Life within the DPRK

[TheGodlessUtopian]

How is life within the Democratic Peoples' Republic of Korea?

Information about the entire experience would be appreciated.It can be anything so as long as it relates to life for the average North Korean.

Is it as bad as American propaganda makes it out to be,or is it rather lovely?

Thanks.

[Rjevan]

Of course life in the DPRK isn't as bad as the Western media would like you to think but I wouldn't exactly call it lovely either.

Comrade Prairie Fire just posted a link to an article (http://www.revleft.com/vb/interesting-article-photos-t151448/index.html) which might be what you're looking for. This (http://www.revleft.com/vb/dprk-living-standards-t147007/index.html) and this (http://www.revleft.com/vb/north-korea-information-t141462/index.html) might also be interesting and if "information about the entire experience" means you want an evaluation of the historical and ideological developement of the DPRK you should check this (http://ml-review.ca/aml/China/KoreaNS.htm) out. Otherwise you just have to use the search function to find probably more threads on the DPRK than you want. ;)

[RATM-Eubie]

Well i would think its pretty awful.
But yea just do some research.

[Chimurenga.]

North Korea: The Grand Deception Revealed
http://www.nlg.org/korea/2003delegation_report.html

I would recommend that for starters. It was done by a few American (I'm assuming) lawyers in the National Lawyers Guild.

[Sixiang]

I think it's better than the American media usually portrays it as. I think you're going to have to look at several different sources for any sort of answer to this question. I have been interested in the DPRK myself for a few years now and I have watched numerous documentaries made by different people who have gone into NK with a camera and I have read a few articles here and there and read a graphic novel by a French Canadian who went there.

graphic novel: http://www.amazon.com/Pyongyang-Journey-North-Guy-Delisle/dp/1896597890

documentary: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0473181/

documentary: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FJ6E3cShcVU

pictures of a personal visit to NK: http://www.forocomunista.com/t5729-fotos-de-las-cronicas-de-un-viaje-a-corea

[Demogorgon]

North Korea: The Grand Deception Revealed
http://www.nlg.org/korea/2003delegation_report.html

I would recommend that for starters. It was done by a few American (I'm assuming) lawyers in the National Lawyers Guild.
That article is brought up from time to time and is filled with the most basic errors. To bring up the first one to spring to mind:
"We were told that there was no death penalty"

North Korea does practice the death penalty and openly acknowledges it. If these people are saying it does not, either they are making it up or much more likely their hosts just said whatever they thought would impress them and they lapped it up.

[Delenda Carthago]

How is life within the Democratic Peoples' Republic of Korea?

Fuckin awesome dude! NK FTW!

[Os Cangaceiros]

That article is brought up from time to time and is filled with the most basic errors. To bring up the first one to spring to mind:
"We were told that there was no death penalty"

North Korea does practice the death penalty and openly acknowledges it. If these people are saying it does not, either they are making it up or much more likely their hosts just said whatever they thought would impress them and they lapped it up.

welp, the NLG isn't exactly a "non-biased" group. In fact if a capitalist decided to use an equivalent advocacy organization or think-tank to bolster a claim, their evidence would probably be tossed out as biased. For example: if the American Enterprise Institute sent people to Singapore and wrote up a glowing report on the society there and the advancements that free market capitalism have made in advancing that society, I don't think many people here would accept that as proof.

Anyway, in regards to the DPRK: I've heard that orgasms have been banned, they've somehow found a way to paint everything gray, and there are loudspeakers on every street corner extolling Kim Jong Il and decrying imperialist pig-dogs. Dunno if any of that's true, though, just what I've heard.

[Die Rote Fahne]

It's basically how heaven would be.

You are basically there doing what you do and God (Kim Jong Il) protects and hides you from the devil (everyone else), whilst you basically worship him.

Very poor, the military and government reap the benefits whilst society at large is poor.

Rarely vehicles on the road. Curfews. Military obstacles set up to be deployed in case Satan (South Korea and the USA) invades.

:lol:

[RadioRaheem84]

From all accounts that I have read, NK is a mostly bad but with some good things for it's citizens, but these things have been deterioration with NKs concessions to private enterprise.

You get the usual free healthcare, housing and education (which is good) but they're sorely lacking. Kim Jong Il is not someone to admire as he is treating the position he is in as leader as his own little dynasty.

But I can assume that no one in here actually believes the junk peddled by the Western media; that NK is some sort of ultra hellish place that makes Suharto's Indonesia look like Disneyland.

[Chimurenga.]

That article is brought up from time to time and is filled with the most basic errors. To bring up the first one to spring to mind:
"We were told that there was no death penalty"

Right. This is THEIR report. They are reporting what THEY found.


North Korea does practice the death penalty and openly acknowledges it.

Can you prove that?


If these people are saying it does not, either they are making it up or much more likely their hosts just said whatever they thought would impress them and they lapped it up.

I'm pretty sure that this is real life and not some sort of contest. They have nothing to gain from dishonesty.

[Chimurenga.]

Very poor, the military and government reap the benefits whilst society at large is poor.

Except the workers in the mills and the factories are the highest paid sectors of society and get the most food rations. Try again.


Rarely vehicles on the road.

They have a whole bus and rail system and they are a small country. Producing a bunch of cars would make no sense. This is an argument I hear libertarians try to make.


Military obstacles set up to be deployed in case Satan (South Korea and the USA) invades.

Except that this is still an actual possibility.

[Die Rote Fahne]

Except the workers in the mills and the factories are the highest paid sectors of society and get the most food rations. Try again.



They have a whole bus and rail system and they are a small country. Producing a bunch of cars would make no sense. This is an argument I hear libertarians try to make.



Except that this is still an actual possibility.

Lol. "Highest paid". Seems a little antithetical to socialism. What will they spend their high wages on?

Will they spend it on 1930's clothing? On their new computer?

[Gears]

I still think living in the DPRK would be sorta unnerving.

I say, down with Kim Jong-Il and his family, and make Korea a true workers state with a free press and all.

[Demogorgon]

Right. This is THEIR report. They are reporting what THEY found.

And what they found was full of easy to find rubbish. Presumably they were shown around some Potemkim Villages and told a lot of impressive tales by the hosts and simply wrote it into their report.


Can you prove that?

Of course I can. And do you realise how stupid it was of you to ask it? If I said "America has the death penalty and openly acknowledges it" would you then act as if this was somehow a point of dispute? You can see a brief description of use of the death penalty here (http://www.amnestyusa.org/all-countries/north-korea/page.do?id=1011213). Also a recent example of a specific execution that the North's Government reported itself here (http://www.asianews.it/news-en/Kim-Jong-il-sentences-official-to-death-for-failed-currency-reform-17914.html).


I'm pretty sure that this is real life and not some sort of contest. They have nothing to gain from dishonesty.
You think there is nothing to be gained from lying in politics?

[Sinister Cultural Marxist]

Take the Papal States from the 1500s, and put the Pope in a green jumpsuit, platform shoes and stunner shades.

I mean, this is a country where a dead man is the eternal president and the current leader's birthday is a holiday ... I suppose that counts as "Socialist" in 2011?