North Korea Uncovered

[thischarmingman]

Have spent the last half hour or so looking at this, pretty fascinating stuff and sheds some light on such a secretive part of the world, especially timely given how much N. Korea has been in the headlines lately.


FOR all the billions of dollars worth of surveillance technology directed at North Korea as it breathes fire this weekend, its closed society is so impervious to spying that diplomats in Asia are forced to admit that they might as well rely on Google Earth.

A set of images - “North Korea Uncovered”, released by Curtis Melvin, a keen American amateur - includes a tantalising view of the site where the North Koreans detonated a nuclear device last week that diplomatic sources say may have been based on a Chinese design.


http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/asia/article6396012.ece

A more interesting article below, with slideshow and maps. I find the picture of Kim's statue with it's long shadow clearly visible quite a poignant one.


SEOUL -- In the propaganda blitz that followed North Korea's missile launch last month, the country's state media released photos of leader Kim Jong Il visiting a hydroelectric dam and power station.

Images from the report showed two large pipes descending a hillside. That was enough to allow Curtis Melvin, a doctoral candidate at George Mason University in suburban Virginia, to pinpoint the installation on his online map of North Korea.

Mr. Melvin is at the center of a dozen or so citizen snoops who have spent the past two years filling in the blanks on the map of one of the world's most secretive countries. Seeking clues in photos, news reports and eyewitness accounts, they affix labels to North Korean structures and landscapes captured by Google Earth, an online service that stitches satellite pictures into a virtual globe. The result is an annotated North Korea of rocket-launch sites, prison camps and elite palaces on white-sand beaches.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124295017403345489.html#project%3DNKGOOGLE0509%2 6articleTabs%3Darticle

Download it here:
http://www.nkeconwatch.com/north-korea-uncovered-google-earth/

[EAFC_rdfl]

absolutely fascinating stuff, some great pics. its amazing to see the state of the art stadium thats barely used, and the massive hotel that they never finished. watched a documentary about stalin yesterday on finnish tv, he had some crazy ideas with regards buildings too

[Mr Maroon]

I watched this recently
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FJ6E3cShcVU

It was fascinating.

[pete]

Only looked at the stills, will download later...

The Americans might be too keen to declare their enemies as threats to the world but they are no wrong with North Korea.

It is an amazing secret society & hard to think how it can change any time some. With such a large military & now the threat of nukes military action can't be attempted. Negotiations also seem to be fruitless as they cannot be trusted & have broken numerous agreements.

[thischarmingman]

It is an amazing secret society & hard to think how it can change any time some. With such a large military & now the threat of nukes military action can't be attempted. Negotiations also seem to be fruitless as they cannot be trusted & have broken numerous agreements.

There's a great West Wing episode called Han- a North Korean secretly applies for asylum in USA but Bartlett can't let him stay because it might endanger an arms treaty the 2 countries are negotiating. At the end of the episode it transpires the North Koreans have pulled out of talks anyway because of something utterly arbitrary and trivial- a perceived insult at the size of their flag. Bartlett goes on to describe 'Han-' a concept he has learned about from the pianist: "There is no literal English translation. It's a state of mind. Of soul, really. A sadness. A sadness so deep no tears will come. And yet still there's hope."

[Newryrep]

so its nothing lke 'Ibiza Uncovered' then ?

[MariborKev]

The wee brother was there for a couple of weeks last year.

Complete madness from some of his stories:eek:
- Hotel room searched every day when they were out
- Memory cards from their cameras checked every night
- Not allowed to speak to North Koreans
- They each had a State Security handler


Amongst other high jinx.....

[Sheridan]

I heard a few years ago that mobile phones were banned due to their being implicated in an assassination attempt on Kim Jong-il. Tourists were still allowed to have them but had to buy them locally, at a cost of about £500 for the phone and as much for the SIM .

[osarusan]

You can earn 25,000 sterling tax-free there with the British Council as an English teacher if you are really interested. They had to develop new textbooks that had basically no reference to the world outside North Korea.

[thischarmingman]

watched a documentary about stalin yesterday on finnish tv, he had some crazy ideas with regards buildings too

I've been here:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f0/Russian_cake_-_Warsaw_._Pastel_ruso._Varsovia..jpg

It's part of the "Seven Sisters," and is both very prominant, and very out of place in Warsaw. It's quite a belligerent, striking building.