June 24, 2006

A trip to North Korea Photos by Russian web designer Artemii Lebedev.
posted by Smedleyman 18 years ago
  • I saw these a few days ago when they were posted on MeFi/Digg/whatever. I have to say they're par excellence. I've looked at a lot of DPRK travelogues since the baby days of the Web and very quickly all of them started looking and sounding like one another, focusing on the dichotomy of the bleakness and the facade. This collection is very orthogonal and uncovers a wealth of detail from mundane moments that are probably overlooked by most DPRK tourists. FWIW, I count North Korea among one of the countries I've been to, albeit for 45 seconds. The international border cuts right through the conference rooms (thus the common stories about North Korean guards looking in), and of course we all went around the table to the other half of the room. A ROK guard stood in front of the northern door, lest the Generalissimo's followers storm in and mercilessly crush our oppressive tour group.
  • conference rooms at Panmunjom, that is.
  • Brilliant, thanks!
  • Amazing. (What impressed me wasn't the "shithole" aspects, as one of the forum people commented, but the several non-shithole normal/cheerful aspects here and there.)
  • (Because it helps to know that people in NK do have some normal/cheerful aspects in their lives.)
  • rolypolyman... I think I spent a whole minute behind that conference table... it was an interesting experience... the pictures remind me much of South Korea as it looked when I was there in the early 70's. The text paints a pretty bleak picture, perhaps when it isn't necessary.
  • Wait a minute...I'm not clear. Is this a link from Smedleyman?
  • These are very inetesting, I was riveted for an hour.
  • Similarly riveted. What a fucked up world this is.
  • Thanks for the post! Fascinating pictures that go well with the book on NK that I'm currently reading. See also, un-'s post regarding the Ryugyong hotel. Some interesting linkage.