seat was taken and row upon row of men sat silently, wearing identical dark suits and red ties, everyone sporting a tiny enamel badge on their left breast.
No, not of Pyongyang FC, but of the Great Leader himself.
The artificial pitch looked immaculate under the spring morning sun. Kick off was at half past nine.
Maybe it was the early start but there were no chants and no flags or scarves in sight, just a quiet murmur around the darkened rows of seats.
Many of the fans were soldiers in green uniforms and broad-brimmed hats.
I do not know if they were under orders to attend but some were quietly reading paperbacks and showed no interest in the game.
The opposition, the crack army outfit Amrokgang, looked stronger in the first half but it was a scrappy match.
Pyongyang fought back and won a penalty though you would be hard pressed to know that from the reaction of the crowd. There was none.
My travelling buddies decided to inject some old-style terrace atmosphere of our own and we chanted: "One nil to the referee, one nil to the referee."
The dozen or so Westerners who had joined us in the VIP box - at 30 euros a seat, hard currency only please - laughed at us.
One or two even joined in as we grew bolder: "Pyongyang ooh, ooh! Pyongyang ooh, ooh!" 
But the locals just stared at us. In a land where it appears you must ask permission to speak, this show of individuality, of spontaneity, was not seen as rude, or aggressive. They just stared blankly at us.
I think they thought we were, well... a little odd.
Our tour party was closely monitored at the game. Two guides led from the front while a mysterious "Mr L" who hardly spoke, brought up the rear.
It was never clear if he was just minding us or was making sure our guides stuck to the strict party line that all was rosy in this socialist utopia.
The national side uses the official name of the country, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.
Their greatest footballing moment came in the 1966 World Cup when they beat Italy by two goals to nil to reach the quarter finals. They also qualified for the 2010 finals.
At the last World Cup, in South Africa, North Korea's coach, Kim Jong-Hun, told the media that he received "regular tactical advice during matches" from Kim Jong-Il "using mobile phones that are not visible to the naked eye" and purportedly developed by the Supreme Leader himself. 
But the team is struggling at the moment and has not qualified for next year's World Cup in Brazil. Its last game was a goalless draw in a friendly against fellow communists Cuba.
Back on the pitch at the Kim Il-Sung stadium, Amrokgang had got one back.
Another penalty, though why the referee had to confer with the linesman is anyone's guess - the Pyongyang striker was taken down five yards inside the box.
The goal caused little reaction. The crowd stayed quiet. Neither manager ventured out of the dugout, there was no high-fiving, no pats on the back from the players.
Now I like to watch controlled football, but not quite like this.
Surprise, surprise! There was some half-time entertainment.
A brass band piped up behind the goal. But immediately another band behind the opposite goal struck up. They were playing different tunes, though no-one seemed to care.
The match went into stoppage time. Pyongyang were pressing hard.
The crowd, at last, seemed to rouse themselves, if only a little, at the prospect of another goal.
And finally, Pyongyang scored with a low shot following some good passing.
It was the very last kick of the most bizarre game I had ever watched and it came in the 94th minute.
Maybe the referee was under orders to ensure a home win in the Great Leader's stadium.
I would like to think the crowd went home happy.
But with no emotion one way or the other on the faces of the soldiers and party faithful as they marched silently out, I just couldn't tell.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-22470430 |
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| Kondoru Unfeathered Biped Joined: 05 Dec 2003 Total posts: 5788 Gender: Unknown |
| Posted: 11-05-2013 09:18 Post subject: |
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Now having worked in the foottie industry.....
...This sounds a pretty utopian game.
Or is it just the usual Beeb `strange ways of foreign folk` propaganda? (They seem to love this sort of thing.) |
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| theyithian Keeping the British end up
Joined: 29 Oct 2002 Total posts: 11704 Location: Vermilion Sands Gender: Unknown |
| Posted: 11-05-2013 13:48 Post subject: |
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| rynner2 wrote: |
My travelling buddies decided to inject some old-style terrace atmosphere of our own and we chanted: "One nil to the referee, one nil to the referee."
[...]
But the locals just stared at us. In a land where it appears you must ask permission to speak, this show of individuality, of spontaneity, was not seen as rude, or aggressive. They just stared blankly at us.
I think they thought we were, well... a little odd. |
How is twelve people chanting a hackneyed slogan in unison either individual or spontaneous? |
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| Kondoru Unfeathered Biped Joined: 05 Dec 2003 Total posts: 5788 Gender: Unknown |
| Posted: 11-05-2013 18:28 Post subject: |
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| Yes, you do that in my ground, we kick you out. |
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| SameOldVardoger Great Old One Gender: Male |
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| sherbetbizarre Great Old One Joined: 04 Sep 2004 Total posts: 1418 Gender: Male |
| Posted: 02-06-2013 00:01 Post subject: |
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| SameOldVardoger wrote: | | Children shooting with bow and arrow at a "US soldier" |
...and the organiser too. |
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| Zilch5 Vogon Poet
Great Old One Joined: 08 Nov 2007 Total posts: 1527 Location: Western Sydney, Australia Gender: Male |
| Posted: 02-09-2013 07:16 Post subject: |
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| Quote: | North Korea drugs shock – vast numbers addicted to crystal meth
Most of the 24 million population struggle to feed themselves, yet more than 70 percent are thought to have taken lethally addictive methamphetamine, known as crystal meth.
In some areas up top to 50 percent of people are allegedly addicted.
The country has little or no contact with the outside world under the totalitarian and Stalinist regime of Kim Jong-un, known to one and all as "dear leader" who is viewed within as a god-like head of the nation... and from without as simply bonkers.
So the news that they are making and smoking crystal meth – a drug which is also the subject of the cult US telly fiction series Breaking Bad – will shock observers who have traditionally associated the country with famine, cruelty, endless monster military parades and sudden sporadic threats to start nuclear war with the rest of the world.
News of the "upsurge" in recreational meth use and addiction has been published the North Korea Review, an academic study of the country.
“Almost every adult in one area has experienced using ice and not just once,” a study co-author told the Wall Street Journal.
“I estimate that at least 40% to 50% are seriously addicted to the drug.”
The study is based on interviews with North Korean defectors who claim meth or "ice" can even be bought in restaurants as easily as a cup of coffee. |
http://www.dailystar.co.uk/news/latest-news/334887/North-Korea-drugs-shock-vast-numbers-addicted-to-crystal-meth |
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| Pietro_Mercurios Heuristically Challenged
Gender: Unknown |
| Posted: 02-09-2013 09:29 Post subject: |
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Considering how the Great Dictator even treats his ex-girlfriends, no wonder everybody is on drugs.
| Quote: | http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/the-singer-the-xrated-movies-and-the-dictator-kim-jonguns-former-lover-executed-by-machinegun-for-appearing-in-porn-films-8789322.html?origin=internalSearch
The singer, the X-rated movies and the dictator: Kim Jong-un's former lover ‘executed by machine-gun for appearing in porn films’
A member of a North Korean pop group and erstwhile companion of the country's leader has reportedly been killed by machine gun
The Independent. Peter Popham. 29 August 2013
She was first identified as Kim Jong-un’s old flame 13 months ago, in July 2012. The poised, coiffed and elegantly dressed companion of the North Korean dictator of Kim Jong-un was filmed sitting next to him at a concert in Pyongyang, then ascending the stage with him to applaud the performers. One month later, however, she vanished from the scene as abruptly as she had arrived. And today came the shocking news that Hyon Song-wol, one of the reclusive state’s most popular singers, had been executed by machine gun.
Eleven other members of her pop group were reportedly executed with her earlier this month, accused of filming themselves having sex with each other then selling the videos.
Other musicians linked to the 12 who allegedly died were forced to watch the grisly killings, then sent to labour camps, victims of the reclusive regime’s policy of collective punishment. South Korean Pyongyang watchers had named Ms Hyon as Kim’s girlfriend when he was a teenager. His father, Kim Jong-il, was said to have disapproved of the relationship and forced his son to break it off. The fresh encounter with his sweetheart was interpreted as evidence that the youngest Kim was shaking off his father’s influence and taking his own decisions.
Whether the woman photographed with the young leader really was the singing star has never been clarified. A fortnight later, when Kim was photographed with another young woman on his arm at the opening of a Pyongyang amusement park, North Korea’s official media pointedly identified her as “his wife, Comrade Ri Sol-ju” – a woman who had performed with the same group as Hyon Song-wol.
This terse announcement was a revolution in North Korean terms, where until now the private lives of the rulers had been kept strictly secret.
Hyon Song-wol’s patriotic hits included “Footsteps of Soldiers”, “I Love Pyongyang”, “She is a Discharged Soldier”, “We Are Troops of the Party”, and “Excellent Horse-like Lady”.
Why she and her fellow musicians should have been reduced to selling videos of themselves having sex, and why this severely proscribed activity should have been punished in such a cruel and public fashion, remains a mystery.
Chosun Ilbo, the respected South Korean daily with sales of over two million, reported that Hyon Song-wol and her colleagues had been arrested on 17 August for breaking pornography laws. Their public execution took place three days later, with other members of North Korea’s most famous pop groups force to watch before being dispatched to prison camps, from which few prisoners return.
The severity of the punishment indicated that there was a political dimension to the case, according to one Japanese authority on North Korean affairs. Professor Toshimitsu Shigemura of Waseda University in Tokyo told The Daily Telegraph, “If these people had only made pornographic videos, then it is simply not believable that their punishment was execution. They could have been made to disappear into the prison system instead.”
Such a hideous fate could only be explained if the singer and her comrades had been identified with a rival power faction in Pyongyang, the professor went on. An alternative explanation was that the elegant Hyon Song-wol, so publicly identified with Kim Jong-un, had attracted the jealous ire of Kim’s wife.
“There is a political reason behind this,” he said. “Or, as Kim’s wife once belonged to the same group, it is possible that these executions are more about Kim’s wife.”
Reports of the execution clashed strangely with news that not only is Pyongyang busy mending the bridges with the South that it had deliberately blown up earlier this year, but that it is also hoping to open the country to an unprecedented wave of foreign tourists.
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| kamalktk Great Old One Joined: 05 Feb 2011 Total posts: 705 Gender: Unknown |
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