North Korea - DPRK. North Korea
On the world map there is a state isolated from the whole world - North Korea. The lack of Internet, bank cards and mobile phones for local residents is a completely normal state of affairs, but tourists in this country are an extremely rare and surprising phenomenon.
Brief historical excursion
Previously, the following states were located on the territory of the modern country: Joseon, Buyeo, Mahan, Goguryeo, Silla, Baekje, Koryo. The history of North Korea dates back to the end of World War II - from 1945. In 1948, the DPRK was proclaimed. Since then, the independent country of North Korea has gone its own way. Its political and social development differs from that of any other state in the world.
State structure
The Democratic People's Republic of Korea is a sovereign socialist state. Officially, power in the country belongs to the working people. The ideology of the state consists of the Juche idea - the system of “reliance on one’s own strength”. North Korean leader Kim Il Sung independently took part in the development of state ideology. It combines the ideas of Marxism-Leninism and ancient Korean philosophy.
North Koreans have a very vague understanding of the world system. People can travel abroad only for training or on government affairs, and they are tested for their ideological stability. A person has no right to talk about what he saw in another country. Despite the fact that the DPRK has total control, residents believe that they live in the most prosperous state in the world.
Leader
Now the head of state is the Supreme Leader, leader of the party, army and people, Chairman of the Presidium Kim Jong-un. His official biography is very scant and kept secret. The place of birth is known for certain - Pyongyang, the date of birth varies. Kim Jong-un's education is also kept secret. Rumor has it that he studied in Europe.
In January 2009, he was officially proclaimed the heir to the leader of the people. The new leader of North Korea has shown himself to be a daring and uncompromising politician. From the first steps, he activated the nuclear program, and space projects were developed.
As for his personal life, it is known that he is married, has two children, loves Hollywood films and American baseball. His character is characterized by impulsiveness and emotionality; too often (in the understanding of North Koreans) he appears in public with his wife.
In world politics, Kim Jong-un is compared to Stalin and is recognized as a strong leader. He continues his father’s work, boosts the economy, and carries out reforms. Kim Jong-un behaves firmly and confidently.
Capital
In the northeastern part of Asia there are many ancient cities, rich in history and traditions. The capital of North Korea is one of them. Pyongyang is translated as “cozy area”, “broad land”. On a historical scale, this city has long been the capital of the entire northern Korean Peninsula.
During the Korean War, Pyongyang was turned into ruins and rebuilt in a short period of time. Now the city has a modern look and... provincial status. It is located near the Yellow Sea on the banks of the Taedongan (Tedong) and Pothongan rivers. The appearance of Pyongyang is contrasting.
Identity and contradictions are expressed in wide and empty avenues, huge government buildings and numerous ideological monuments, clean streets and the absence of advertising. On the other hand, there are unsuitable neighborhoods and buildings that have been preserved from the post-war period.
Geography
In East Asia, in the northern part of the Korean Peninsula is the DPRK, which borders China, Russia and the Republic of Korea. But on the political map of the world there are two official borders - with Russia and China. What does it mean? And the fact that the state of North Korea has a map has its own peculiarity. The border with neighboring South Korea is drawn conditionally. The two countries are separated by a demarcation line. It was held in 1953, after the end of the war. Today this place is a negotiation area.
Residents of the DPRK do not even think that their country is North Korea. The map shows the borders of a single state, which includes the northern and southern parts. It is believed that the southern part of Korea is currently occupied.
The country is washed by the Yellow and Sea of Japan. The DPRK includes several islands located in the West Korean Gulf. Pyongyang is the capital of North Korea. The area of the country is 120,540 square meters. km.
Mountains occupy most of the territory. They belong to the North Korean system. They consist of plateaus, mountain ranges, ravines and valleys. The highest ranges are Nangnim, Hamgyong, Machollen, Pujollen. On one of the plateaus, called Chengbeksan, traces of modern volcanism have been preserved. Previously, a volcanic eruption was observed in 1597-1792 on Mount Paektusan.
This area is rich in natural resources. It contains the main reserves of timber, hydropower, furs and minerals. There is also a complex of Samzhi lakes. Mountain ranges are the source of rivers. Some of the longest waterways are considered to be the Yalu, Tumangan and Taedongan. The climate in the country is monsoon.
Attractions
North Korea is full of attractions. The pride of the state is the incredible architectural composition on Mansu Hill. There is a statue of the leader surrounded by an ensemble of 109 figures. The monument is a symbol of the revolutionary struggle of the Korean people.
The Arc de Triomphe is very similar to the one in Paris, but 3 meters higher. The opening of the structure is timed to coincide with the victory over Japanese troops, the unification and independence of the nation.
The People's Friendship Exhibition is located 160 km from Pyongyang, in the area of Mount Myohyang. Gifts from all over the world that were given to leaders are collected here.
The People's Youth Palace is located in the central square. She goes by the name Kim Il Sung. The area of the palace is 100,000 square meters and contains 600 classrooms. It is a place for self-education. There are computer classes here, and there is an Intranet - the internal computer network of the country.
The National Feature Film Studio is the pride of North Koreans. For natural filming, about a million square meters of pavilions stylized for different eras were built. The plots of the films are filled with ideology, and the heroes constantly perform heroic deeds and do the right thing.
The Tower of Juche Ideas rises 170 meters into the sky. At its top there is a torch 20 meters high.
Army
The armed forces in North Korea appeared 83 years ago. They are older than the country itself. The army began as an anti-Japanese guerrilla militia. Today it is the most respected institution in the DPRK. North Korea is a militarized country, with one of the largest armies in the world. Both men and women serve in it.
It is a huge closed structure designed to spread ideas and suppress. Serving in the army is an honor. The military profession is one of the highest paid. The service life in the ground forces ranges from 5 to 12 years, in the air force and air defense - 3-4 years, in the navy - 5-10 years.
The equipment in service with the army is outdated, which they are trying to compensate for by increasing the number of military personnel in the country.
National tourism
A tourist trip to the DPRK has a flavor unique to this country. For the entire duration of their stay, tourists are assigned two guides; travel takes place in a personal car with a driver. It is forbidden to move around on your own; you can only take a walk around the hotel alone. Excursion programs are very meager, reduced to listing numbers and mainly have an ideological connotation. The organization of the tour is perfect.
Despite the fact that North Korea is permeated with an atmosphere of totalitarianism and the cult of personality, the presence of social problems and a low standard of living, we can talk about the uniqueness of this state. Simple, very kind and somewhat naive people live in the DPRK. Poverty, lack of knowledge about other life and faith in the bright ideals of the gods-leaders are a widespread phenomenon. In this country, everyone builds their life with their own hands. There is no crime, no discontent, just pure happiness and joy...
Welcome to North Korea - the most closed state in the world. More than 24 million people live in this unique country who do not know the Beatles and Michael Jackson or even the exact date of birth of their new leader. There is not a single working traffic light or ATM here, tourists are not allowed to bring mobile phones into the country, and people sincerely believe that they live in the best and freest country in the world.
North Korea attracts tourists with opportunity take a real trip into the past, the atmosphere of early socialism in everyday life and architecture.
Today's report will help you look at North Korea from the inside (2008-2012). Photos by award-winning Associated Press writer David Guttenfelder.
Thousands of people formed an image of North Korean founder Kim Il Sung at the stadium, Pyongyang, September 19, 2008:
A traffic controller on an empty street in the center of Pyongyang, April 13, 2011. Photo from a hotel window:
Class. Portraits of North Korean founder Kim Il Sung (left) and Kim Jong Il (right) hang on the wall, September 17, 2008:
Military Museum in Pyongyang. The guide talks about the Korean War - the conflict between North and South Korea, which lasted from the summer of 1950 to 1953:
In general, in North Korea there is ban on photographing military personnel. Lieutenant with Kim Il Sung badge, September 18, 2008:
Complete absence of cars and traffic jams, Pyongyang, September 19, 2008. There are practically no cars in private use:
The Taedong River in Pyongyang and the shadow of the 170-meter Juche Idea Monument, a monument built in 1982 in honor of Kim Il Sung's 70th birthday, March 16, 2011:
Juche Idea Monument at night:
It's pretty gloomy everywhere. A building under construction slowly in Pyongyang, April 13, 2011. A project of what it should look like hangs on the fence:
North Koreans bow before the monument to Kim Il Sung on Mansu Hill in Pyongyang, April 14, 2011. When photographing this monument, you should never copy his pose by raising your right hand. You should also not take photographs where the images will be cropped (for example, “amputation” of legs):
Violin concert to celebrate the 99th birthday of the late leader Kim Il Sung in Pyongyang, April 15, 2011:
Monument to the Three Charters of the Unification of the Motherland on Thongyir Avenue in Pyongyang. On both sides of the monument there are 4 halls lined with more than 800 precious stone slabs, April 18, 2011:
Airport, December 9, 2011. To North Korea You cannot import mobile phones and GPS navigators. They will be asked to submit to airport luggage storage:
Airfield and aircraft of Air Koryo Korean Airways - the state airline of North Korea, February 25, 2008:
The abundance of traffic controllers on the streets is explained simply: V Northern Korea No traffic lights. Function Girl traffic controllers take over the regulation of the small traffic, center of Pyongyang, September 16, 2008:
English language class. The students’ eagerness to answer the teacher’s questions is unusual for us:
Central department store in the center of Pyongyang, October 9, 2011. The sweater costs 1,696 won, which is approximately 370 rubles. On January 1, 2010, a ban was introduced on the use of foreign currency in North Korea. In addition, this country is the only one in the world where There are absolutely no taxes collected from the population:
Football fans at the central stadium in Pyongyang, October 11, 2011. As part of the qualifying tournament for the 2014 World Cup, the Uzbekistan team won against North Korea with a score of 1:0:
Traffic controller at an intersection in Pyongyang in winter:
This concludes our journey back to the past.
1. North Korea is officially the most corrupt country in the world. The Corruption Index ranks every country in the world from 0 to 100 based on how corrupt it is. Moreover, 0 points means the highest level of corruption, and 100 indicates its absence in the country. Every year, North Korea and Somalia come in last place.
2. North Korea, or better known as the DPRK, has the fourth largest army in the world, with 1.2 million active members, and its armed forces number 1.4 million.
3. There are 28 state-sanctioned haircuts in North Korea. Women are allowed to choose from 18 styles. Married women are required to wear shorter hair, while single ladies are allowed to have long hair. Men, on the other hand, have the right to choose from 10 government-approved haircuts, all of which are short. All North Korean men are prohibited from having hair longer than 5 centimeters.
4. North Korea has a 100% literacy rate. Literacy is defined as individuals aged 15 years or older who can read and write.
5. North Korea has 25,554 kilometers of roads, but only 724 kilometers are paved. This is insignificant - 2.83%.
6. The Korean Demilitarized Zone is a 250-kilometer strip of land that separates South Korea from North Korea. It was created at the end of the Korean War in 1953 as a neutral zone where the two countries could discuss issues calmly. Despite its name, it is the most militarized border in the world. The soldiers guarding the DMZ are ordered to shoot anyone who tries to enter the country. This fact has made China the most popular evacuation route for North Koreans. 80% of defectors are women.
7. Surprisingly, the Korean DMZ is home to some of the world's most endangered plant and animal species. Extremely rare species such as the Korean tiger, the elusive Amur leopard and the Asiatic black bear have found homes among the mines and listening posts. In this relatively small area, ecologists discovered about 2,900 species of plants, 70 species of mammals and 320 species of birds. The South Korean government has repeatedly proposed to UNESCO to turn the DMZ into a nature reserve to protect endangered animals, but each time North Korea has refused to enter into such an agreement.
8. In the 1950s, North Korea built Kijong-Dong on the North Korean side of the DMZ, which was easily visible from South Korea. North Korea said it was an ideal city. It supposedly has a kindergarten, primary and secondary schools, and a hospital. The idea was to make the city so attractive that South Koreans would want to move to North Korea. However, observations of the DMZ from the South Korean side showed that the city is virtually uninhabited. It has remained this way ever since its construction. It came to be called “village propaganda.”
9. In the 1980s, the South Korean government built a 98-meter tall flagpole on the southern side of the DMZ, near the border. The North Korean government responded by building an even taller building in Kijun-dong, which they call the "flagpole war." At the time, it was the second tallest flagpole in the world. Over the past 60 years, more than 23,000 North Koreans have moved to South Korea. Then as soon as the two South Koreans left north of the border.
10. North Korea has its own operating system called Red Star OS. Much of the software, such as the web browser, word processor and firewall, are custom programs written by North Korea.
11. In 1974, Kim Il Sung took 1,000 Volvo sedans from Sweden to North Korea and did not pay for them.
12. In 2013, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un executed his uncle and five of his aides by locking them in a cage and feeding them to 120 hungry dogs. But what did Uncle Kim do to deserve such a terrible death? Kim accused his uncle of economic mismanagement, corruption, intoxication and drug use.
13. Marijuana is completely legal in North Korea and is not even classified as a drug. It is widely used for medicinal purposes.
14. North Korea is the only country on Earth to have captured a US Navy ship.
15. In North Korea, the year is not 2015, but 104. The countdown begins from the birth of Kim Jong Un's grandfather and the founder of the DPRK, Kim Il Sung.
16. North Korea is home to the world's largest stadium. Impressive Maysky Stadium can accommodate 150,000 people per day. The annual Arirang Games are held here and are some of the most impressive competitions of coordination and choreography on Earth.
17. Hotel Rügen in North Korea is a 105-story building that for 20 years held the title of the world's tallest hotel. Construction began in 1987, but was stopped before completion in 1992 when North Korea entered a period of economic crisis following the collapse of the Soviet Union. This gigantic building now towers over Pyongyang and stands completely empty.
18. Only military and government officials are allowed to own vehicles in North Korea. Transport in general is strictly controlled. North Korean citizens are generally prohibited from traveling at all, even within their own country.
19. North Korea's space agency is called NADA, which means "nothing" in Spanish. National Aerospace Development Administration. The program is only 20% successful.
20. Wearing jeans is illegal in North Korea because jeans symbolize North Korea's enemy, the United States.
21. Every 5 years, North Korea holds general elections and only one candidate appears on the ballot.
22. In 2012, North Korea officially announced that it had discovered a unicorn's lair. The DPRK's official news agency released a statement claiming that they had discovered a cave 200 meters from the city of Pyongyang, in front of which there is a rectangular rock with the inscription "Unicorn's Lair". They believe that the unicorn was ridden by an ancient Korean king named King Tongmyeong.
23. North Korea is dotted with prison labor camps. Where prisoners are reportedly subjected to horrific inhumane treatment. The prisoners of these concentration camps suffered from slavery, torture and experiments comparable to the Holocaust. Although North Korea denies the existence of such camps, insider sources claim there are 16 such camps housing 200,000 prisoners.
24. North Korea punishes three generations at once. This means that the prisoner is sent to the camp along with his family, regardless of whether they participated in the crime or not. In addition, all family members who were born in prison will live there their entire lives.
25. North Koreans have a six-day work week. The seventh day is supposed to be a day of "volunteer" work, but it is strictly observed. That is, North Koreans have practically no free time. Official records show that Kim Jong Il learned to walk at the age of three weeks and talk at eight weeks. He reportedly studied at Kim Il Sung University and wrote 1,500 books over three years, as well as six complete operas. According to his official biography, all of his operas are “the best in the history of music.” Kim Jong Il's biography also says that he was born under a double rainbow, and to mark his birth, a new star and a swallow appeared in the sky. It is also written that he could control the weather and make it rain on command, depending on his mood. In fact, the list of dubious accomplishments and feats of valor surrounding the former North Korean leader is endless.
26. Students should know everything about their current leader, as well as his two predecessors. Even if the facts are a little fabricated.
The article was prepared by ©Marina, who loves to travel, learn new things and share interesting articles with us. Now you and I know for sure that it is better to postpone a trip to North Korea. Marina is also the organizer of a juicy music blog, and gives professional advice.
Not to express deep respect to the image of the leader is to endanger not only yourself, but also your entire family
Human society is constantly experimenting with how it can arrange itself in such a way that most of its members would be as comfortable as possible. From the outside, this probably looks like the attempts of a rheumatic fat man to make himself more comfortable on a flimsy couch with sharp corners: no matter how he turns, the poor fellow will certainly pinch something on himself, or he will serve time.
Some particularly desperate experiments were costly. Take, for example, the 20th century. The entire planet was a gigantic testing ground where two systems clashed in rivalry. Society is against individuality, totalitarianism is against democracy, order is against chaos. As we know, chaos won, which is not surprising. You see, it takes a lot of effort to ruin chaos, while the most perfect order can be destroyed with one well-placed bowl of chili.
Order does not tolerate mistakes, but chaos... chaos feeds on them.
The love of freedom is a vile quality that interferes with ordered happiness
A demonstration defeat took place at two experimental sites. Two countries were taken: one in Europe, the second in Asia. Germany and Korea were neatly divided in half and in both cases the market, elections, freedom of speech and individual rights were introduced in one half, while the other half was ordered to build an ideally fair and well-functioning social system in which the individual has the only right - to serve the common good.
However, the German experiment went unsuccessfully from the very beginning. Even Hitler did not completely exterminate the cultural traditions of the freedom-loving Germans - where does Honecker belong? And it is difficult to create a socialist society right in the middle of the swamp of decaying capitalism. It is not surprising that the GDR, no matter how much effort and money was poured into it, did not demonstrate any brilliant success; it produced the most pathetic economy, and its inhabitants, instead of being filled with a competitive spirit, preferred to run to their Western relatives, masquerading at the border as the contents of their suitcases.
The Korean site promised great success. Still, the Asian mentality is historically more inclined towards subordination and total control, and even more so if we are talking about Koreans, who lived under Japanese protectorate for almost half a century and have long since forgotten all freedoms.
Juche forever
After a series of rather bloody political upheavals, the former captain of the Soviet Army, Kim Il Sung, became the almost sole ruler of the DPRK. He was once a partisan who fought against the Japanese occupation, then, like many Korean communists, he ended up in the USSR and in 1945 returned to his homeland to build a new order. Knowing the Stalinist regime well, he managed to recreate it in Korea, and the copy in many ways surpassed the original.
The entire population of the country was divided into 51 groups according to social origin and degree of loyalty to the new regime. Moreover, unlike the USSR, it was not even kept silent that the very fact of your birth in the “wrong” family can be a crime: exiles and camps here for more than half a century have officially sent not only criminals, but also all members of their families, including minors children. The main ideology of the state became the “Juche idea,” which, with some stretch, can be translated as “self-reliance.” The essence of ideology comes down to the following provisions.
North Korea is the greatest country in the world. Very good. All other countries are bad. There are very bad ones, and there are inferior ones who are in slavery to the very bad ones. There are also countries that are not exactly bad, but also bad. For example, China and the USSR. They followed the path of communism, but distorted it, and this is wrong.
The characteristic features of a Caucasian are always signs of an enemy
Only North Koreans live happily, all other peoples eke out a miserable existence. The most unhappy country in the world is South Korea. It has been taken over by the damned imperialist bastards, and all South Koreans are divided into two categories: jackals, vile minions of the regime, and oppressed pathetic beggars who are too cowardly to drive out the Americans.
The greatest man in the world is the great leader Kim Il Sung. (By the way, in Korea we would have been exiled to a camp for this phrase. Because Koreans are taught from kindergarten that the name of the great leader Kim Il Sung should appear at the beginning of the sentence. Damn, they would have exiled us for this one too...) He liberated the country and expelled the damned Japanese. He is the wisest man on Earth. He is a living god. That is, he is already lifeless, but this does not matter, because he is forever alive. Everything you have was given to you by Kim Il Sung. The second great man is the son of the great leader Kim Il Sung, the beloved leader Kim Jong Il. The third is the current owner of the DPRK, the grandson of the great leader, the brilliant comrade Kim Jong-un. We express our love for Kim Il Sung through hard work. We love to work. We also love to learn the Juche idea.
We North Koreans are great happy people. Hooray!
Magic levers
Kim Il Sung and his closest aides were, of course, crocodiles. But these crocodiles had good intentions. They really tried to create an ideally happy society. And when is a person happy? From the point of view of order theory, a person is happy when he takes his place, knows exactly what to do, and is satisfied with the existing state of affairs. Unfortunately, the one who created people made many mistakes in his creation. For example, he instilled in us a craving for freedom, independence, adventurism, risk, as well as pride and the desire to express our thoughts out loud.
All these vile human qualities interfered with a state of complete, orderly happiness. But Kim Il Sung knew well what levers could be used to control a person. These levers - love, fear, ignorance and control - are fully involved in Korean ideology. That is, they are also involved a little in all other ideologies, but no one here can keep up with the Koreans.
Ignorance
Until the early 80s, televisions in the country were distributed only according to party lists
Any unofficial information is completely illegal in the country. There is no access to any foreign newspapers or magazines. There is practically no literature as such, except for the officially approved works of modern North Korean writers, which, by and large, amount to praising the ideas of the Juche and the great leader.
Moreover, even North Korean newspapers cannot be stored here for too long: according to A.N. Lankov, one of the few specialists on the DPRK, it is almost impossible to obtain a fifteen-year-old newspaper even in a special storage facility. Still would! Party policy sometimes has to change, and there is no need for the average person to follow these fluctuations.
Koreans have radios, but each device must be sealed in the workshop so that it can only receive a few government radio channels. For keeping an unsealed receiver at home, you are immediately sent to the camp, along with your entire family.
There are televisions, but the cost of a device made in Taiwan or Russia, but with a Korean brand stuck on top of the manufacturer’s mark, is equal to approximately five years’ salary of an employee. So few people can watch TV, two state channels, especially considering that electricity in residential buildings is turned on for only a few hours a day. However, there is nothing to watch there, unless, of course, you count hymns to the leader, children's parades in honor of the leader and monstrous cartoons about how you need to study well in order to fight well against the damned imperialists.
North Koreans, of course, do not travel abroad, except for a tiny layer of members of the party elite. Some specialists can use Internet access with special permits - several institutions have computers connected to the Internet. But to sit down at them, a scientist needs to have a bunch of passes, and any visit to any site is naturally registered and then carefully studied by the security service.
Luxury housing for the elite. There is even a sewerage system and elevators work in the mornings!
In the world of official information, fabulous lies are happening. What they say in the news is not just a distortion of reality - it has nothing to do with it. Did you know that the average American ration does not exceed 300 grams of grains per day? At the same time, they do not have rations as such; they must earn their three hundred grams of corn in a factory, where the police beat them, so that the Americans work better.
Lankov gives a charming example from a North Korean third-grade textbook: “A South Korean boy, in order to save his dying sister from starvation, donated a liter of blood for American soldiers. With this money he bought rice cake for his sister. How many liters of blood must he donate so that half a cake will also go to him, his unemployed mother and his old grandmother?
The North Korean knows practically nothing about the world around him, he knows neither the past nor the future, and even the exact sciences in local schools and institutes are taught with the distortions required by the official ideology. For such an information vacuum, of course, one has to pay for a fantastically low level of science and culture. But it's worth it.
Love
The North Korean has almost no understanding of the real world
Love brings happiness, and this, by the way, is very good if you make a person love what he needs. The North Korean loves his leader and his country, and they help him in every way possible. Every adult Korean is required to wear a pin with a portrait of Kim Il Sung on his lapel; in every house, institution, in every apartment there should be a portrait of the leader hanging. The portrait should be cleaned daily with a brush and wiped with a dry cloth. So, for this brush there is a special drawer, standing in a place of honor in the apartment. There should be nothing else on the wall on which the portrait hangs, no patterns or pictures - this is disrespectful. Until the seventies, damage to a portrait, even unintentional, was punishable by execution; in the eighties, this could have been done with exile.
The eleven-hour working day of a North Korean daily begins and ends with half-hour political information, which tells about how good it is to live in the DPRK and how great and beautiful the leaders of the greatest country in the world are. On Sunday, the only non-working day, colleagues are supposed to meet together to once again discuss the Juche idea.
The most important school subject is studying the biography of Kim Il Sung. In every kindergarten, for example, there is a carefully guarded model of the leader’s native village; preschool children are required to show without hesitation exactly under which tree “the great leader, at the age of five, thought about the fate of humanity,” and where “he trained his body through sports and hardening to fight against Japanese invaders." There is not a single song in the country that does not contain the name of the leader.
All the youth in the country serve in the army. There are simply no young people on the streets
Control over the state of minds of the citizens of the DPRK is carried out by the MTF and MOB, or the Ministry of State Security and the Ministry of Public Security. Moreover, the MTF is in charge of ideology and deals only with serious political offenses of the residents, while ordinary control over the lives of Koreans is the responsibility of the MTF. It is the MOB patrols that carry out raids on apartments for their political decency and collect denunciations from citizens against each other.
But, naturally, no ministries would be enough for vigil, so the country has created a system of “inminbans”. Any housing in the DPRK is included in one or another inminban - usually twenty, thirty, rarely forty families. Each inminban has a headman - a person responsible for everything that happens in the cell. Every week, the head of the Inminban is obliged to report to the representative of the Ministry of Public Security about what is happening in the area entrusted to him, whether there is anything suspicious, whether anyone has uttered sedition, or whether there is unregistered radio equipment. The head of the Inminban has the right to enter any apartment at any time of the day or night; not letting him in is a crime.
Every person who comes to a house or apartment for more than a few hours is required to register with the headman, especially if he intends to stay overnight. The apartment owners and the guest must provide the warden with a written explanation of the reason for the overnight stay. If, during a MOB raid, unaccounted-for guests are found in the house, not only the owners of the apartment, but also the headman will go to a special settlement. In particularly obvious cases of sedition, responsibility may fall on all members of the inminban at once - for failure to report. For example, for an unauthorized visit of a foreigner to a Korean’s home, several dozen families may end up in the camp at once if they saw him, but hid the information.
Traffic jams in a country where there is no private transport are, as we see, a rare phenomenon
However, unaccounted guests are rare in Korea. The fact is that you can move from city to city and from village to village only with special passes, which the elders of the inminbans receive at the Moscow Public Library. You can wait months for such permits. And to Pyongyang, for example, no one can go to Pyongyang just like that: people from other regions are allowed into the capital only for official reasons.
Fear
The DPRK is ready to fight the imperialist vermin with machine guns, calculators and volumes of Juche
According to human rights organizations, approximately 15 percent of all North Koreans live in camps and special settlements.
There are regimes of varying severity, but usually these are simply areas surrounded by energized barbed wire where prisoners live in dugouts and shacks. In strict regimes, women, men and children are kept separately, while in regular regimes, families are not prohibited from living together. Prisoners cultivate the land or work in factories. The working day here lasts 18 hours, all free time is reserved for sleep.
The biggest problem in the camp is hunger. A defector to South Korea, Kang Cheol Hwan, who managed to escape from the camp and get out of the country, testifies that the standard diet for an adult camp resident was 290 grams of millet or corn per day. The prisoners eat rats, mice and frogs - this is a rare delicacy; a rat corpse is of great value here. The mortality rate reaches approximately 30 percent in the first five years, the reason for this is hunger, exhaustion and beatings.
Also a popular measure for political offenders (as well as for criminal offenders) is the death penalty. It is automatically applied when it comes to such serious violations as disrespectful words addressed to the great leader. Death executions are carried out publicly, by shooting. High school and student excursions are brought to them so that young people get a correct idea of what is good and what is bad.
That's how they lived
Portraits of precious leaders hang even in the subway, in every car
The life of a North Korean who has not yet been convicted, however, cannot be called a raspberry. As a child, he spends almost all his free time in kindergarten and school, since his parents have no time to sit with him: they are always at work. At seventeen, he is drafted into the army, where he serves for ten years (for women, the service life is reduced to eight). Only after the army can he go to college and get married (marriage is prohibited for men under 27 and women under 25).
He lives in a tiny apartment, 18 meters of total area here is very comfortable housing for a family. If he is not a resident of Pyongyang, then with a 99 percent probability he has neither water supply nor sewerage in his house; even in cities there are water pumps and wooden toilets in front of apartment buildings.
He eats meat and sweets four times a year, on national holidays, when residents are given coupons for these types of food. Usually he feeds on rice, corn and millet, which he receives on ration cards at the rate of 500–600 grams per adult in “well-fed” years. Once a year he is allowed to receive ration cards for 80 kilograms of cabbage in order to pickle it. A small free market has opened up here in recent years, but the cost of a skinny chicken is equal to a month's salary of an employee. Party officials, however, eat quite decently: they receive food from special distributors and differ from the very lean rest of the population by being pleasantly plump.
Almost all women have their hair cut short and permed, since the great leader once said that this particular hairstyle suits Korean women very well. Now wearing a different hairstyle is like signing your own disloyalty. Long hair on men is strictly prohibited; cutting hair longer than five centimeters can lead to arrest.
Experiment results
Ceremonial children from a privileged Pyongyang kindergarten allowed to be shown to foreigners
Deplorable. Poverty, a practically non-functioning economy, population decline - all these signs of failed social experience got out of control during Kim Il Sung's lifetime. In the nineties, real famine came to the country, caused by drought and the cessation of food supplies from the collapsed USSR.
Pyongyang tried to hush up the true scale of the disaster, but, according to experts who studied satellite imagery, approximately two million people died of hunger during these years, that is, every tenth Korean died. Despite the fact that the DPRK was a rogue state, guilty of nuclear blackmail, the world community began to supply humanitarian aid there, which it is still doing.
Love for the leader helps not to go crazy - this is the state version of the “Stockholm syndrome”
In 1994, Kim Il Sung died, and since then the regime began to creak especially loudly. Nevertheless, nothing has changed fundamentally, except for some liberalization of the market. There are signs that suggest that the party elite of North Korea is ready to give up the country in exchange for guarantees of personal integrity and accounts in Swiss banks.
But now South Korea no longer expresses immediate readiness for unification and forgiveness: after all, taking on board 20 million people who are not adapted to modern life is a risky business. Engineers who have never seen a computer; peasants who are excellent at cooking grass, but are unfamiliar with the basics of modern agriculture; civil servants who know the Juche formulas by heart, but do not have the slightest idea of what a toilet looks like... Sociologists predict social upheavals, stockbrokers predict St. Vitus's dance on the stock exchanges, ordinary South Koreans reasonably fear a sharp decline in living standards.
Kim Il Sung
In 1945, Soviet and American troops occupied Korea, thus freeing it from Japanese occupation. The country was divided along the 38th parallel: the north went to the USSR, the south to the USA. Some time was spent trying to agree on unifying the country back, but since the partners had different views on everything, naturally, no consensus was reached and in 1948 the formation of two Koreas was officially announced. It cannot be said that the parties gave up like this, without effort. In 1950, the Korean War began, somewhat reminiscent of the Third World War. From the north, the USSR, China and the hastily formed North Korean army fought, the honor of the southerners was defended by the USA, Great Britain and the Philippines, and among other things, UN peacekeeping forces were still traveling back and forth across Korea, throwing a spanner in the works of both. In general, it was quite stormy.
In 1953 the war ended. True, no agreements were signed; formally, both Koreas continued to remain in a state of war. North Koreans call this war the “Patriotic Liberation War,” while South Koreans call it the “June 25 Incident.” Quite a characteristic difference in terms.
In the end, the division at the 38th parallel remained in effect. Around the border, the parties formed the so-called “demilitarized zone” - an area that is still crammed with unrecovered mines and the remains of military equipment: the war is not officially over. During the war, approximately a million Chinese, two million South and North Koreans, 54,000 Americans, 5,000 British, and 315 soldiers and officers of the Soviet Army died.
After the war, the United States brought order to South Korea: they took control of the government, banned the execution of communists without trial, built military bases and poured money into the economy, so that South Korea quickly turned into one of the richest and most successful Asian states. Much more interesting things have begun in North Korea.
Photo: Reuters; Hulton Getty/Fotobank.com; Eyedea; AFP/East News; AP; Corbis/RPG.
