Photos of North Korea

Danny Tse

Came across the site on head-fi.org. Not meant to be political....

http://www.militaryphotos.net/forums/showthread.php?t=82755

Must be horrible living in such a depressing country.

michael_w

Crazy... straight out of orwell's 1984 there.

audiobliss

Wow. I've never seen houses that close together. In fact, I don't think I've ever seen any type of building that close together.

Shizelbs

Great photos.

Demiurge

What a shithole. Communism is great. :rolleyes:

joeparaski

You want to see crowded houses? This is the view from my hotel in Old Shanghai when I visited China a couple of months ago.

And here is me and my wife on the street next to those houses. (we're the white people )

Joe

audiobliss

:eek: Wow, that's just amazing. I think you could reach through your neighbors window and not only borrow the salt, but take the mustard out of the fridge, too!

joeparaski

Ok 2 more pictures. In this one we're on top of the Pearl Tower (kinda of like the CN Tower in Toronto), below is the Yangtze river. In the 12 days we were there, we never saw the sun (except at the Great Wall). The cities were always smoggy and overcast. The river was a dark green color.

Now take a look at this picture. The river is dark green, but at one point (actually several points) there are tributaries that snake into the city. Look at how the water at that point is a very dark black color because there is less water circulation at that point....yes sir....major pollution.

Joe

audiobliss

Wow. That water pollution is really something. You know, you hear about how much farther ahead China is than the US with technology and such, and you get kinda scared. But then you see this and you think, wow, what a sad standard of living. Makes you realize where all that money for the government's R&D is coming from.

George Grand

Those people are living large compared to some of the REALLY poor folks in Central and South America. You don't ever want to see the slums of Panama City, Panama or Asuncion, Paraguay. Hell, the Panamanian slums basically looked unchanged after the gunships hosed them down in 1989.

schwarcw

Great post Danny! Thanks for the links!

I always wonder how long before North Korea and Cuba implode? I think Cuba will go fast after Castro kicks the bucket. Most Cubans can smell the money from the US. 25 years from now Cuba will be a very different place. North Korea is an enigma. My fear is they could become desperate for basic necessities and invade the South. Guess who will have to bail them out?

Danny Tse

audiobliss wrote:

:eek: Wow, that's just amazing. I think you could reach through your neighbors window and not only borrow the salt, but take the mustard out of the fridge, too!

It's also like that in Hong Kong, even with newly constructed building. The population density is just amazing.

schwarcw wrote:

Great post Danny! Thanks for the links!

No problem, schwarcw. We always hear about North Korea and how isolated that country is from the rest of the world, but to see it is a real eye-opener. Those photos of empty streets reminded me of Guangzhou, China (formerly known as Canton) back in the mid 70s when I visited my grandma there. Even today, Guangzhou still has those giant propaganda billboards and the "special treatments" for visitors.

jdhdiggs

Gotta to agree with George, those people have it very good compared to the poor in Africa, Middle East, and Central America. I have pics from all three areas if you want to compare. It is amazing how people can live if they have to.

tommyboy

joeparaski wrote:

Now take a look at this picture. The river is dark green, but at one point (actually several points) there are tributaries that snake into the city. Look at how the water at that point is a very black color because there is less water circulation at that point....yes sir....major pollution.

Joe

I remember when I was younger, at the three rivers in Pittsburgh, it looked just like this picture. Right where the allegheny and ohio rivers hit the Monogohala(can't spell it sorry), it turns to a different color. I haven't looked at in a while, it still might look that way not sure... So if you want to see north korea, come to pittsburgh instead and save some money.

cheddar

joeparaski wrote:

You want to see crowded houses? This is the view from my hotel in Old Shanghai when I visited China a couple of months ago.
And here is me and my wife on the street next to those houses. (we're the white people )

Joe

Now I think communism and socialism is a failed experiment. The only way to be equal is to make sure that no one benefits from progress, and so everyone is poor. Oh ya, and the guns and electrified fences help too.

But Shanghai is lightyears beyond NK. To begin with, it's one of the main areas where limited capitalism is tolerated. Yes, the houses are close together, but at least that street is a thriving example of street shops, lots of gas powered vehicles, and air conditioning even for the poor. If you go to the newer sections of the city, they have, I think, the world's third highest skyscaper, more modern than anything we have in this country.

And just for perspective, at least they don't have to pay $1 million dollars to pass the salt between these buildings:



Typical, new, single family detached housing in the silicon valley. The house is as wide as a door and a window :rolleyes: ...

joeparaski

Cheddar, you are correct of course, New Shanghai has some absolutely incredible buildings and architecture. This picture is a view from the opposite side of the river from which the other pictures were taken. That is the Pearl Tower where I took the photos from the upper deck lookout point.

Joe

polksda

One of my coworkers has familiy living in China, and 2 years ago they went there for a month. I've recently been converting his camcorder tapes to DVD, and asked him about the experiences they had there. He said that never at any point were they told they couldn't go somewhere, or were barred entry to any place. They were off on their own the majority of the time without a guide.

Apparently China is 50 years or so ahead of North Korea... and that's scary.

Those pictures of North Korea are surreal... takes me back to news reports of the Cold War era, and pictures we got from family we had living in East Germany at the time.

hearingimpared

tommyboy wrote:

I remember when I was younger, at the three rivers in Pittsburgh, it looked just like this picture. Right where the allegheny and ohio rivers hit the Monogohala(can't spell it sorry), it turns to a different color. I haven't looked at in a while, it still might look that way not sure... So if you want to see north korea, come to pittsburgh instead and save some money.

I did a lot of work in the Pittsburgh area in the late 70s & early 80s. McKeesport hosp, Beaver Falls medical center, can't remember the names of 4 or 5 other hosps in the area and had relatives in Clairton. I installed their original hospital wide computer systems. I remember seeing those rivers and your description definitely brought back that memory. I thought that in the early 90s they did something about the pollution to clean up those three rivers. I saw the Pirates of old in many battles with the Phillies back then at Three Rivers Stadium which by the way was as sterile and lifeless as the old Veterans stadium in Philly, they were some classic battles. Willie Stargel (sp) immediately comes to mind.:)

cheddar

For those of you that might have missed it at the end of all those thread pages, here's a discovery documentary that fills in a lot of the gaps in understanding the pictures. I must warn you that it is a very depressing piece, but it is very educational for those who want to know what kind of government may have just got the bomb. There really is still horrible evil in our time.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-6951629397402742053&q=north+korea+children

polksda

That documentary is frightening... hunger so rampant that people resort to cannibalism.

**** Iraq, the leadership of North Korea needs serious replacing...

mrbigbluelight

Unfortunately, North Korea has no massive oil reserves that we might be interested in. Even if they did, they have a military that the US should be fearful of.

So......the NK people will continue to suffer.

You have to admire the courage of the people who risked their lives to capture the footage shown in the documentary.

There definitely is evil in this world.:(

Demiurge

mrbigbluelight wrote:

Unfortunately, North Korea has no massive oil reserves that we might be interested in. Even if they did, they have a military that the US should be fearful of.

:rolleyes:

cheddar

Didn't take long for some of you to politicize the horrible suffering of the NK people. I think that was bad taste.

We still have over 30,000 troops staring down the barrels of their guns at NK along the 38th parallel in South Korea. And we have an additional 50,000 troops in Japan to deter agression from the communists to the east of that country. Those troops are sorely needed in the middle east, but we keep those troops, ships, and planes there because we know that we still need an American force and the threat of its use to stabilize the region.

The reason we don't invade is plain and simple, the last time we drove the communists back to the Yalu River, China sent almost 300,000 troops across the border and kicked the UN forces all the way back over the 38th parallel, recapturing Seoul. China is the 800 pound gorilla in the region. If not for that country, we could have isolated NK a long time ago and let the South Koreans take care of reunification themselves. :rolleyes:

Edit: Ran across these numbers and I thought it provides some perspective.

Total US military deaths in three years of the Iraq war: 2,753 as of Oct. 10, 2006.

Total US military deaths in three years of the Korean war: 54,246 Missing In Action (MIA): 8,142.